Cowboys’ McCarthy is fighting history

Cowboys’ McCarthy is fighting history

DALLAS: In 1968, a reporter for the Dallas Times Herald called Steve Perkins kept a journal of the

Cowboys’ season with the goal of making it into a literary masterpiece, if not a quick cash. At the time,

skill in Dallas press boxes might have eclipsed that on the fields below. Regretfully, Perkins’ subjects,

who were expected to win it all, fell short of expectations, and their unkempt departure was the most

embarrassing in the history of the company. That is, until last week.

Nevertheless, Perkins’ book was published under the tongue “Next Year’s Champions,” a taunt that

became a cursed moniker for the Dallas Cowboys football team.

It’s funny that even after fifty years, this still holds true.

The thought might not have occurred to me at all if Mike McCarthy hadn’t started it this week when

asked why fans should believe in the Cowboys’ chances next season. Fans were told this was the year.

Turned out this one was no different from the 27 that preceded it.

And the Cowboys are just gonna run it back next season with the same crew?

Why should fans buy that?

“Because I know how to win,” McCarthy said.

Of the 35 coaches who have won Super Bowls, no one has done it with more than one organization. Four

coaches — Don Shula, Dick Vermeil, Mike Holmgren and Andy Reid — have made the Super Bowl with

different teams. Dan Reeves did it three times with Denver and once with Atlanta. Never won a

Lombardi. The evidence suggests it’s hard enough to win it all with one organization, much less two.

But, if you’re a Hall of Fame coach in one place, how come you can’t be a Hall of Famer anywhere?

Could it be the same reason we used to ask if it was Tom Brady or Bill Belichick?

For the purposes of this column, let’s narrow the field to the 14 coaches who won more than one Super

Bowl. This eliminates any flukes. The odd Brian Billick. Of the 14 multiple winners, only two did it with

more than one quarterback. George Seifert won with Joe Montana and Steve Young in San Francisco.

Joe Gibbs topped that in Washington by winning three titles with four different quarterbacks: Joe

Theismann, Jay Schroeder/Doug Williams, and Mark Rypien. Think about that accomplishment. None

of those quarterbacks is in anyone’s top 50.

Meanwhile, Belichick won all of his Lombardis with Brady, the consensus No. 1. Bill Walsh won three

with Montana, an old benchmark. Andy Reid has two with Patrick Mahomes, the best of this generation.

Jimmy Johnson got his courtesy of Troy Aikman, Tom Landry had Roger Staubach, Mike Shanahan had

John Elway, Vince Lombardi had Bart Starr and Chuck Noll had Terry Bradshaw. Hall of Famers, all.

Not all of the other two-time winners, including Shula, Tom Flores, Bill Parcells, and Tom Coughlin, had

outstanding quarterbacks. Though Arch’s uncle is on the edge, Bob Griese is a Hall of Famer, but not Jim

Plunkett, Phil Simms (with a little assistance from Jeff Hostetler), or Eli Manning.

Eli’s argument, however, isn’t quite as strong as that of the quarterback who gave McCarthy his lone

Lombardi to date.

Aaron Rodgers’ numbers (192.43) are the third-best on Pro Football Reference’s Hall of Fame Monitor,

behind only Tom Brady’s (263.03) and the already-in Peyton Manning (257.8). Johnny Unitas’s spot

ahead of the guy in fourth place? HOFer Brett Favre is another.

Here’s the point, in case you got lost back there somewhere: In Mike McCarthy’s 13 years in Green Bay,

he coached two of the four best quarterbacks in NFL history, according to Pro Football Reference. And

what does McCarthy have to show for such a competitive advantage at the game’s most important

position?

One Super Bowl title and three more trips to the NFC title game.

No question, he’s won a lot of games. Eighteenth on the all-time list. Tied for 10th in playoff wins with

the likes of Parcells, Marv Levy, Pete Carroll, Dan Reeves and John Harbaugh. Then again, the 12 times

he’s made the playoffs, his teams have won more than one postseason game just twice. Meaning that,

more often than not, his teams do exactly what they did this season.

They win a lot, but not for long enough.

To win multiple Super Bowls, even the best coaches require good to outstanding quarterbacks, and

McCarthy no longer has Rodgers or Favre to fall back on. It’s not impossible that he will become the first

player to win a Lombardi in two different venues, but based on over 60 years of data, it’s the best bet.

Three years after Steve Perkins declared the Cowboys “Next Year’s Champions,” the team lost the title.

That’s some good historical news. The most recent release is now officially running.

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