For years now, the narrative surrounding the Dallas Cowboys has been that it has been and always will be the Jerry Jones show, and any head coach that he hires will simply be playing a secondary role. And in the eyes of Dan Patrick and countless other media members, the introductory press conference for new head coach Brian Schottenheimer proved exactly that.
During Monday’s press conference, Jones was seemingly far more concerned with his decision to hire Schottenheimer being “out of his comfort zone” than actually offering his support and trust in Schottenheimer to turn the organization around.
Jones made it a point on several occasions to note that Schottenheimer has zero head coaching experience in the NFL, calling the hire “as big a risk as you can take.”
To put it simply, he largely stated all of the reasons why he shouldn’t have hired Schottenheimer in a press conference that is supposed to highlight all of the reasons that he did hire him.
Naturally, many media members, including ESPN’s Jeff Saturday and The Athletic’s Dianna Russini, saw Jones’ behavior throughout the press conference as baffling.
Dan Patrick echoed these sentiments on Tuesday’s edition of The Dan Patrick Show, detailing how it essentially felt like Jones was saying that he himself was the Cowboys head coach and not Brian Schottenheimer.
“I don’t know how to describe that press conference,” said Patrick. “I’ve seen a lot of press conferences. I’ve attended a lot of press conferences with some of the biggest names that have ever coached. That’s as weird as I’ve ever witnessed a press conference. It was a bit about Brian Schottenheimer, it was a whole lot about Jerry Jones. A whole lot about Jerry. Brian Schottenheimer remembering his father Marty, he starts to cry. And it was like a nice moment. And then Jerry has to bring up that he too lost his dad and he started crying as well.
“I’m going, did your dad just die Jerry? No… It felt like Jerry was taking over the Cowboys as their head coach. It really did. It felt like Brian Schottenheimer wasn’t there. It was fascinating, it really was. And here is Jerry trying to convince you that he knows football. His dad taught him football. ‘Hey, I took a risk on Schotty here.’ It was as if Brian Schottenheimer wasn’t there.”
“I’ve seen a lot of press conferences, with some of the biggest names who’ve ever coached. That’s as weird as I’ve ever witnessed a press conference. It was a bit about Brian Schottenheimer, it was a whole lot about Jerry Jones.”
-DP on yesterday’s #Cowboys Press Conference pic.twitter.com/QI8egx0RpX
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) January 28, 2025
Patrick later detailed that he would have liked to see the Cowboys hire Deion Sanders, as it would have at least fit the Cowboys’ brand of making flashy moves, even if it may have been a disaster.
“Hell, hire Deion (Sanders),” added Patrick. “I mean, I know it’s too late. But that would have made more sense with what the Cowboys have become. I don’t know what it is. But you’ve got to watch it. It may be a car accident and it’s not pretty. But you’re going to watch it.”
