Dallas Cowboys want Mike McCarthy to be a faster Andy Reid in making them super again
No team outside of the Kansas City Chiefs themselves appreciates their victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV more than the Dallas Cowboys.
The Chiefs franchise started here as the Dallas Texans in the AFL before moving to Kansas City in 1963. Owner Lamar Hunt maintained a home in Highland Park and became friends with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones when he moved to the city after purchasing the team in 1989.
And likewise current owner Clark Hunt, who took over team after his father died, has known Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones since then as well.
“He and I go back to when I first came to Dallas,” Stephen Jones said of Clark. “He has always been a friend and certainly now after Lamar passed he is one of our difference makers in the league ... The Hunt family has done a lot for the NFL with Lamar as one of founders. It’s very special for them.”
Jones was also happy for Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who won his first title after 21 years of coaching in the NFL.
“What a class act he is and for him to finally to get his Super Bowl championship,” Jones said. “I thought was fantastic for him. He has won a lot of football games in his day but that Super Bowl has been elusive. It’s great to see that happen for him.”
Reid’s success in Kansas City in a fresh start after so many years in Philadelphia is even more personal to Jones and the Cowboys as they are looking for a similar result from new coach Mike McCarthy, who was hired to replace Jason Garrett.
McCarthy is restarting in Dallas after being fired by the Green Bay Packers in 2018. He spent 13 years there, and won a Super Bowl title in 2011.
“We hope so,” Jones said. “That is why you make the change. You are wanting to take the next step. We had a great run with Jason. But we never quite got over the hump. So we felt compelled to make that change. It was very difficult because Jason does mean so much to our family. That was bittersweet to have to make a change there. But when you make one one. You are wanting to do it to take the next step.”
Garrett won just three playoff games in 9 1/2 seasons that included four 8-8 finishes.
Jones said one of the things the resonated with he and owner Jerry Jones in picking McCarthy was his proven track record of success like Reid.
But the difference in Dallas is that the Cowboys believe they have a team ready to win now and are expecting immediate results, not the seven years it took Reid to win with the Chiefs.
“Right,” Jones said. “I think we got a team that is ready to take the next step. We got a lot of good football players on this team and felt they deserved to have a coach who has been there and done that. As [former Cowboys coach] Bill Parcells used to say, ‘one who has skins on the wall’. Certainly, Mike has that. He has a proven track record. We feel like he can help this team do what it needs to do to move forward.”
Just like Reid, just faster.
