The art of winning championships comes from three things.
Coaching, coaching, and coaching.
As mentioned plenty of times from the rest of the NFL, the Dallas Cowboys have yet to master this art after some twenty years.
With the new addition of Mike McCarthy, how can excellence from the past of two figures of Dallas Cowboys coaching be utilized in the present, and for the future?
Tom Landry
Tom Landry was able to screen his team, and change it with a gust of wind. With the Dallas Cowboys trip to the Super Bowl in 1971, a loss to the Colt, that time being with Baltimore, brought out the judgement from the fans. The detachment of Landry’s support later gained a label of the inability to win on the big stage.
Where does that sound familiar?
The present-day Cowboys are known for not being able to perform when it really counts. They are known for being able to whoop the Eagles in the middle of a season, yet unable to bring it home when it really counts. Let it be known that, for Landry, his 1971 team was coming back in 1972. And there they did.
The lesson of this comes easy for new coach Mike McCarthy: the past should be for the past if not to be used as fuel for the future.
Jimmy Johnson
Jimmy Johnson was seen as an authoritarian. Strict with his team, and tough on his players. He wouldn’t let up for the sake of success, no matter how mentally taxing. A weekend in May in 1992, Johnson put the pressure on his team for a game that was four months away. He yells at his defense for improvement, and at that, makes sure his offense hangs onto his words. He puts his team through agonizing exercises, and doesn’t give them a chance to wipe the sweat off their brow.
All for the sake of preparation.
And one player said that Johnson made him work for his rookie year so hard he nearly quit the NFL. As much of a battle Jimmy put on his players and the team as a whole, he cried, his quarterback cried, and all of Cowboys Nation cried when he got his appreciation in the Hall of Fame.
What does this say? Put allegiance into your players, and they’ll return it to their coach.
As for Coach McCarthy, winning isn’t necessarily foreign to him. He’s made the playoffs in nine of his thirteen seasons with the Green Bay Packers, and won at least six of those games. Like previously said, ability to win isn’t the worry. And the most “winning-ist” coaches with the Dallas Cowboys hasn’t just been about winning the games. There’s more to it than that. It’s about showing betterment for your players, reassuring the fans, and putting the grime of all that in-between on your back.
A good majority of Cowboys Nation has seen this in the flesh. They know what it’s like to come together with their people and with their team because of success. And with new beginning of the McCarthy era, it’ll be great to once again put the name of the Dallas Cowboys synonymous with victory.
Alike the Landry and Johnson era.
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