How the fiery Kris Richard spurred the fight in the Cowboys with the pre-game scuffle

No one probably will ever know what really ignited the scuffle before the Dallas Cowboys 27-20 victory against the Philadelphia Eagles last Sunday.

What is known at that fiery secondary coach Kris Richard was in the middle of it. Several of his players believe it lit an extra fuse in an already angry bunch of Cowboys spurring them to victory. They can’t stop talking about it as they prepare for this week’s battle against the Atlanta Falcons.

Days later, Richard is obviously embarrassed by his role in the incident.

“I’ve always had a tremendous passion for doing things the right way and righteousness,” Richard said. “When I don’t handle myself properly I get embarrassed.”

So what happened?

“I think it was a really interesting moment,” Richard said Thursday. “I look fairly young and people probably don’t know or recognize the level of being a coach, right wrong or indifferent. You know, I know they’re really good guys over there. They’re honorable and obviously, they’re Super Bowl champions. Everybody over there in general, they have good conscious about doing things right. And we also feel that way and it’s one of those things to where you kind of get caught up in the heat of the moment and things of that nature. But absolutely no disrespect was taken or wanted to be given by any means. It was one of those deals to where everyone’s prepared to kind of go out and do battle and things happened.”

So what led to it?

“I think it was just a nice big scrum, that’s what led to it,” a coy Richard said.

When told that the players “said” they were lifted by the fight and his actions, Richard demonstrably said, “Did they tell you that? I don’t believe them.”

“I think our guys were prepared to play because you don’t wake up on Sunday and need something to get ready to play,” Richard said. “You start preparing at the beginning of the week. It’s just another day at the office kind of deal. Everybody’s really moved beyond it. We have the next challenge at hand and if we need that in order to get us prepared to play then we’re wrong.”

But he also has no regrets.

For the players, it was another example of Richard pushing all the right buttons and connecting with them on their level.

He is a part-time Baptist preacher and part-time fire starter who told the defensive backs in their first meeting that he wanted them to play as if they were putting bodies in a trunk.

“It tells me a lot about him,” defensive tackle Tyrone Crawford said. “It tells me he is down for us. He is down for us like we are down for us. He is down for us like I will be in that action right now. He is a guy like me. I am ready for the fight at all times, especially when it involves my guys. That is who he is.”

He is the man who has spurred the turnaround of a young Cowboys defense that has gone from being maligned as the weak link to the strongest part of the team.

The Cowboys rank sixth in the NFL in yards and third in scoring with Richard calling the plays in place of defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli.

The players swear and swear by Richard like they do Marinelli because they are cut from the same cloth.

Crawford was not at the start of the scuffle Sunday but he was not surprised when he saw Richard in the middle of it, prompting him to join in on the fun and find out what started it later.

“He is a hot head like us,” Crawford said. “If it came down it he would be there in that same situation. The fact that it played out the way he did. He is young. I know Marinelli would have been there too if he could. I remember my third year I came off the field in training camp and Marinelli was yelling at me. I said, ‘coach you don’t have to talk to me like that.’ He said, ‘shut up!’ I said, ‘shut up?’ He said, ‘I will punch you in your face.’ I was like, ‘oh (expletive)‘. He told me he would ‘knock my (expletive) out’.”

This story was originally published November 15, 2018 at 5:53 PM.