Cowboys coach Garrett planning more learning excursions

INDIANAPOLIS Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett drew some attention last off-season when he and quarterback Tony Romo took a trip to Duke University to watch basketball and pick the brain of football coach David Cutcliffe.

They also attended a few SMU basketball games and Garrett had the defensive staff watch SMU coach Larry Brown work in practice.

Garrett plans to continue these so-called learning excursions this off-season in a continued quest for knowledge and to get better as a coach.

He has encouraged his coaching staff to do the same.

“Yeah, we got a few things planned,” said Garrett, while being coy about his exact destinations. “We’ll see. That’s a big part of what we do, encouraging our coaches to really be thoughtful about taking a trip. We call it, ‘one-day, learning excursions.’

“Go somewhere in football, outside of football, in town, out of town and try to spend some time with somebody who has been successful in what they do and hopefully we can learn from and come back and grow as an individual. Hopefully it helps us grow as a staff and as a football team. We’re going to do some of those things as this off-season progresses.”

This story was originally published February 19, 2015 at 3:23 PM with the headline "Cowboys coach Garrett planning more learning excursions."