'Just Quinn, Baby': Cowboys Coach Admits to Being 'Pissed & Embarrassed' (& Inspired) by Falcons Firing

"I would say when you get fired mid-year, it’s hard,'' Quinn concedes. "You’re embarrassed, you’re pissed. But probably the hardest part is to not be on a team.''

FRISCO - It took him a week ... and then 24 hours more.

Dan Quinn could no longer lie.

All last week, he insisted he didn’t want to travel down “Memory Lane.”

Sunday’s Dallas Cowboys’ 43-3 rout of the visiting Atlanta Falcons sent historians to the record books. It also sent Dallas back toward the top of the NFL standings. And - privately - it all forced Quinn, the former Falcons head coach, to have to remember.

On Monday, with it all behind him, Quinn- in just his first season in Dallas but beloved and respected here inside The Star - admitted the truth.

"I would say when you get fired mid-year, it’s hard,'' he conceded. "You’re embarrassed, you’re pissed. But probably the hardest part is to not be on a team.''

Quinn is part of a team now, and a good one. Dallas is 7-2 and Super Bowl talk is not inappropriate. But that comes step-by-step.

Hiring Quinn last offseason was a step. So was him helping Dallas to beat his former employer, an emotion-driven effort as the Cowboys followed up this win by awarding defensive coordinator Quinn a game ball.

"I was totally unprepared for that,'' he said, "and it meant a lot. ... So to have maybe that moment come at the end after a game, I definitely wasn’t ready for it but man, what a good feeling to know there’s a whole army of people that got your back. That’s one of the best feelings there is in football when you’re part of a team: knowing that there are people who are like, 'We’ve got your back, we’re here with you and fighting.'''

No time for “Memory Lane,” he'd said all last week, because following the Week 9 loss to Denver, the Cowboys had “too much shit to fix.” And of course, the Dak Prescott-led Cowboys now go to Kansas City in Week 11, with Quinn needing to move on to solving Patrick Mahomes.

But for a little while now? Dan Quinn and the Cowboys have something to savor together.

And that's the truth.

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