Cowboys as 'Mystery Team' to Hire Bill Belichick? ESPN Admits to Rumor-Triggering Gossip

Dallas Cowboys with 'Mystery' Hire of Bill Belichick? ESPN Admits to Rumor-Triggering Gossip

FRISCO - The idea of Bill Belichick being hired to replace a fired Mike McCarthy came from nowhere ... and then, suddenly, from everywhere.

How? Why? Part of the phenomenon that has the Dallas Cowboys coaching situation in the news: Simple, old-fashioned irresponsible gossip.

Before we delve any deeper: In a "never-say-never'' football world, it is conceivable that McCarthy's playoff performance might be so heinous, and Belichick's siren call be so powerful, that owner Jerry Jones is moved to make a chance.

At the same time, anyone who suggests they have a "source'' inside The Star who says Jones is considering this is - we'll say it flat-out - lying.

There is, outside the building, gossip and rumor. There are also "Friends of Bill'' who are making sure to spread their/his sycophantic message around the NFL in order to make the recently-failing legend seem all the more attractive.

So a media "FOB'' tells a media pal. Who tells another. Who tells another. And suddenly, Jerry's own words about McCarthy's job security - "It's not an issue,'' he recently said, citing McCarthy's "outstanding work'' as "the big difference'' in the Cowboys' rise to Super Bowl contention - are ignored.

Some FOB's in the media have disguised this process ably; others are not clever enough to avoid looking obvious.

And then there is former Patriots linebacker Rob Ninkovich, new to the media game and offering an unvarnished truth about how ESPN has steered this into being a "story.''

Said Ninkovich on "The Pat McAfee Show": "Say Green Bay goes down to Dallas and takes care of business (in Sunday's playoff opener). I could see Jerry Jones saying, ‘Hey, Bill. Hey, man, I only got so many times left, so to speak at the the old glory hole.’

"You know, Bill would be licking his chops to go down there to Dallas with a team that’s loaded like that."

We very much respect Ninkovich's guess as to what Belichick could like. That's fair game. We also enjoy his use of Jerry's infamous "glory hole'' phrase. But we promised we'd delve deeper into how this sort of gossip takes hold. So ...

Rob, where did you come up with Dallas as Belichick's landing spot?

'If, If, If!' Is Cowboys, McCarthy & Belichick' Real News? Or Irresponsible Gossip?

"You look at the Cowboys,” Ninkovich said. "I think - I don’t know who said it on (ESPN's) Get Up, but I do believe that somebody was saying that McCarthy, if he doesn’t win, that it might be as last year. ...''

Bingo. ESPN's Ninkovich is on "McAfee'' and is parroting ESPN's "Get Up,'' which is parroting ESPN's Adam Schefter, who ignited this idea by writing that "some people say'' a change could be coming for the "unstable'' Cowboys, complete with the wobbly claim that the thought even comes from some of Jones' own staff.

And now comes another new wave of stories regurgitating the same old junk.

Schefter: 'Unsettled' Cowboys Could Fire Mike McCarthy

How much does ESPN want to perpetuate this gossip? So much so that now Schefter is reporting there is a "mystery team" in the playoffs that wll pursue Belichick.

"A mystery team''? That's reporting!? Nope. That's gossiping. And if you didn't understand it before? Rob Ninkovich just accidentally took you inside how this rumor-mill sausage is being made.