Radio Row is a collection of media at the Super Bowl festivities. Interviews with players from both teams are conducted, and the media is free to ask questions.
The great thing about Radio Row is that there are players, coaches, and executives from many other teams in the NFL who are around for the Super Bowl and also NFL awards.
Here are a few interactions between the media with a variety of people at Radio Row regarding the Dallas Cowboys.
Jerry Jones
Question: Jerry, tell me about Brian Schottenheimer, and what you thought about him to be the guy for you?
First of all, lineage. We called it osmosis sitting around the breakfast table.
He made a, if you will, a young lifetime out of asking his father to help him be around organizations so he could learn as much football as he possibly could. So he’s no accident. But he’s actually had a lot of experience to be a first time head coach.
I thought we could bet on that. He’s, of course, a favorite in the locker room in terms of the players supporting him and wanting him to be our coach.
Jerry made sure to transfer over one of the key words from the introductory press conference: osmosis. He cites Schottenheimer’s proximity to his father, who coached in the NFL for four different teams, as the biggest proponent to his hire.
Schottenheimer does have experience, but aside from a couple of seasons more than a decade ago, he has not been in the hot coordinator bracket for some time. However, Jones believes the players’ belief in him is enough to overcome that.
Question: How far away do you think the Dallas Cowboys are from being able to compete to be here playing in this game?
Well, the decisions I’m making are not based on rebuilding. They are based on competing now. The decisions I made last year were based on competing now.
Now they didn’t exactly work out, but I think I paid Dak more than anybody has ever been paid in the NFL. That’s now. That’s not future.
So uh, we are excited about our team’s ability to compete right now.
Jerry continues to show how tone deaf and out of touch with the fanbase he actually is. Nothing he did last offseason pointed to the Cowboys being competitors in 2024.
Either he really believes that, or he is just trying to pull the wool over our eyes. My money is on the latter.
He loves to bring up how much he paid Dak Prescott as an indicator that he is serious about the team, and is taking on an “all-in” mentality. He claims to be a risk-taker, but in reality takes less risk than any other general manager in the NFL.
Dez Bryant
Question: I know Jerry took care of you, and you’re in his corner. How much of this is on Jerry? Washington changed owners, general managers, coaches, and quarterback and they’re in the championship game. How much of this is on Jerry?
I mean, I think it’s on Jerry because he’s the leader. I’m pretty sure he has other people in place to make decisions, but it is on him like I said because he is the leader.
He got a guy that’s comfort zone and is he really going to make the necessary changes? Jerry has to understand that comfort moves have hurt him in the past.
Dez used a word that we have been using to describe the moves Jerry Jones has made around him for years: comfort. Jerry sees comfort as a benefit, but we see it as the reason the Cowboys haven’t been to a Super Bowl in 30 years.
His coaching hires are comfortable. The players he re-signs are comfortable. Even free agents are comfortable. They have to be players with some sort of ties to a coach or current Cowboys player.
Until he gets out of the comfort zone, neither will the Cowboys.
Dan Orlovsky
Question: (Regarding the hire of Brian Schottenheimer as head coach) I wasn’t excited about the coaching hire because of the process. The process stinks.
Yeah, the roster is not awesome. They need someone outside of CeeDee. I actually like Dowdle. I think Dowdle has a chance to be a good little back.
I think the offensive line is going to be good, but they also need a lot more talent defensively for them to compete.
Orlovsky once admitted that most of the sports talk shows he is on are scripted. It makes sense because, as a former NFL quarterback, there is no way he believes some of the things that come out of his mouth.
Many of those outrageous takes were in the Cowboys’ direction, specifically Dak Prescott. So when he speaks candidly off the stage with the bright lights, we can expect genuine analysis from him.
If Orlovsky thinks Dowdle can be the lead back for the Cowboys and he feels they need more pieces on both sides of the ball, then I know I’m not crazy for seeing the same things.
Micah Parsons
Question: How tough was this season? Since you had a chance to step away and take it all in?
I think it was the best thing to ever happen to me because you have to get humbled in this league. Honestly, it was humbling going through the losing. It was humbling going through the changes.
Actually, the humbling led me to be a better leader. I mean all our superstars were gone but I was carrying this chip on my shoulder that we can still do this. That gives belief into the players. That stuff carries over, winning games and doing things without starters.
You gotta have gratitude for the wins, and gratitude for the losses.
I remember the exact moment of peak anguish from Micah Parsons at how the season was unfolding. The Cowboys still had playoff hopes behind Cooper Rush and a resurgent defense in the second half of the season.
A victory over Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and the Bengals looked to be in the bag after a blocked punt by the Cowboys special teams would have them in prime field position for the game-winning field goal.
Instead, the ball bounced off the facemask of a Cowboys player, and the ball was recovered by the Bengals. Cincinnati would go on to win the game.
Parsons has a passion for the game that is unmatched by anyone else on the team, and that type of attitude is contagious to the rest of the locker room.