It didn’t take long for Cam Newton to learn how the game gets played at ESPN.
Less than a month into his stint as a Friday contributor to First Take, the former NFL MVP questioned why the Worldwide Leader’s flagship debate show was spending so much time talking about the Dallas Cowboys.
“Can I tell you my feelings?” Newton asked co-hosts Molly Qerim, Ryan Clark, and Stephen A. Smith. “Can I really tell you my real feelings? Why are we talking about the irrelevant Dallas Cowboys?”
The 2010 Heisman Trophy winner was quickly informed that when it comes to discussing Dallas on ESPN airwaves, he can love it or leave it.
“For the rest of the time you do TV, you’re gonna talk about them,” Clark informed Newton. “Because people care about them.”
“Let me teach you a little something about television,” Smith added. “It’s not about what you care about. It’s about what the audience cares about. And the fact of the matter is… no matter how awful, how dysfunctional, how inept they come across, it doesn’t stop!”
“Why are we talking about the irrelevant Dallas Cowboys?” – Cam Newton pic.twitter.com/e6CptKPuS1
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 1, 2024
That it doesn’t. And in case you need any evidence, look no further than this past week.
Despite the Cowboys being 3-6 with their starting quarterback out for the remainder of the 2024 season, Dallas has remained top of mind on ESPN’s airwaves. It started on Monday and continued into Tuesday, thanks to Micah Parsons’ comments about head coach Mike McCarthy and the All-Pro pass-rushers ensuing response to the reaction.
The conversation regarding McCarthy’s status as a “dead man walking” as the Cowboys head coach, however, wasn’t just an appetizer but a natural segue to the Dallas discussion ESPN really wanted to have. That came on Tuesday’s episode of Get Up, in which Domonique Foxworth shared who he thinks should replace McCarthy on the sun-stricken sideline inside AT&T Stadium.
“As you were talking, it hit me that Deion is actually the perfect person for this situation,” the former NFL defensive back said, referring to Colorado coach Deion Sanders. “Because there has to be someone with a personality and credibility big enough that he can say, ‘I don’t care what the owner says.’ And that when the players try to circumvent the situation, Deion’s gonna say, ‘No, I can’t accept that. I’ll go somewhere else. I don’t need this.’ I do think it has to be someone like that.”
“Deion [Sanders] is actually the perfect person for this situation.”
—@Foxworth24 on how Deion Sanders could be the solution for the Cowboys 🍿 pic.twitter.com/daTfG6ezvw
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) November 12, 2024
While Foxworth added that Bill Belichick also fits into the same category, it was too late. As we learned last September, Coach Prime occupies rarified air at ESPN, joining the Los Angeles Lakers, Aaron Rodgers, LeBron James—and yes, the Dallas Cowboys—as subjects the network has no shame in obsessing over.
Add two of those topics together and they combine into the type of super story that can carry multiple days of ESPN programming. And that’s exactly what’s happened this week with the prospect of Coach Prime coaching his former team, making for fodder on ESPN’s morning shows on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Never mind that Sanders currently (and inexplicably) has Colorado set to crash the College Football Playoff and that he’s already publicly downplayed the possibility of him coaching the Cowboys (on Fox, no less). And it’s also worth noting that there aren’t any credible reports linking the Hall of Famer cornerback to Dallas; in fact, Sports Illustrated‘s Connor Orr noted Thursday that he has “not been alerted to any seriousness regarding a Deion Sanders and Jerry Jones reunion.”
Presumably, none of that will stop ESPN from dedicating some time on Friday — when Newton returns to First Take — to talking about the possibility of Sanders coaching the Cowboys, despite the idea, while intriguing, being nothing more than speculation at this point. Adam Schefter admitted as much during Get Up‘s dedicated segment on Thursday, which also included a discussion about Dallas not only potentially hiring Sanders but drafting his son, Shedeur Sanders, to play quarterback.
“The point is that this is just going to be an option that’s out there. We’re not saying it’s happening. We’re saying that this is one of those options that’s going to heat up, that’s going to be in play this offseason,” Schefter said. “Is there a team out there that’s in position to get Shedeur Sanders that also wants to go and hire Deion Sanders to marry them up together moving forward? Maybe it’ll happen, maybe it won’t.
“It’s damn fun to talk about and think about.”
Admittedly, it is. Whether it warrants a week’s worth of discussion at this point in the NFL and college football seasons, however, is a different story.
