After Playoff Loss, Cowboys Jerry Jones Hiring Patriots Ex Belichick?
Following Sunday's NFC Wild Card playoff opener, it's safe to say that Dallas Cowboys fans don't like Mike.
Head coach Mike McCarthy set several dubious brands of unwanted history on Sunday afternoon, which saw his second-seeded Pokes drop a 48-32 decision to the seventh-ranked Green Bay Packers. With the win, the visiting Packers, who will face San Francisco in the NFC Divisional round next Sunday, became the first No. 7 seed to earn postseason advancement since the NFL instituted a 14-team playoff in 2020.
The final margin, sizable as it was, was hardly indicative of Dallas' incompetence, as Green Bay ballooned its lead to as much as 32 before McCarthy's group put up some consolation prizes in garbage time.
With McCarthy's future called into question, professional and amateur viewers alike wasted no time in pairing former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick with America's Team, offering both sides a path forward as they seek to pick up their respective pieces after brutal embarrassments: Dallas' season lasted only a week longer than New England's recent four-win slog, one that officially ended Belichick's 24-year term as the team's head coach.
Some even joked that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wouldn't wait until the final gun to oust McCarthy in favor of Belichick, as his former Wisconsin proteges built a 27-0 lead before most of the Pokes had any idea what hit them.
On paper, Belichick and the Cowboys seemed tailor-made for each other: Dallas, 12-game winners in three consecutive seasons (albeit with only one playoff win in that span) boasts enough name-brand talent that would make them far and away the most attractive destination if the head coach position was suddenly vacated.
The star-crossed nature of modern Cowboys football would also afford Belichick an opportunity to prove his coaching mettle once and for all.
Cowboys' Jerry Jones on Demise of Belichick, Patriots: 'Surreal'
Belichick's qualifications for football immortality have been called into question for his lack of success with Tom Brady out of the lineup, as the Patriots have posted a 29-38 record since his fellow six-time champion moved onto Tampa and later retirement. Placing the polarizing Cowboys franchise back in the NFC title game (a landmark they haven't reached since the 1995 season) would no doubt serve as an emphatic exclamation point on his well-traveled, well-accomplished NFL coaching career.