Speaker 1: The following. He's a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. This is an exclusive
Speaker 1: presentation of Dallas Cowboys Breaking News. And just like that,
Speaker 1: the sixty second camp in Cowboys history, the forty second
Speaker 1: in California in the fifteenth and Oxnard has come and
Speaker 1: kicked off. How about that here from Oxnard, California. It's
Speaker 1: good to be back. There's a smile on David Hellman's face.
Speaker 1: There's smile on Mickey's Bagnolah's face. Same here with Kyle Yeoman's.
Speaker 1: As we are the first podcast to get things underway
Speaker 1: for the twenty twenty one season, And just like that, gentleman,
Speaker 1: we're back in the thick of it. It was about time, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, I was just gonna say, I'll just take
Speaker 1: a line from from Jerry Jones and we're gonna get
Speaker 1: into it. But which which is gonna be a clean
Speaker 1: It's gonna be it's gonna between uh no, not not
Speaker 1: planning on dropping any F bombs right now, but just
Speaker 1: he was talking about how he you know, are we
Speaker 1: ever gonna do this again? Are we ever gonna like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have a press conference where you can talk to
Speaker 1: people and just feel kind of normal about what we're doing.
Speaker 1: And that's what's happening right now, and it's really exciting.
Speaker 1: It's very very exciting. It's as close to normal as
Speaker 1: we've known it in quite some time. Right we're oh
Speaker 1: my god, like twenty five people on the on the
Speaker 1: tennis court out there for the press conference. Uh, the
Speaker 1: press conference was normal. It went an hour, that's about
Speaker 1: what usually takes place, and it was pretty darn good.
Speaker 1: But we got to talk about the cowboys and it
Speaker 1: wasn't on zoom. Yeah, and we were actually looking at
Speaker 1: somebody that we were asking questions too, and then they
Speaker 1: were looking at us and they could see who was
Speaker 1: listening and who was asking the questions. Uh. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: you know, the weather's back to normal here, which is
Speaker 1: seventy five degree and sixty two in the morning when
Speaker 1: you wake up. And yeah, it was refreshing after what
Speaker 1: we've been through. Now, there's still a lot of protocols
Speaker 1: the media has to follow, but I think everybody would
Speaker 1: rather do that than what we did last summer. I
Speaker 1: think you just hit it on the word refreshed. I
Speaker 1: actually wrote that down at the end of the press
Speaker 1: conference because it kind of had that feel, and where
Speaker 1: of course talking about the opening press conference the State
Speaker 1: of the Union that was just here in Oxnard, where
Speaker 1: all three of the figurehead of the Dallas Cowboys, Stephen Jones,
Speaker 1: Jerry Jones, and of course head coach Mike McCarthy talking
Speaker 1: on the podium to the entire media, which, like we
Speaker 1: just said, is refreshing in its own right that they
Speaker 1: were on a podium and hey, there were people in
Speaker 1: person talking to them and able to have a little
Speaker 1: bit of dialogue. But it was emotional, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: a lot of that compounds based off of what twenty
Speaker 1: twenty was, but I think there's a lot of expectations
Speaker 1: heading into this season as opposed to what we had
Speaker 1: a year ago. That also adds to a little bit
Speaker 1: of that emotion as well. Absolutely, I mean last year
Speaker 1: was a nightmare, like for like for a lot of reasons. Nay,
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously the pandemic is the big headliner there,
Speaker 1: but it was the worst Cowboys season. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't want to Mick, I don't know, You've done this
Speaker 1: a lot longer than Yeah, Okay, how did that? How
Speaker 1: did last year stack up among like the very worst? Well,
Speaker 1: it's gotta be top three. It was. It was as
Speaker 1: bad because of what the expectations were. Yeah, because then
Speaker 1: eighty nine there were and and that's and and it
Speaker 1: was a promising season that just got absolutely directed, legs
Speaker 1: cut out from absolutely and so not just the you know,
Speaker 1: the record speaks for itself, but you went into that
Speaker 1: season thinking that it had the chance to be special,
Speaker 1: even with everything going on with COVID, and that was
Speaker 1: part of it. And so yeah, it's it's almost like
Speaker 1: hitting the reset button on your PS five for I
Speaker 1: still have a PS four, but you get my point,
Speaker 1: uh yeahs at the end of my letters, which you
Speaker 1: still right. So and you mentioned the emotion, Jerry's emotion,
Speaker 1: and I think that exhibits how much this all means
Speaker 1: to him. You know. I think some people think, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's this great businessman and all he's worried about is
Speaker 1: making money, But he he loves this. Right. The training camp,
Speaker 1: the whole deal with the media. You know, I'm gonna guess,
Speaker 1: and just to let everybody know how everything's set up,
Speaker 1: they set up the media in a U shape around
Speaker 1: the practice field well before we had you know, the
Speaker 1: full rain, the whole the whole practice field, and when
Speaker 1: practice would finish, we would be at the end of
Speaker 1: the practice field where everybody would exit, and Jerry invariably
Speaker 1: would come over and stop, you know, and invariably it
Speaker 1: was after you know, the second practice at night, six o'clock,
Speaker 1: when everybody's ready to get done because it's eight o'clock
Speaker 1: back Central time, and he would hold court right just
Speaker 1: on a spur of the moment. Well, yeah, I guarantee
Speaker 1: you because we can't be at this end and the
Speaker 1: interviews are going to be at the far end of
Speaker 1: the field, the other end zone that he's going to
Speaker 1: walk over there one or two times he's gonna find
Speaker 1: to talk to us, right, Jerry Jones is a showman
Speaker 1: and he loves the show. And that he said that
Speaker 1: he like, that was the last thing he said today,
Speaker 1: was talking about the show of the NFL is back,
Speaker 1: and you know, we played a season last year and
Speaker 1: Tampa's championship is totally valid. Like, it's amazing what the
Speaker 1: NFL pulled off, but it it sucked. I mean that
Speaker 1: that was it was not the NFL that we've all
Speaker 1: come to know and love in the pomp and the
Speaker 1: circumstance and having six weeks of anticipation and storylines. We
Speaker 1: don't really get any of that last year, and I
Speaker 1: promise you very few people are happier about that than
Speaker 1: Jerry Jones to kind of bring the fireworks back to
Speaker 1: all of this. And I think the media is happy
Speaker 1: about this as well, because I know, certainly we are
Speaker 1: as part of a team. The pageant tree is back,
Speaker 1: and there's a little bit of a pep in the
Speaker 1: step I think of everyone here, and of course the
Speaker 1: Cowboys returning. Jerry Jones certainly a big time fan of that.
Speaker 1: But how big of an advantage is this for the
Speaker 1: team itself? Jerry said it in the press conference. Only
Speaker 1: four or five teams actually went away for camp this year.
Speaker 1: A lot of them had it in their facilities at
Speaker 1: home or at least near to home. So I don't
Speaker 1: know if that's an exact number. There may be more
Speaker 1: or less than that regarding teams leaving and going somewhere.
Speaker 1: But Mickey, is this a bigger advantage for Mike McCarthy
Speaker 1: heading into camp this year as opposed to compared to
Speaker 1: last year? Because you know what I'm gonna say, I
Speaker 1: think kind of pertains to what's going on now. Because
Speaker 1: there were other times we came to camp here and
Speaker 1: it didn't make a hill of beings a difference. Right,
Speaker 1: they were bad, and you know they were still bad,
Speaker 1: but here's what happens compared to last year. You have
Speaker 1: more camaraderie among the players. They're they're all here together.
Speaker 1: They're not some guys are staying at the hotel. Last year,
Speaker 1: some guys are going home. It was just so disjointed.
Speaker 1: You don't get that team feeling. But when you're here,
Speaker 1: you're messing around at night with everybody you know after
Speaker 1: all the meetings, and guys are just kind of bonding,
Speaker 1: and I think that helps. He didn't have that last year.
Speaker 1: He didn't have an offseason last year. He didn't have
Speaker 1: a preseason last year. Now I'm not saying that's why
Speaker 1: they turned out to be six and ten, because there
Speaker 1: was other first year head coaches, but I think just
Speaker 1: the whole combination of it, as I said early, kind
Speaker 1: of derailed the season. And you know, it was bad
Speaker 1: and defense was bad, but there was a lot of
Speaker 1: other factors that went into it. But I just think
Speaker 1: having everybody here two practice fields outdoors, you don't have
Speaker 1: to practice indoors all the time. You know, you guys
Speaker 1: saw at the Ford Center, I experienced set the Alamo
Speaker 1: Dome in San Antonio. That was the most depressing training
Speaker 1: camp practices day in and day out. And this was
Speaker 1: two padded practices a day. And the place is so gray.
Speaker 1: It's just gray. There's no sunlight. And it was depressing.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, getting back here, I just get what's
Speaker 1: a little pep in your step? Yeah, I hesitate to
Speaker 1: call it an advantage because Mick just pointed out, you know,
Speaker 1: some first year head coaches did some great things in
Speaker 1: the league last year. Cleveland comes to mind, and the
Speaker 1: Cowboys have been coming to California for a long time
Speaker 1: without a ton to show for. It's true, but again
Speaker 1: compared to last year, and you know, actually even going
Speaker 1: back to like OTAs like we were fortunate enough that
Speaker 1: we got to be more involved in that this year
Speaker 1: and kind of be around the team. Mike McCarthy seemed
Speaker 1: so happy to like, just that's why you're on a
Speaker 1: team in the first place, right, It's like the camaraderie
Speaker 1: and feeling like you're part of something. They didn't get
Speaker 1: that last year, Like you know, they're on Zoom the
Speaker 1: same way that everybody was doing that and you're not.
Speaker 1: You know, you don't get to stop and rip a
Speaker 1: guy about his college team or what are you know,
Speaker 1: the basketball game last night in the hallway, like all
Speaker 1: that little stuff that you take for granted. They didn't
Speaker 1: get it. So no idea if it means that they're
Speaker 1: going to be a better football team this year. But
Speaker 1: I do think it's important for Mike McCarthy in terms
Speaker 1: of like establishing his culture and the way that he
Speaker 1: wants his team to be, and obviously the players themselves
Speaker 1: getting to know each other. This is a great place
Speaker 1: to do that. I promise you that. Yeah, then let
Speaker 1: me give you an example. Like I was walking back
Speaker 1: from I think I was walking back from breakfast this morning,
Speaker 1: and I passed Randy Gregory and he's got a big
Speaker 1: smile on his face. He goes, hey, man, kind of
Speaker 1: gives me a little fist bump, you know, good to
Speaker 1: see you. Yesterday when I was going to see where
Speaker 1: our trailer was or where our digital media's working from
Speaker 1: the Cowboys and Dak was going up the steps to
Speaker 1: his place and he yelled, and I looked to see
Speaker 1: who was like on my left, and then he yelled
Speaker 1: again and he goes, no, good to see you, just
Speaker 1: like that, right, And we didn't get that last year.
Speaker 1: We never ran into people. Last year, I've run into
Speaker 1: coaches that I've never met before. I had to introduce
Speaker 1: myself to Dan Quinn. I introduced myself to Cedric, the
Speaker 1: new assistant strength and conditioning coach, who, by the way,
Speaker 1: the big guy but all the muscles. He was Emmet's
Speaker 1: fullback in high school. There we go. I said, no,
Speaker 1: wonder he had him. Yeah, no wonder he had such
Speaker 1: a great career as Scammia. That guy is huge. I
Speaker 1: thought he was interviewing for a nose tackle position, you know.
Speaker 1: But we didn't see these guys. You know, we didn't
Speaker 1: see anybody last year. Um Davis the assistant head coach,
Speaker 1: you know, we were taping something before the draft and
Speaker 1: he introduced himself. We went through this whole season and
Speaker 1: three quarters of the coaches that were new we didn't.
Speaker 1: We didn't meet him personally. Mike McCarthy in January, didn't
Speaker 1: see him again to November in person. So yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's just different. And you know, to go back to
Speaker 1: does this make a difference. I used to hear from
Speaker 1: people that because the Cowboys were playing on Thanksgiving, they
Speaker 1: had as big advantage. And I would point out to
Speaker 1: them they only had a big advantage when they were good.
Speaker 1: When they were bad, it didn't make a difference whatsoever
Speaker 1: that they were playing at home on a short week, right,
Speaker 1: So yeah, but it's just better. The whole atmosphere is
Speaker 1: just better. The return to Oxnard doesn't mean we can
Speaker 1: reserve a spot for the Lobardi Trophy at the start
Speaker 1: just yet. No, that's not the case. However, and there
Speaker 1: was a lot of talk about this throughout the press
Speaker 1: conferences as well, But Dak Prescott is back, the offensive
Speaker 1: line seemingly healthy. Heading into training camp, you have your
Speaker 1: weapons returning on offense, and then of course the defensive
Speaker 1: additions that make this thing kind of exciting because of course,
Speaker 1: the last year, last year's defense historically bad. This year,
Speaker 1: hopefully you're less than historically bad. It's not hopefully that
Speaker 1: was the worst case scenario. How do things start off
Speaker 1: on the right track for Mike McCarthy, What does he
Speaker 1: have to do in this coaching staff? He had mentioned
Speaker 1: establishing a winning culture, that's one big thing. But but Dave,
Speaker 1: whenever you look at practice starting tomorrow. What is one
Speaker 1: of the biggest things that Cowboys have to do to
Speaker 1: get off to that hot start to ensure that they
Speaker 1: don't have a repeat of twenty twenty. Oh well, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm this is my yearly crusade. Stay healthy, please honestly
Speaker 1: that they gotta practice, they gotta they gotta do all that,
Speaker 1: and a more nuanced ancer is especially on the Like,
Speaker 1: I don't really care about the offense, to be honest
Speaker 1: with you, Like, as long as everybody's healthy, that's they're good.
Speaker 1: They're stay healthy. That's the you're good, They're good, They'll
Speaker 1: be fine. The defense, I think you do need to
Speaker 1: keep a close eye on that and how they compete.
Speaker 1: Are they getting hands on footballs? Are they, you know,
Speaker 1: killing themselves to win every rep? Maybe even you know,
Speaker 1: little stuff as seemingly innocuous, as like talking trash, like
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about Micah Parsons front and center and wait
Speaker 1: to showing up day one to let to let this
Speaker 1: you know, these vets know, like I'm here to compete
Speaker 1: and to win and to to fight on every rep.
Speaker 1: Like little stuff like that. I think that's what I
Speaker 1: think of when I think of a culture, and you
Speaker 1: can do that out here, and it's important and I
Speaker 1: think people will rally to that. But my baseline answer
Speaker 1: is always just keep keep everybody, keep the important guy's
Speaker 1: healthy for three weeks while we're out here. That's the keys.
Speaker 1: As I wrote on Friday, it's the old Brad Sham thing.
Speaker 1: We go to training camp to see who's going to
Speaker 1: get hurt, right, and look at the Rams right there
Speaker 1: slamming on that and on the wood they they lose
Speaker 1: their running back Cam Akers right torn achilles, And yeah,
Speaker 1: you just can't. There's not enough depth these days to
Speaker 1: get through that many key injuries to key players. I
Speaker 1: think Jerry or Stephen talked about it about their top
Speaker 1: ten players or top ten paid players. You got to
Speaker 1: have those guys. You got to have those guys on
Speaker 1: the field. And last year half of them weren't on
Speaker 1: the field. So um, yeah, I here here's my deal
Speaker 1: with the defense. Can they just be average? I'm not
Speaker 1: asking for top ten. Just you know, they were eleventh
Speaker 1: the year before, by the way, when it came to
Speaker 1: total yards. Uh, can they just be average? Because they
Speaker 1: were pitiful and and and they couldn't they couldn't. The
Speaker 1: offense couldn't compensate for how bad the defense was, you know,
Speaker 1: And somebody said, well, yeah, Wellen Dac was there. They
Speaker 1: only went two in three, and I said, yeah, they
Speaker 1: averaged thirty two points a game while the defense had
Speaker 1: given up thirty six in those first five games. Turnovers
Speaker 1: certainly didn't help with that either. Well yeah, but still
Speaker 1: you scored thirty two, Okay, thirty six. On the other side,
Speaker 1: they didn't stop just because you turned the ball over.
Speaker 1: The defense doesn't have to say, okay, next play, go score, right,
Speaker 1: and that happened. So yeah, dan Quinn's gotta make a difference.
Speaker 1: And it's not just dan Quinn. Think about this from
Speaker 1: a defensive staff standpoint. He's he's now the defensive line
Speaker 1: coach too. By the way, you know they brought in
Speaker 1: the specialty. Yeah, they brought in Adam Dird, but he's
Speaker 1: kind of just gonna be the overseer while he's doing
Speaker 1: the whole thing. They they they've moved George Edwards to
Speaker 1: the linebacker coach. You know, that's it's kind of unspoken,
Speaker 1: but when you watch kind of running things right, all right,
Speaker 1: And then they bring in Joe Witt Junior for the secondary.
Speaker 1: So they're three key guys on that defense for really,
Speaker 1: Uh that it's gonna change. Can they make a difference? Well,
Speaker 1: they better hope they do. Uh. And just listening to
Speaker 1: the players in the offseason, dan Quinn's a hit already
Speaker 1: and they look organized. You know this time last year defense,
Speaker 1: the linebackers weren't calling out plays right, They weren't telling guys, hey,
Speaker 1: move there, move here. They were and that in the
Speaker 1: OTAs that didn't happen last year. That was a lost defense,
Speaker 1: meaning guys didn't know what they were supposed to do.
Speaker 1: A lot of the problems they had. Somebody asked me
Speaker 1: about the secondary. You know, can the defensive line help
Speaker 1: out a secondary that struggled? I said, well, they can't
Speaker 1: help him from missing assignments, and they missed assignments last year.
Speaker 1: It was just get beat physically, okay, but when you
Speaker 1: don't know where you're supposed to be or who you're
Speaker 1: supposed to cover, that's just awful. And that's happened too
Speaker 1: much last year. So defense, can you be average? When
Speaker 1: the question was asked to Mike McCarthy on the podium
Speaker 1: about how much improvement he's already seen from his defense
Speaker 1: and how improved he thinks they could be. That was
Speaker 1: one of the conversations he had as well. I need
Speaker 1: the defensive line to be up to part of what
Speaker 1: we're putting out there. On the offensive line. There needs
Speaker 1: to be competition. Last year, I remember we were talking
Speaker 1: about it, and every time that the offensive line was
Speaker 1: banged up, the defensive line had success. But whenever the
Speaker 1: offensive line had their top five guys out there, even
Speaker 1: though that was only for pretty much a snap or
Speaker 1: two the defense, the line had no success. And you've
Speaker 1: got to have a little bit of competition. Camp is
Speaker 1: where that thing starts, and I think that we're going
Speaker 1: to see more of that. Maybe that's a dan Quinn effect.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's the effect of having Randy Gregory in for
Speaker 1: an entire offseason. He was talked about a lot during
Speaker 1: the press conference. Do you think those guys can have
Speaker 1: that much of an impact to maybe try and even
Speaker 1: the playing surfaces between the trenches. I mean I do.
Speaker 1: I don't say this to sit on the fence, but
Speaker 1: like that's why we're here, right yeah, I mean exactly.
Speaker 1: And I was just about to say, and this is
Speaker 1: this happens all the time, and I get it. It
Speaker 1: goes with the territory. But I'll sit here and say
Speaker 1: a lot of people in the building are really excited
Speaker 1: about what Randy Gregory can do having had a full offseason,
Speaker 1: and I am too for that matter. Neville Gallimore is
Speaker 1: another name that you will hear a lot. Obviously came
Speaker 1: on really strong in the second half of his rookie year.
Speaker 1: The coaches are excited about the potential that he could
Speaker 1: make a leap and become this fantastic defensive tackle. And
Speaker 1: again I'm excited about that too. I got really excited
Speaker 1: about Malie Collins every summer. Also, like I've done I've
Speaker 1: done this before and that's all so so we're here
Speaker 1: for I'm here to watch and see if they can
Speaker 1: because like on paper, there's a lot of reasons to
Speaker 1: be excited. But will I be shocked if it's mid
Speaker 1: October and I'm like, they're not a whole lot, They're
Speaker 1: not a whole lot better than they were last year. No,
Speaker 1: that that shouldn't surprise anybody. But that's gonna be the
Speaker 1: fun part about the next five six weeks is finding
Speaker 1: out just where they stand in that on that scale,
Speaker 1: and there's gonna be competition because if you look at
Speaker 1: this defense. What's set in stone going the adgdressers and
Speaker 1: about it, maybe Treyvon Diggs maybe yeah, I mean say yes,
Speaker 1: but yeah, so that's not as secure as the adgere.
Speaker 1: So that's three spots that there's eight more that I
Speaker 1: think there's a lot of competition, and that includes the linebackers. Right,
Speaker 1: nothing's given to Layton Vanderessh and Jalen Smith. They're going
Speaker 1: to have to earn what they get. I bet if
Speaker 1: we pulled, you know, if we pulled all the people
Speaker 1: that we work with, I'm just coming up with content
Speaker 1: ideas right here on the air, we'd probably come up
Speaker 1: with ten different starting elevens. Maybe only slightly, maybe only slightly,
Speaker 1: but like you know, oh easy. Yeah. So I mean
Speaker 1: that's a really good point, man. It's good. Good for competition,
Speaker 1: that's what you want out here. And the other thing
Speaker 1: I think I pointed out last week was the fact
Speaker 1: that with these new defensive coaches, you know when you
Speaker 1: were a kid and you were playing whatever, say it
Speaker 1: was little league, and you got a new coach that year,
Speaker 1: where everybody was jacked up to show the new guy
Speaker 1: what you can do, right because he didn't know. And
Speaker 1: these new guys come in here with no preconceived notions.
Speaker 1: So you better not have a bad day, you know,
Speaker 1: you better, Jordan Lewis, you know, don't have two bad
Speaker 1: days in a row because they get another corner they'll
Speaker 1: put in the slot. So I think that's good for
Speaker 1: this this whole deal. Now the other good thing. And
Speaker 1: you know what, we probably went fifteen minutes in the
Speaker 1: in the beginning of the press conference talking about the
Speaker 1: Cowboys vaccination, right, and you know the way Jerry put it,
Speaker 1: he said, it's only a handful of guys. Now, last
Speaker 1: thing that came out was seventy percent of the ninety
Speaker 1: man roster vaccinate. There's an important designation there, Jerry said,
Speaker 1: there's a handful of guys that have done nothing, like
Speaker 1: a handful of R five guys are less that have
Speaker 1: not committed, not done anything. And Stephen Jones actually made
Speaker 1: the really good point. You know, getting vaccinated, it's like
Speaker 1: a five week process, like shot, two weeks shot, blah
Speaker 1: blah blah. Exactly. It takes some time. So and we
Speaker 1: don't know the number. I will probably never know the
Speaker 1: full number. And that's that's fine. But so now, but
Speaker 1: so you know, there's a certain number of guys that
Speaker 1: have gotten one shot but not both. There's a certain
Speaker 1: number of guys that have probably gotten two shots but
Speaker 1: aren't through their two week period of waiting. But man
Speaker 1: for Jerry Jones to say that only five guys on
Speaker 1: a ninety man roster have done nothing, and he kind
Speaker 1: of intimated too that he thinks that number will go
Speaker 1: down as well, Like as we go through this, he
Speaker 1: thinks some of that handful will start to do stuff
Speaker 1: to give back inconvenience. That's what I'm saying. Not being
Speaker 1: vaccinated would be enough incentived. The minute I would run
Speaker 1: to the CVS right now. The minute I read that
Speaker 1: memo about what unvaccinated players have to go through, I
Speaker 1: was like, that would be enough for me, even if
Speaker 1: I hadn't already done it, that would be enough for me.
Speaker 1: So but that's that's that was a good sign. And
Speaker 1: he said he said he thought by time the preseason game,
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame game showed up that everybody we
Speaker 1: want to play should be eligible to play. Yeah, he said,
Speaker 1: there should be much eligible to play. You just you
Speaker 1: would have to fly there on your own. Yeah, lots
Speaker 1: of there's a lot of a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of hoops to jump through for those So but that
Speaker 1: was that was encouraging news, especially after you know, and
Speaker 1: I don't blame Michael Irvin for what he said, yeah,
Speaker 1: because he looks at it is you've got to do
Speaker 1: everything you can do and more to be successful. And
Speaker 1: that was him, right, And and if you're not getting
Speaker 1: the shot, then you're not doing everything you can do
Speaker 1: to help the team be successful. They can't say that
Speaker 1: you got to be politically correct because it's a personal choice, right.
Speaker 1: But you know, Michael, you know, I tell you a
Speaker 1: story on Michael. One day he lived in Carrollton in
Speaker 1: the suburbs where I did. And I'm driving to the
Speaker 1: ranch one day and I see it would look like
Speaker 1: the biggest human being ever on the tallest bicycle coming
Speaker 1: down the middle of the road. Right there was a
Speaker 1: four lane road, and he was coming down the middle. Well,
Speaker 1: he was still rehabbing from his torn acl and he
Speaker 1: was riding the bike from and it would have been
Speaker 1: ten miles for sure, but he was riding to the
Speaker 1: ranch to get ready. And that was Michael that he
Speaker 1: would do anything he could, short of holding out to
Speaker 1: the point he missed the game almost to help this
Speaker 1: team win. Everybody's entitled to an opinion, and Michael has
Speaker 1: earned the point of which is what Jerry said, right,
Speaker 1: if he speaks, I listen, and Michael Irvin has certainly
Speaker 1: earned that. You mentioned how encouraging that is, at least
Speaker 1: the COVID nineteen talk. But going back to the football field,
Speaker 1: Dak Prescott had some encouraging news or at least encouraging
Speaker 1: news around Dak Prescott. He's gonna be a full participant.
Speaker 1: This is something that we pretty much anticipated around the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: But before we wrap things up here, what did you
Speaker 1: think about what was said about Dak and not a
Speaker 1: part of team drills throughout OTA's in the off season.
Speaker 1: No surprise there, but he should be a participant here
Speaker 1: in Oxnar we have to cover it. But I didn't
Speaker 1: bat an eye last Yeah, because I was there through
Speaker 1: the off season program watching him do his thing. I stopped.
Speaker 1: I stopped having concerns about Dak sometime in early April
Speaker 1: probably for like see him. Well, we're fortunate enough, like
Speaker 1: where we work, you know, you see him working out
Speaker 1: on the fields and the amount of stuff that he
Speaker 1: does when nobody's around, So you feel good about that
Speaker 1: and then he goes to OTAs. I know he's not
Speaker 1: part of team drills, but you know that the scramble
Speaker 1: drill that they put into there, he's running, sprinting to
Speaker 1: the sideline and just torking and throwing off of his
Speaker 1: you know, off of his hurt foot sixty yards down.
Speaker 1: Feel I'm just like, now he's fine. I don't need
Speaker 1: to see anything else. So, you know, I've anticipated he
Speaker 1: was going to be a okay for a long time.
Speaker 1: At this point, I'm just excited to see him go,
Speaker 1: you know, and he's human. And I'll guarantee you when
Speaker 1: he first started going out on the field and he
Speaker 1: started doing you know, getting away from his rehab where
Speaker 1: you do premeditated steps right now, you go on the
Speaker 1: field and you're going, okay, can I count on this,
Speaker 1: you know, and you push off, and he's he's over
Speaker 1: that the mental part. And I'll give you a good example. Um,
Speaker 1: two weeks ago to three weeks ago, I played tennis
Speaker 1: for the first time since my achilles was repaired, and
Speaker 1: there were a couple of times when it was time
Speaker 1: to push off and I was like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't do that right. And then the more you
Speaker 1: played the you know, the more you get over that
Speaker 1: mental part, right, And there was one point I was
Speaker 1: running for a ball that was behind me and I
Speaker 1: stopped and I go, I don't need to get that,
Speaker 1: you know, And I was like, well, let's just see
Speaker 1: how good it is. And I'm sure these guys go
Speaker 1: through that, especially with torn acls. Absolutely that you got
Speaker 1: to recover mentally too. And I think he's past that.
Speaker 1: And he looks like because they wouldn't have put him out,
Speaker 1: they were not going to say, yeah, he's full participant,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever is going on. If he wasn't ready
Speaker 1: and mentally he's ready, I'll guarantee you because of who
Speaker 1: I am as a person, I'm probably going to hold
Speaker 1: my breath the first time there's a little bit of
Speaker 1: trash around every Cowboys fanchild No, and that's that's human nature.
Speaker 1: But he's not going to He's he's the most confident person.
Speaker 1: I'll guarantee you. That defensive line or the defensive room,
Speaker 1: it's like you see that red jersey you do not
Speaker 1: get I know, you know, some of some of somebody
Speaker 1: some well I'm just some of you old heads, like
Speaker 1: I know it was it was a you know it.
Speaker 1: It was a tradition for the Cowboys quarterback to not
Speaker 1: wear a non contact jersey going all the way back
Speaker 1: to Landry. I'm happy Dak's gonna be wearing red. I'm
Speaker 1: happy Mike McCarthy instituted that rule because I don't need
Speaker 1: any stupid reason for why he's getting smacked around during
Speaker 1: training camp practice. You know. One of the one of
Speaker 1: the reasons. In the old days, they used to show
Speaker 1: up for training camp like a week and a half,
Speaker 1: two weeks ahead of everybody, the rookies, and then the
Speaker 1: guys that hadn't been there to let them get the
Speaker 1: little fire out of them. Yeah, so they didn't like
Speaker 1: ruin somebody you know that year the Cowboys and I'm
Speaker 1: going to forget the guy's name, the g when they
Speaker 1: drafted him at Smith they also had signed a kind
Speaker 1: of veteran type running back and one of the first practice,
Speaker 1: some rookie stand Smagala tears his acl takes a cheap
Speaker 1: shot on the sideline because he's trying to show everybody, hey,
Speaker 1: I can play this right, fifth round draft choice or
Speaker 1: something like that, and no, you gotta get that out
Speaker 1: of you. You can't do that. You see four. You
Speaker 1: can't hit four. You can hit I don't know what
Speaker 1: the other guys numbers are, three, ten, seven, whatever, hit
Speaker 1: almost whoever you want, which is just don't hit four four.
Speaker 1: That's a good point. It's a good point, something that
Speaker 1: we'll be looking at throughout training camp, and well, you
Speaker 1: guys are gonna be pretty busy throughout training camp as
Speaker 1: well as The podcasts are officially back on Dallas Cowboys
Speaker 1: dot com. Dave, you'll be on the break tomorrow, Mike
Speaker 1: Shots today, Mike Shots today, but column not not the podcast,
Speaker 1: then joining you on Talking Cowboys on Friday, right for
Speaker 1: the first time. Band back together, back together, Yeah myself,
Speaker 1: Rob Mackey on Talking Cowboys. There will be a group
Speaker 1: of hosts back home at the Star as well, and
Speaker 1: then David Hellman, Nick Eatman and Derek Eagleton on the break,
Speaker 1: the normal break, and then they'll be doing the post
Speaker 1: practice thing out on the Yeah we got, we got.
Speaker 1: We're going all over the like. We've heard you all
Speaker 1: whining about their not being as time. We get it.
Speaker 1: It's been a slow six weeks, but we're back and
Speaker 1: we're ready to go. It's officially go time. The green
Speaker 1: flag has dropped we're in. It's time to time to
Speaker 1: get after. It's special. Thanks to all of you at home, though,
Speaker 1: for being patient and excited as much as we are
Speaker 1: for Cowboys training camp, because there is plenty more coverage
Speaker 1: coming up over the next three weeks and then into
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty one season. But for now, for Chris
Speaker 1: Beam in the back, for David Hellman, Mickey's back. No,
Speaker 1: I'm Kyle Yeoman saying so long from Oxnard, California. We'll
Speaker 1: see you next time. I'm talking. Oh, there you go.
Speaker 1: This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.