Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy has employed a different theme for each of his seasons with the team. In his first year, it was “20/20 Vision.” The next year, “Victory.” The 2022 rallying cry was “Resilience,” and last season implored the team to “Carpe omnia.”
The 2024 mantra has been revealed, and this one seems to be landing a bit differently.
The word is “Rooted,” the coach told reporters on Wednesday.
While the previous mottoes were forward-looking and could be seen as encouraging a particular mindset or play style, this one feels very introspective. Reflective. Based in the past.
And, it has to be said, maybe more than a little self-serving for McCarthy, who will be coaching to keep his job all season long.
“It’s based on the foundation we’ve built here over five years,” he said, per the team website. “I got good advice from my father about living your life in five-year increments, and what you can learn in that time and space, to not do too much too fast. It’s more of a life lesson. We’re in the fifth year of what we’ve done and what we have to build off of as part of the root system that’s in place here.”
But what, exactly, are the 2024 Cowboys rooted in?
Cynically speaking, they’ve certainly established a knack for regular-season success over inferior opponents, only to be followed by a disappointing premature collapse in January.
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To be sure, a foundation is there. Three consecutive 12-win seasons aren’t nothing, as McCarthy himself pointed out in stark terms recently. Stephen Jones called it “hanging around the rim” not too long ago.
But that’s clearly not enough, or else McCarthy wouldn’t be coaching this season without a contract for 2025.
Are there plenty of teams who would love three straight 12-win seasons? Of course there are. But if the Cowboys don’t venture any deeper into the postseason this time around, McCarthy could well be interviewing with some of them come February.
That would mean putting down new roots for the NFC’s fourth-longest-tenured head coach.
The 60-year-old may feel rooted in what he’s grown in Dallas, but he and some or all of his coaching staff- also working without a net- could find themselves transplants in new cities if this season doesn’t bear fruit.
Rooted may be the team’s slogan for 2024, but it also feels very much like the coach’s plea to Jerry Jones to stay the course beyond this…
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