“I Won a Super Bowl in That Locker Room”: Mike McCarthy Gets Emotional on the Prospect of the Commanders Game Being His Last Game as a Cowboys HC

The Dallas Cowboys were the talk of the offseason for all the wrong reasons. Instead of pundits discussing what they did to improve on last year, it was all about the shock surrounding the fact that they didn’t really do anything. A couple of crucial injuries later, and Dallas is facing down their first losing season since head coach Mike McCarthy’s first year, in 2020. Unfortunately, it looks like his second losing season is going to be his last season of any kind in Big D.

McCarthy and the Cowboys welcome the division rival Washington Commanders—who noticeably leap-frogged the Cowboys in the NFC East power rankings this season—for the 2024 season finale, which is also likely to be McCarthy’s Cowboys swan song.

The head coach is not shying away from that possibility either, and he spoke about how much AT&T Stadium means to him and how challenging it will be to separate the significance of the day from the tedium of the meaningless game in front of them.

“I’ll be honest with you, I go to the stadium much earlier this time in my career than I used to. I won a Super Bowl in that home locker room at AT&T Stadium. So I have a very strong emotional attachment that it hits me every time I walk in there and every time I walk out. So, yeah, I’m definitely aware of it. I’m not thinking about it right now, but, yeah, I’m definitely in tune with that.”

The comments from McCarthy were refreshingly self-aware. He’s not pretending he hasn’t heard the whispers. He knows what was expected of him this season, and he didn’t deliver. Owner Jerry Jones had been openly contemplating McCarthy’s exit mid-season too. Ultimately, though, the eccentric billionaire decided against it because of “regrets” he had from previous mid-season firings.

Either way, it’s been something of a foregone conclusion that McCarthy was on a short leash this year after a third straight disappointing playoff exit following the 2023 campaign. He was close to getting the boot after his team—which hadn’t lost at home all season to that point—was thumped 48-32 in the Wild Card round by a Green Bay Packers squad that was essentially being led by a rookie QB in Jordan Love.

This time around, Mike McCarthy wasn’t even able to get his team to the postseason, let alone make up for past playoff failures. It’s more than likely going to be a disappointing end to a frustrating run for McCarthy in Dallas.

In 2020, a Dak Prescott season-ending injury set the team back, as they went 6-10. However, they followed that up with successive 12-5 records in the next three straight seasons. If this was football across the pond, those regular season records would have been more than enough to keep his seat cold.

However, unlike the English Premier League, there is a postseason that follows the regular, and McCarthy’s Cowboys have faltered remarkably in those games, leading to the coach’s hot seat.

In 2021, they lost at home in the Wild Card round to the Jimmy Garoppolo and Elijah Mitchell-led San Francisco 49ers. The game wasn’t even as close as the 23-17 score would indicate.

The next year, they improved a touch. They actually beat Tom Brady in his final-ever game, humbling the GOAT in a 31-14 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That included four TDs and no picks for Dak Prescott. However, Prescott reverted back to his previous playoff form the next week against the 49ers, as he threw two interceptions in a scrappy 19-12 loss.

Last year’s defeat to the Packers was seemingly the last straw. They went into half—again, at home—down 27-7 and were down by 20+ points at three different times during the game. It was the culmination of McCarthy’s “good regular season, bad postseason” reputation in Texas.

Unfortunately, he was unable to rectify those problems in 2024. That means Mike McCarthy will likely coach his final game for The Boys on Sunday.