LANDOVER, MARYLAND - DECEMBER 12: Head coach Mike McCarthy of the Dallas Cowboys looks on against the Washington Football Team during the third quarter at FedExField on December 12, 2021 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
Jerry Jones claims he’s “all in!” for the Dallas Cowboys in 2024. But come 2025? Given a chance to shut down the Bill-Belichick-to-the-Cowboys rumors, the owner on Tuesday night instead left the door wide open. “I know him personally and I like him,” Jones told reporters while watching Senior Bowl practice in Mobile, Alabama. “There’s no doubt in my mind we could work together. None. None.
Mike McCarthy will be coaching in the final year of his contract when he returns for a lame-duck season in 2024, but Jones has already declared in public that he is “100 percent supportive” of his head coach. And Belichick is probably going to sit out the upcoming season, maybe doing TV, as he waits for job openings in 2025. Belichick parted company with the New England Patriots on January 11 after a historic 25 years of success.
But every Cowboys loss the next season will probably heighten Belichick’s shadow due to Jones’s mocking and foaming at the mouth of fans and media for a marriage between America’s Team and the NFL’s winningest coach. McCarthy is currently living a hazardous life, not only without the guarantee of a contract for the future but also with a legend hanging over his head and at the top of his boss’s wish list for a replacement. On Tuesday, Jones made a special effort to compliment McCarthy once more. He also declined to say categorically “no” to the idea of 71-year-old Belichick leading the Cowboys in the future.
Regarding Belichick, Jones remarked, “We all know that he’s certainly excellent, maybe at the top of his profession.” It is absurd to claim that meeting one person can guarantee you a Super Bowl. He can’t live up to that kind of expectation. Is he, however, the best professional football coach of all time? Quite maybe.
“I want to be clear that I would not have any issues working with him; he is a friend and I like him.” The owner of the Cowboys is already putting pressure on McCarthy and the team for the upcoming season, as if they needed it.
