Mike McCarthy spent the night at Jerry Jones’ house before becoming the Dallas Cowboys head coach. This isn’t the first time Jones has done stuff like this.
The Dallas Cowboys finally moved on from former head coach Jason Garrett. After officially getting the ax on Wild Card Weekend during the Philadelphia Eagles’ home game vs. the Seattle Seahawks, it was only a matter of hours before former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy was named Garrett’s successor in Dallas.
McCarthy, who interviewed with the Cowboys, along with former Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis for the job, reportedly spent the night at owner Jerry Jones’ house the night before accepting his new head coaching job. ESPN’s Adam Schefter first reported this odd news. No, this isn’t the first time Jones has done strange stuff like this to get a guy to commit to the Cowboys.
Back in early Sept. 2019, former Cowboys star DeMarcus Lawrence spoke with FanSided‘s Mark Carman ahead of the upcoming season. During their conversation, Lawrence revealed an interesting story about how Jones used dim lighting to help him negotiate a new contract with him to stay with the Cowboys.
“When you go into Jerry Jones’ office, the lights are really dim and there’s a little candle in there. You’re sitting there and he’s looking at you, and he’s going to talk to you from a business standpoint, man-to-man,” said Ware. “Straight eye contact, no smiles. And he goes are you going to take this six-year, $90 million contract and empty the bucket for the Dallas Cowboys?”
From candlelit negotiations to prospective-hire sleepovers, it’s unconventional, but whatever has regarding Jones’ ownership of the Cowboys? When Jones has his mind made up on something, he will accomplish it. Though it took a while for Jones to finally get Garrett out of the building, he wasn’t going to let McCarthy leave his opulent estate without becoming his next head coach.
McCarthy won a Super Bowl with the Packers and took them to the NFC playoffs nine times out of 10 seasons from 2007-16. If Jones wants to win one more Super Bowl in his lifetime, it looks to be with a head coach the caliber of McCarthy. He’s won a ton, but will he be able to win a ton in Dallas? The sleepover was weird, but it clearly did the trick to get McCarthy to put pen to paper.