FRISCO - Here's something you don't see to often: Dallas Cowboys legend Michael Irvin - an all-time great booster of "America's Team'' and about as close to owner Jerry Jones as any of his players have ever been - absolutely destroying Jones.
"The Playmaker's'' position? He is ripping Jones because he believes Dallas made a mistake by hiring in-house offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to replace former head coach Mike McCarthy.
"You're bringing in someone that was already inside as the head coach. You lose things there, that you can't grab back," Irvin said in his video rant. "They don't have curfew. They don't have discipline. They were fourth in penalties issued. So, how do you fix that? You go an be more disciplined, or be more of a disciplinarian.
"How do you do that when you're coming from the inside?"
Schottenheimer, who first joined the Cowboys in 2022 as a consultant before being elevated to coordinator under mentor McCarthy, oversaw Dak Prescott's brilliant 2023 campaign in which the QB finished second to Lamar Jackson in MVP voting.
That is a feather in "Schotty's'' cap. But Schottenheimer, 51, has never before been a head coach. And Jerry and Stephen's search for a new boss comes across as most as a shallow one, featuring two Rooney Rule-compliant visits (with Robert Saleh and Leslie Frazier) and two arguably "comfortable'' visits (with former staffer Kellen Moore, now of the Eagles, and Schottenheimer.)
Said Irvin: "The Raiders hired Pete Carroll, he had some experience. Last time, when we did Mike McCarthy, he had some experience. I got to slap myself, and say, 'Give it a chance, man, at least they walked the walk already.'
"Brian hadn't walked no walk. So what does he got over Deion?
"I was pushing for Deion Sanders to be the next head coach, and I still stand 10 toes down on that push."
Sanders is best friends with Irvin, and without a doubt, Michael let Jerry know of his views there. But all that came of it was a PR-minded showboat phone conversation between Jones and the former Cowboys superstar Sanders, who is fairly new to coaching but who has turned around a bad college program at Colorado.
"Coach Prime'' led the Buffs to a 9-4 record this fall, two years after taking over the program following a 1-11 run in 2022.
Here's my issue: We lost an opportunity here," Irvin said Saturday on his YouTube channel. "I don't know what will happen with Coach Schottenheimer and the Dallas Cowboys, but Jerry's a shrewd, shrewd businessman, and this opportunity (to make a change with Sanders, I'm shocked he did not see. ...
"How,'' Irvin said of the in-house hire of Schottenheimer, "do you do the same damn thing and get something different?"
