Jerry Jones Changes Meeting Plan with Cowboys Coach McCarthy on Future: 'I Weigh It'

Jerry Jones Changes Meeting Plan with Dallas Cowboys Coach Mike McCarthy on Future: 'I Weigh It'

ARLINGTON - Weary, drained and 81, Jerry Jones was in no mood to share with the media much more than his anguish following Sunday's 48-32 home playoff loss to Green Bay.

"I'm floored,'' the Dallas Cowboys owner said. “The most painful ... This is beyond my comprehension.”

Well, more "pain'' and ultimate "comprehension' will be forced upon Jones come Monday morning as he is forced to alter his schedule at The Star. What was planned to be a day full of a turn-the-page celebration followed by the usual staff meeting to evaluate the game and then prep for the next one is now altered.

It's a funereal march down the glitzy corridors ... with suddenly-embattled coach Mike McCarthy facing a meeting with his boss.

“What I had planned to do was be with (McCarthy) tomorrow going over how we played today and getting ready for the coming week,” Jones said. “That’s what was on the agenda. 

"Tomorrow, my agenda will be to dismiss (say goodbyes to) the team.”

And maybe "dismiss'' the coach?

In Jones' unusually brief media session in the bowels of AT&T Stadium, he labored to avoid specifically addressing a coaching change. He did bemoan the fact that following his team's trio of 1990's Super Bowl titles he has too much experience having to make tough decisions about coaches who fall short.

“I know how to do that and handle all of those,'' Jones said. "Those aren’t high-pressure situations  … We certainly have a background in what happens after you lose a playoff game. We got too much experience with that.”

He also dismissed the idea that there is a time crunch given that other teams with vacancies have already started interviews with coach candidates, saying, “That’s no issue. At all. The fact that coaches have interviewed, not interviewed. ... There’s a thousand coaches out there that are some way or the other, and that’s just the ones in the league. There are a lot of coaches.''

Yes, that echo you hear is of Jerry in the spring of 1994 saying "500 coaches'' could win for the Cowboys, a benchmark in the divorce from Jimmy Johnson and the hiring of Barry Switzer.

And yes, there is no "time crunch'' if the parties involved already see Bill Belichick as a viable replacement for McCarthy.

Why Hiring Belichick Won't Fix Cowboys After 'Most Painful' Playoff Loss: Top 10 Observations

Jones insisted that he had not, in the immediacy of the loss, "reflected at all on anything about the coaching or any of that.'' He also said that ultimately the blame goes on the man who holds the title of "owner and GM'' - "I know where the responsibility starts and ends'' - and he added one more crumb on the path to understanding what might occur in his Monday meeting at The Star.

"I give a lot to today," he said regarding making evaluations based on this loss. "I'll give a lot to everything we've done. I weigh it a lot of ways."

Meanwhile, the Cowboys on Sunday night at 8:30 p.m. informed DFW media that Monday’s schedule tentatively would feature a McCarthy season-ending presser and exit interviews with players in the locker room.

And yes, while the coach’s annual wrap-up media session generally doesn’t come on Mondays, that’s exactly what the team announced … before a 7:59 a.m. email stating that Monday would feature the exit interviews with no mention of McCarthy.

It would not be abnormal for McCarthy to do his presser on, say, Wednesday. But that’s not how the email sequence reads.

UPDATE: The Cowboys have contacted CowboysSI.com and apologized for the confusion, saying there was no intention to suggest that a Monday presser might occur.

So we have clarity on the email. Now Cowboys Nation awaits clarity on the plan.