With the Cowboys beating the Eagles on Sunday, the seat under coach Jason Garrett temporarily has cooled.
But that won’t stop speculation about the future of the team’s coaching position.
In response to a CBS report that former Packers and Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren is interested in coaching the Cowboys if a vacancy arises, owner Jerry Jones said he had no comment, while otherwise commenting.
“Of course, Mike Holmgren is a heck of a coach,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan before Sunday’s game. “But the facts are that Jason Garrett gives us an outstanding chance to be what we want to be. So, there you have it. I wouldn’t comment one way or the other there with Mike.”
Jones said he checked on the report with radio play-by-play announcer Brad Sham regarding Holmgren’s supposed interest in the job. And then Jones commented some more on a topic on which he said he wouldn’t comment.
“I was interested in why he said he would like to be the coach,” Jones said. “And that was good. We are good friends, have a lot of respect for each other, served on the Competition Committee together for eight years. He’s very familiar with how we operate the Cowboys, and does have a high appreciation for our talent that we have on the team right now. All of that is a compliment. Thank you, Mike.”
Garrett would likely be inclined to utter a slightly different version of that last sentence. It’s regarded as incredibly poor form for an unemployed coach to express interest, directly or indirectly, in a job that currently is filled — and many will suspect that the information was leaked to CBS by Holmgren or his agent, Bob LaMonte.
None of it will matter if Garrett and the Cowboys continue to move in the right direction. Now that Holmgren is sniffing around Garrett’s job, and given that Jones expressly acknowledged it, Garrett has extra motivation to keep winning.