If you’re forced to announce your new head coaching hire at 10 p.m. on a Friday night, chances are that you’re going to get some backlash for the decision.
That’s what’s taking place for Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys after announcing that offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer would be named the next head coach of the franchise.
Schottenheimer, 51, has been with the Cowboys since 2022, and has acted as the offensive coordinator since 2023. He’s been in the coaching ranks for a long time, starting as an assistant with the St. Louis Rams back in 1997, and bouncing around as a position coach and coordinator in the NFL and college level in the decades since then.
Over the past 48 hours, speculation that this move could be made has grown, and once it was officially announced, NFL fans had some pretty strong reactions to the decision, with many chastising Jones for his bold decision.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones before the game.
Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
One of those people is former NFL quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III. He had this to say about the Cowboys after their hiring of Schottenheimer:
“The Dallas Cowboys aren’t serious about winning.”
It’s a harsh take, but one that has been shared by many across the internet on Friday night. While the Cowboys interviewed the likes of Eagles OC Kellen Moore, former Jets HC Robert Saleh, former Vikings HC Leslie Frazier and had a conversation with Colorado HC Deion Sanders, it was Schottenhemier, a “career assistant” as Jones himself described, who they landed on.
It’s a coaching move that led Fox Sports host Colin Cowherd to declare on Thursday that Dallas should no longer be known as “America’s Team” because of how unserious they are with some of the front-office decisions.
“This is nothing against the coach, but this is someone who is not up for other jobs,” Cowherd said on ‘The Herd.’ “This is incredible. I’m speechless. I don’t even know what to say to this. The Cowboys were America’s No. 1 sports brand, but you might as well just give that to the Packers, give that to the Kansas City Chiefs. Hand it over, it’s done. You’re no longer America’s team.”
With the timing of the news, we will have to wait over 48 hours to hear the national reactions on sports talk shows Monday morning, but you can guess that there are going to be some continued strong reactions as we turn into next week.
