The slow divorce between Jerry Jones and Jason Garrett was followed by a Vegas wedding for Jones and Mike McCarthy.
“It was like love at first sight,” a source with knowledge of the dynamics between Jones and McCarthy said when explaining the quick move by the Cowboys to make McCarthy the new head coach.
McCarthy interviewed with the Cowboys on Saturday, and then McCarthy spent the night at Jones’ house, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com.
So Jerry instantly knew who he wanted, pulling the plug on wherever else the search was going to go, firing Garrett, and hiring McCarthy in rapid succession. And, yes, sometimes multi-billion-dollar businesses move very quickly when it comes to making their biggest and most consequential decisions, even if that stunning speed follows a maddening week of inexplicable delay.
Maybe the explanation is hiding in plain sight. Maybe Garrett, who reportedly wanted desperately to remain the Cowboys coach, persuaded Jones to see if he could find a better option before officially parting ways with Garrett. Maybe Jones agreed to give it a try.
If so, it didn’t take much for Jones to come to the conclusion that he could finally release the bird in the hand, especially since he has found in the bush a coach who has achieved far more than Garrett over the course of the past decade, starting with a Super Bowl win in Jerry’s fortress of football to cap the season during which Garrett became the Cowboys’ head coach.