Did Dez Bryant catch it? New Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy says he did, with a catch
Mike McCarthy chose his words wisely.
The new Dallas Cowboys head coach was asked whether Dez Bryant’s “no-catch” in the 2014 divisional playoff game against the Packers in Green Bay. McCarthy was the Packers’ coach at the time.
“I’m going to tell you exactly what happened,” McCarthy said during his introductory press conference Wednesday at the Cowboys’ headquarters in Frisco. “I asked the question in regards to how the rule was written and I was given the right answer by the referee so then I challenged it. If he wouldn’t have answered the question the right way then I wouldn’t have challenged it. I think it was clearly the technical rule at that time. Stephen [Jones] has since gotten it changed on the competition committee.”
Stephen Jones, the Cowboys’ vice president, who was sitting to McCarthy’s right, laughed along with the media contingent covering the press conference.
“I said after the game, ‘That was one hell of an athletic … play,’” McCarthy said to more laughter. “I was impressed. I mean, Dez and [Packers’ cornerback] Sam Shields, you talk about two great athletes going after the football.”
McCarthy tried to have it both ways, basically.
“Oh, God, I can’t tell you how many people from Dallas have told me about that play,” he said. “It’s funny. It was a great catch, I can say now. But it wasn’t then, technically.”
Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones, who was sitting to McCarthy’s left, followed with a joke of his own.
“Stephen, these officials shouldn’t talk so much,” Jerry Jones said. “The coach is supposed to know the rules.”
McCarthy interjected that he knew the rule at the time. “I was making sure [referee Gene Steratore] knew it.”
This story was originally published January 8, 2020 at 5:07 PM.
