We'll never know just what happened when Ray Sherman sat down with Jerry Jones to interview for the head coaching job last week, but based on what happened over the weekend it is fun to come up with a few scenarios.
Did Sherman disrobe while making an awkward pass at Double J's wife? Did he play it too honest and tell Jones that the reason the team doesn't win is because the guy in charge of personnel is an egomaniacal dimwit? Were there a flurry of expletives? A disagreement over which film in the "Star Wars" series was the most enjoyable?
If it was the last and Sherman espoused a belief in something other than "The Empire Strikes Back," then we can't argue at all with the decision to relieve him of his duties as the team's wide receivers coach. If it was anything else, though, it is awfully curious that a man could go from being thought of highly enough to be a candidate for a major promotion to being unemployed in just a couple of days.
It certainly doesn't do much to make you think Sherman was a serious candidate for the job as opposed to just being a token interview to bring Dallas into compliance with the Rooney Rule mandating minority candidates get a chance at open jobs. The NFL said that the Cowboys haven't violated the rule because nothing mandates that a current assistant must be retained after interviewing for the top job.
That makes sense, but only because most teams are replacing their coach with someone outside the organization. The Cowboys weren't doing that, however. They were merely assuring that they were making the right choice by sticking with Jason Garrett. Garrett never had a problem, publicly anyway, working with Sherman when he was the offensive coordinator so it is hard to fathom what could have gone awry in the last few days.
At least, it is hard to fathom from a football standpoint. There was a lot of noise last week about how Garrett will have a higher level of control over his coaching staff than previous coaches. That announcement was met with some healthy skepticism because of Double J's history of micromanaging everything in the organization. Garrett couldn't come up with a better way of proving it is for real than firing the guy who Jones just interviewed for head coach.
Maybe it is more mundane than than and simply based on the fact that Miles Austin seemed to take a step backward while Roy Williams remained Roy Williams. That's boring, though, and the long offseason definitely needs the spice provided by more involved explanations.
Sports Connection
Connecting you to your favorite North Texas sports teams as well as sports news around the globe.
Stay on top of the latest Dallas Cowboys news with NBCDFW.com. Foll ow NBC DFW Sports on Facebook or have breaking Cowboys news sent directly to your phone with Blue Star SMS alerts. Text "bluestar" to 622339 (NBCDFW) to subscribe to this free service. Read more about it here.
