Mike McCarthy fires up Dallas Cowboys by smashing watermelons before Vikings victory
Mike McCarthy went from football coach of the Dallas Cowboys to master motivator before Sunday’s 31-28 victory against the Minnesota Vikings that not only snapped a four-game losing streak but also has his team back in the NFC East title race.
McCarthy took a page out of Gallagher’s comedic act when he rolled out some watermelons in the team meeting on Saturday night, as first reported by the NFL Network.
Each watermelon represented one of the team’s objectives for the game, and after McCarthy called out the objective he smashed them to pieces with a sledgehammer, as Gallagher famously does on stage.
He smashed a few. Several players, including the game captains, smashed some with defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence smashing the final one with the objective of stopping Vikings running back Dalvin Cook.
Although Cook rushed for 115 yards, he got them on 27 bruising carries and he was punished repeatedly by a swarming and physical Cowboys defense. Safety Donovan Wilson had one of his two forced fumbles on a big hit on Cook.
“I think like anything in this game, it’s important to have fun,” McCarthy said. “You’re always trying to create emphasis in your messaging. That’s really where it came from. We were just using the approach to honor the great comedian Gallagher and it’s an idea that came up and we went for it. The players were into it.”
“It was just all part of the messaging so we had a number of points of emphasis that we were trying to hit so a number of guys got to participate and once again I’d say it was a lot of fun. It was well received.”
McCarthy said every coach puts time and emphasis into their message the night before the game.
He said he has tried to be creative with it throughout his career and is always looking for new ideas to keep it fresh.
Getting the sledgehammer through security was easy because it’s a team charter. But the watermelons brought on a different challenge.
“The key is you got to have a good hammer and we’re fortunate enough to where we were able to find one,” McCarthy said. “We had to actually take our own watermelons with us because it’s a little harder to find big watermelons in Minneapolis this time of year than Dallas, from what I was told. We were able to get it done right and the cleanup was efficient. The hotel was a little concerned there. We had a great time with it.”
Might he reprise the watermelon routine before Thursday’s game against the Washington Football Team?
“That’s a great question,” McCarthy said. “We obviously have been fighting and scratching. The players have been great. So hey, if it’s not broke don’t fix it.”
This story was originally published November 23, 2020 at 7:28 PM.
