Cowboys Break: Day 1

We are here in Oxnard, California, is day one of training camp two thousand twenty one, presented by American Airlines. I got Nick, I got Dave with me. Amber's out for a little while. I'm taking care of some business, but we're gonna hold it down. And I'm just happy to be back around football on a day to day basis, with no mask and just enjoying this beautiful weather. What about you, guys, I am standing grindin premiere to year. You got some new gear here. He got like a

it's like a Colin Cowherd situation. Well, you know that kind of happens that, like the more experienced you get and they give you better equipment. So maybe one day you'll get you'll get there and they'll kind of hook you up like the headset. You know. Derek's the type of that he probably had that like last year, but he's like, it's got to go out for episode one of next year. You can't like laid it out the night before like the first like school. Yeah. Yeah, well,

I gotta give all credit our producer Chris Beam. He hooked me up. He surprised me with this beautiful microphone for me to be able to use during King trying to camp here and uh and so here we go. Looks great, happy to be here, a thrilled football It's it's actually ball season. It's it's interesting because you said the same thing I think that that Jerry Jones mentioned yesterday and that opening press conference about and got pretty

emotional about it and a couple of times. But really just thinking about, you know the fact that last year we didn't have this opportunity. We were all sitting at home wondering if we were gonna be able to see any practices, and then we got an opportunity to see some practices, but it was from Afar. We were all

masked up. It was just a very different experience. And I told I told you Nick, I felt like all last season I really didn't have as good a handle on this team because during training campus, when we're thoroughly immersed in it, it's when we have the opportunity to really really get to know these players, and every single day you're seeing them play and perform and getting an idea of what you think. And we just didn't have

that last day. If this makes you feel better or worse, you know, I was very fortunate to be able to go to the games last year and be part of it, and I missed you guys. For sure. It wasn't the same, But I didn't know what was going on with the team either. I'm sitting right there, you know. I talked to these players after every game, and I hopefully they get to know my eyes a little bit, but they

haven't seen my face, you know. I mean, we got to do the interviews and stuff like that, but you know, so so yes, I hated it that you guys weren't with me on some of the games. None of us were a training camp like this. But I was very disconnected with the team too. Even though I was right there. It was it was different times. So I'm hoping that we get back to some bit of normalcy here. It's it's so it's so cool. It's so good to be here,

like to I can't even describe. Yeah, I mean, I'm not gonna get emotional like Jerry Jones did, but like it. It feels good man, like giving people hugs for the you know, to actually seeing other members of the Beat for the first time in fifteen months. There's John Machoda right there walking past us for the Athletic like seeing you know, I got to see and talk to some players when we flew out here and like getting situated, like saying hi to guys like oh, like you still

work here? Hut, Like sure, do I know you probably didn't believe it. Yeah, It's just it feels good man. You know, the pandemics not over. I know that, like we were, then the league's gonna have some challenges and we're gonna have some challenges. It is. I was watching the TV Deer District the Bucks game. I mean, I guess it's over in Milwaukee. I mean, yeah, we'll see, like there's there's probably there's gonna be some hurdles for the league and for us. I mean, like we have

to get tested while we're out here. I think like there's yeah, there's stuff that you gotta be mindful of, but it feels somewhat normal, and it feels really good. I will do almost anything they ask me to do to be able to resume our normal shots again, whatever it takes, how many or whatever, let's go said he'll do anything. Super Bowl. He did say that, and we'll we'll get to that a little bit later. Um. Give give the fans though, a general sense of the sights

and sounds out here. What looks the same, what looks different? Um? What do you what's your feel being around the team? Just give me some general insights for fans to kind of know what what the set up looks all from the sounds, UM standpoint there. And also it just so happens that, like the marketing team is going to blow leaves or you know, they're gonna turn on their blower about it about right when we start. Every time this is gonna be. That's just gonna be the way it is.

So you'll you'll hear that those sounds for sure. No, it's different now, guy, like we're Mike McCarthy's got a new schedule, like we got time to blow the leaves on the court right, Like they're playing music at practice. Now that's gonna be wait, but background noise is gonna be all the stuff, you know, people getting ready for practice. If I had to guess, what's the real answer to your questions? Are not the real answer? Yeah, we're supposed

to get us now we're jacking around. I'm trying to think, what's it's just it which I mean, I doesn't feel the same to you. I don't know. There's a lot of things that we know procedurally that's different, but does it feel the same? Okay? No, the three of us can sit here and wine all day about and it is different. You know, they're they've made accommodations for social distancing. It's nice to be around the team, but let's be real, like we don't have the same access as usual, Like

we're not really allowed to go where they go. They're kind of sequestered. They've got their own little separate bubble within the campus here at the hotel um. You know, there's trailers everywhere so that they you know, the different groups can I don't completely know why, but they you know, every position. Group's got a trailer where they can kind of go and do their own thing. I'm not sure. Here Hard Knocks is here, Yeah, that's fifth on it. And this is this is McCarthy's first camp here too,

so you know that's why. And the schedule is different, like he was saying, it was schedules earlier in the day, which I think is going to be better for us. We'll see, I mean, but I think it is. It's gonna be nice. But you know, um, but there there's there's changes. There's a lot of differences. Still. You look up, you see this, you know, you see the sunny skies and the and the weather and we're all wearing long

sleeves here. That's I guess That's kind of the point I was gonna make, is I could write a I could write a book about everything that's different a normal camp,

right yeah. Uh. But at the end, like it's it's training camp and Oxnard at the river Ridge Hotel, like it still feels kind of familiar and like the team is still staying in the same rooms and walk into the same cafeteria and meetings, and I mean, the schedule is different, but half these guys don't know what the old schedule was anyway, so uh, it feels different but the same. I know that doesn't make sense, but to me it does. Yeah, it absolutely does. Let's go ahead

and move on. I want to talk a little bit about the opening press conference. So we're a number of storylines that came out of that press conference, and we've written around about them on Dallas Cowboys Com, So make

sure you check that out. But just initially, give me some general impressions of what you thought coming out of that press conference of either are the three gentlemen on stage you had, Stephen, Jerry and Mike McCarthy, anything that stood out to you just as a general perception from the opening press conference, to be honest, and we don't have you know, I don't think people want to listen

to this for an hour. But like I was shocked and encouraged by the vaccination stuff at the beginning of it, because it's a tricky thing to get your hands on, Like you're not gonna you're not gonna hear concrete numbers. There's a certain degree of privacy that goes into it. I get all of that, But throughout the spring in the summer, I was like man like the Cowboys. How are the Cowboys doing with their vaccination? You know, you're hearing reports like there's three teams where not even fifty

percent of the team is vaccinated. I'm like, is that? And so I got to camp kind of like I wonder how many of these guys are doing this? And Jerry and Stephen Jones were like emphatic, and you know they're not going to give away names, nor should they, but for Jerry to say all but a handful of guys have taken steps toward getting vaccinated, and then five minutes later Stephen Jones says, we're going to hit the

eighty five percent threshold and then some that's amazing. And I don't you know, if you have different opinions about the vaccine, I don't really care. But just from the from the standpoint of like this will help them be available to play games and not have to worry about rescheduling and forfeiture and all that stuff we had to deal with last year. That's incredible, and I to be honest with you, I wasn't sure that was going to be the case when we got here, so that was

really encouraging. General impression, Nick my favorite part of the press conference was actually right before it, I thought, you know, we're all friends to media guys here. Clarence Hill is one of the favorites for all of us, and he has been recently lost his mother. And for Jerry Jones to come up to him like that and and I don't care what if he did it for the cameras on I don't care. Was the first time he saw saw him and he gave him, you know, nice condolences.

I thought that was my favorite part of the prest And not only that, but you know, you talk about the cameras might have been there, but that's beside the point. Because he has has Clarence put out on social like he actually sent to his mother's channel. And so now you got you gotta know this, when it comes to turning around and and and giving shots to the media, Clarence is always one that gets it from you know.

That's because he can take it. Dale Hanson was one like that and now he passed around them like Doocey and all that. That's that's a that's a you know, that's a sign of respect. Really what it was. So

that was my favorite part of the press commerce. Um, you know, just like like they said, the vaccination numbers where it were interesting and you know, even though it has nothing to do with the current state of the team, Uh, it was it was very eye opening to hear his remarks about Jimmy Johnson's you know, I had not heard

that part. I had not heard him actually say that, you know, um, and you know, it'll be interesting couple of weeks with Jimmy going in the Hall of Fame, and we've heard some talks about how how their relationship is. Is it, Is it good? Is it bad? It's kind of you know, it's taking more twists and turns than

six flags. So but I hopefully it's it's better. And I thought what Jerry said yesterday was was something that was you know, it was interesting for sure, which and I don't I don't want to make it too more, but I have I do that sometimes. But and but Jerry said this himself, so I'm not putting words in his mouth, but that was shocking, right like, and like you know, people were saying, like I've been waiting decades to hear him say that, you know, like it's it's

my fault. And I'll never understand why I did that and messed up with you know, everything with Jimmy Johnson. And then at the very end of the press conference he said, um, he said, you know, I was sitting in there this time last year wondering if I'd ever have a chance to do this again, if I you know, will I ever be in public talking to the media the way that I'd love to do and I've been

doing for thirty years, that ever gonna happen again? Would you know, get to Jerry Jones's age, That's probably at the forefront of your mind a lot. And so you know, I wonder this is gonna be It's gonna be interesting times because maybe Jerry Jones has a lot of stuff on his mind that he wasn't sure that he'd ever have a chance to say, and you know, you get the chance to do it, and you're like, well, no time,

Like the president, I guess, let's be honest. I think that this pandemic has probably changed all of our perspectives on life and the things that you took for granted maybe and some of those things that now that you have back, you feel like you really want to cherish them and appreciate them. So I think Jerry's probably no different in that way. Sure, let me throw one more thing about it, Jimmy Jerry. I think, you know, it shows growth for both of them, because Jimmy said a

lot of things to it. I think from what it sounds like he's gonna say, it's a lot more and during his speech, you know, I think that they they're trying to bury the hatcher or whatever. But you know, Jimmy, I think there was some fault there too. It was before I covered the team, but it wasn't it was both of them. I mean, he goes for both, and that's that's what happens in a lot of situations like this. I think they both have understood that, you know, they

could have done something great. But Jimmy said several times, look at this track record, didn't stay in a place more than five or six years. I mean that's kind of the way as he was looking to kind of move on to. But they I think that they've learned a lot from each other. But a lot of what you read on the comments from the fans, it's like okay, okay, I'll fine, you admit that. What about the next twenty five years? You know, like, like what about lately here,

what men? Why can't we haven't we figure that Outum, that's that's something Jerry said yesterday. He'd give anything to do that. Yeah, we're gonna get to that a little bit later. They did say something I was very interesting. I thought about some of the reasons as to why they think they can be optimistic about this year, and we're gonna talk about that a little later in the show before we go directly into the vaccinations. We're at a point we could probably take our first breaks. Let's

take our first break. When we come back from that, I want to dive a little deeper into the conversation regarding the vaccinations. I want to talk a little bit about how much that helps the team if they can get more of these guys vaccinated. Jerry gave us some numbers that actually make us feel like there's a good chance they're going to reach the threshold. So we're gonna talk about that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. Before there was a draft.

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back in Oxnard. Check out all the excitement for free as fans can enjoy daily practices, activities and more on the River Ridge Fields now through August twelfth, and don't miss Cowboys back together on July thirty first featuring live music, exclusive merchandise, deals, prices, and more of his The Dallas Cowboys dot com slash training Camp for more information and practice times. Welcome back to the second segment of Breakley or Life, Oxnard, California. It's a day one of training

camp here in Oxnard. Let's talk about the opening press conference, particularly the vaccination issue. Yesterday, Jerry said something that jumped out to me. Said, you know, there's only a handful of guys, and he mentioned he said, when I say a handful, there's five fingers the hand, not telling us that that's five, but giving us a strong indication that that's similar to the number I would guess of players that at this point are not committed to being vaccinated.

What he means by that are guys that don't already have at least the first shot or waiting period for their second shot, or maybe David committed to it, haven't gotten the shot, but they're committed to doing it right right that all being said, and I'll go further than that. Stephen Jones also said that he thinks not only will they hit the threshold, he thinks still exceeded. That's the

eighty five percent that that's been talked about. He said, that has not been approved yet completely by the NFL, but that's at least being talked about. That all being said, talk to me about what this means for the team then being able to get over that threshold with the NFL and if there are any limitations of the for the time that they haven't hit the threshold here in

camp before they get to that point. Well, that's that's a really good question about the limitation like here in camp, because I don't think it should be a big deal because you're not traveling until you go to the Hall of Fame game, You're not interacting with anybody other than

guys that are here. They have a testing center on site, so I think they should be fine as long as they're here in this bubble it And I guess complications are whatever comes into play when you start traveling to Ohio and get deeper into the preseason and when the season comes up. But that's the interesting thing, and that's what Stephen Jones said, is to your point, like you know, you got your waiting period between shots, you got your waiting period after your shots where you're waiting for it

to take full effect. But Stephen Jones said, like, taking all that into account, he thinks they'll be at or above that threshold in due time, which is, like I said, that's really impressive and undoubtedly gives them an advantage, Like it's a big deal because of the way the NFL is sort of what's the word I'm looking for, the way the way the NFL is handling this, Like being at that threshold means a lot just in terms of

your ability to be available. Yeah, I mean my understanding is that the difference between the guys that are that are vaccinated and not, it's just it's just more on them, the nuisance of what they have to do, test more, wear, mask more. It cannot be in the same meeting room, or at least in the same spot in the meeting room. They couldn't be like this. They'd have to be over here, you know. So, and I think those players were warned that beforehand and said this is how it's going to be.

Are you sure this is where your stances on this, because this is what's going to happen in a training camp, and this is how things are going to be. And you know, maybe I'm sure more vaccinations were done based

off of that. Now there's some that are still for whatever the reasons not you know, not doing it, which and you're right, and like you know, the conversation changes when you get closer to the season, and I believe like if you're not working on it and by now, then you're subject to those protocols until we get back from training camp, right, yeah, so you could go get the shot tomorrow and at this point it doesn't matter

now I camp not for camp. Yeah, But what's interesting and I look this up like I was writing a story about it yesterday. When we get closer to the season, it matters for more than the players personal convenience too, because you know, I'm reading off of the memo right here. Fully vaccinated individuals exposed to a COVID positive person will not be labeled to a high risk contact and will

not have to self isolate. So being vaccinated matters in the sense of remember last year where on Tuesday it was so and so yeah was in contact with somebody and will be out for the game on Sunday, Like if you're vaccinated, that doesn't happen. Which and That's what I'm talking about when I say it's important to competitive advantage.

It's unfortunate that this issue has become politicized, But regardless of your political feeling on it, guys being vaccinated means guys have a much less like a much lower chance of missing game time, which at the end of the day is what people care about. Essentially, unless you test positive, you won't have to miss a game, right, Yes, and so that and that's what I'm keeping an eye on.

So again, the fact that if it's really only five out of nine that haven't done anything on the first day of training camp, that is amazing news for the Cowboys when first of all, you cut the roster from ninety to fifty three anyway, Yeah, and then on top of that, you got you know, we still got what eight weeks until they actually are practicing for a game, six weeks whatever it is. So if they're there here, like if they're at this point in July, that's great

news for September. Yeah. One of the interesting things. I don't know if you guys saw it, I assume you did. Michael Irvin had some comments last week I think it was, or maybe even earlier this week, where he was talking about his idea of or his impression of players that decide not to get vaccinated. His argument was he doesn't

think they're completely committed to winning. And Jerry was asked about this yesterday, and Jerry's retort really was around the idea that, yeah, he says he thought he was spite on spot on, He thought it was influential, But he also believes that the point of what Michael was saying is that players expect one another to do things that are above and beyond for the purposes of the team. And this is one of those things that gets beyond

whatever your selfish desire might be. And I don't want to say it in the wrong way when I say selfish, I'm not meaning that a negative terms. I'm just saying whatever your desire is as a person, as an individual has to be in a lot of instances for the purposes of football in the NFL, and how teammates look at one another has to sometimes we put to the side and you have to do what's good for the team. And as you were saying, this has some benefits for

the team if more people are vaccinated. My question for you guys is do you agree with michael stance on this? I do absolutely, which, again, like you know. I'm sorry if it offends people that are listening, Like I don't. I don't see this as a political issue. I just think it's smart and easy and the American healthcare system has put like crazy resources into making this thing available, and like buy and large, there's going to be risk for all of this stuff. There always has been, by

the way, for like every vaccine. But it's minuscule and it does wonders to I've had it since March and I've been out living my life a lot more than I have been the last year. No complaints so far. Um, you have a little extra growth over there. Yeah, yeah, I have an extra I have an extra appendage. Yeah. Um, I don't. I don't see it as a debate. And that's I mean, if you do, I hope, Okay, I

got nothing for you. I don't know, but it's a minor thing that you can do to make your life easier and the team's life better and you know, give your team a better chance. I went the fuller context of Michael's quote. I thought it was interesting too, because he's, uh, you know, he said, this could be a healthy guy missing two games because of this, and in this league that could be it for you, like and if the

right person misses two weeks, that's it. Your ass is out and the Lord knows that's true, and that would be that would suck for the Cowboys or for anybody else if you know you had an easy path to making this all easier and didn't do it. So Nick, I mean, I love Michael Irving. I mean he's passionate about it, but I mean, I don't know. It's hard to speak for everybody in this situation. I understand that

part right there. I do get it, but you gotta remember, like everybody here knows three to four or five maybe more people that haven't taken it. We all have a few. When you think about that, what are the reasons why they're not taking it? They're they're all over the map. There's different reasons. So it is hard to say, well, hey, you know, why aren't you doing this? You should be doing it all for the betterment of the team. In some cases, you could say, well, I'm willing to do

all of these things. I have to test every day, I wear a mask, I can't sit with my team, I can't do certain things, So you're saying I'm not all in and I'm sticking to my guns on what I believe in. Maybe you could argue that I'm actually more all in than any of them because I'm doing all this despite that, because because I you know, they believe in the reason why they're not taking the vaccine or whatever, they're still willing to do all of the

other things. So but that's why this is so tricky, because that person could be doing everything right and their wife and their kids to come home from school and then they have it and next thing you know, you're out two games. Yeah, so it's just hard to say what not taking the vaccine is going, how it's going to affect the team. I think it's very general for Michael to say that, and you know, it's I agree that, you know, you should be kind of be all in.

We have to do things for their work. Some people do it, some people don't, and you know, it comes down to the different reasons. So it's very hard to kind of say you're right you're wrong, because it's certainly not a black and white issue, I guess, and good reasons for not getting it do exist, and I'm willing to listen to those, but buy and liar and not to go off on a tangent, but there's just so much bad faith discourse around this thing at this point

in time, it gets frustrating. Yeah, I mean it is, and not again, I don't want us to get too political, but it's gone from being a medical question in some people's minds to being more of a political question, and so anytime that happens, then you're going to have just splits because people ideologically and from a political standpoint are split right and probably more now in our country than

ever before. So that's a problem with all of this is that it has become a political issue instead of rather just a medical issue, where we may have had a lot less division on this if it was just a medical question. And like you said, Nick, there's some people that have some very legitimate medical concerns that preclude them from wanting to be vaccinated. And some of those I've heard from people, and I say, oh, yeah, kind

of get that. I kind of understand that. Yeah, let's move on, though, I do want to talk about we had mentioned a little earlier, Nikki. I think Dave might have thrown something out there talking about the championship level the Cowboys. Getting back to that championship level of the nineties, and Jarry was asking about that yesterday, and it actually it spun off into a thought that that Nick, I

think you were making or Dave you were making next. Okay, So basically what happened was Jarry's asked about and you get back to the nineties days, and the first thing you mentioned was, well, first thing, can you give me another Charles Haley? And then he went on and he said, okay, and you know that Dion Sanders, I'll take another one to him too. And by the way, absolutely great players, Hall of Fame players, some of the best to do

it at their positions. For what they did, I think you'd be I think it's a fair statement to say Charles Haley is one of the best pass rushers in the history of the NFL. And I think it's fair to say Deon Sanders may be the very best cornerback in the history of the NFL. Coach prime, careful, coach prime here. I can't call him Deon anymore in particular about that. That's what I've heard. Well, he can come and talk to me about that if he has a problem with it. But anyway, those two things I get

all that. But my question for you is do you think the Cowboys have done all that they can do in order to get that caliber of player, because those are both free agent signings. Have they done all they can? Know? They haven't at all. CJ good one, I think was their best free agent signing this year. No offense to him, crazy, he takes a good specialties player exactly he is. He's like, no, I'm very special he is. But to like try to even jokingly, but like it's a great you know, but

the huge step and that was a great signing. It was that was good. That was their best one. That that's what they do. They have taken a different approach to this. They they were they were going to get those guys, uh, you know, Don and Charles Haley. And now last year they signed a bunch of names. That's all they were were names former first rounders, Don Tari Poe ha ha. I mean, you know we knew who

was laughing at the end of all that. And that's that's the fans that don't like the Cowboys and Mills are from really bad. But they're not making splashes. They don't do that in free agency. They haven't gone to do that. They haven't gone all in to do that kind of stuff. So there's no way you're going to get a d on Charles Haley those type of guys

in free agency, because that's not their approach. That is, it's ironic with and I'm young, I'm sorry, Like they Charles Haley was a trade, right, so they took a big swing to get Charles. And then how many times have we heard the story Stephen Jones was so incensed at what Jerry wanted to pay Dion to get him here that they like thought he pushed him up against that, like that's it's like, are you crazy? It turned out? It turned out, it turned out great. But I'm what,

when have the Cowboys done something like that. I've been here. This is year nine, by the way, I still think of myself as the new guy, and it's just not true anymore, and they haven't done anything like that in the whole time I've been here. But in all fairness, I think they would probably say we took shots they didn't work out there, took shots at Galliwae, they took shots at Roy Williams, who they thought were great players. It didn't work out. Those things happened like twenty years ago.

I get that I'm saying, but the ones that Greg Hardy was close. But listen to point. My point is that doing those things back back to back in the early two thousands, late nineties, maybe that made them say, I don't know if we can keep doing this right, we can't. Maybe it's not the same day as us being able to get it Charles Haley, us being able to get a Dion Sanders. We just like, that's not

working for us. We got to do something a little steadier than doing that and then screwing ourselves for years after that because it doesn't work out right but right. But I mean, that's what I'm saying though, that you can't You can't say every morning that I hope I win the lottery and you don't ever play. That's what happens. People say, God, if I win the lottery one day, it's like, have you ever bought a scratch off ticket? Like no, not really, so you're not gonna win. They

don't knock on your door. It's not publisher's clearinghouse. And that doesn't work that still, I don't know even if it does, I think you had to sign up for something to get the guy coming in here and the bottom I was sorry, go ahead, photo, that's gotta be ready for the right the crushers coming by. Bone crusher. Um, I don't even where we were talking about, just oh oh,

the drafts. I mean, that's just not the approach. The approach isn't to go and get that guy and so they can luck into it and they're always looking for bargains. I think one of the best free agent signings that they've had since I was here. I've been here twenty something years, Leroy Glover. Even Leroy Glover was a two week into free agency, his number went down, they went and they got him, you know, trying to be a

phenomenal player. I mean Brandon car so much Saints fan Dave, Yeah, yeah, I would imagine, you know, they went out and made a splash for Brandon car That's what that's one of the that's one of the few that they've gone, you know, right off the start of free agency. And Brandon Carr was a good player. He was a good player. People remember for Odell making a ridiculous catch around him, by the fact that he didn't get interceptions or whatever. He

was a good player. He's an outstanding person in the community and all that. No one cares about that, but they they cared about him making plays and all that, and he was just he was Okay, it really wasn't worth the ten million a year. They tried, they put it out there. But again, those are those a kind of things that maybe make them say, we have tried, it just didn't we didn't get the result. That's that's fine, and and you know what, and it comes with the dinner.

We love to say that, like Jerry Jones has a lot of great things going for him. He's he runs the Dallas Cowboys. He's got a boatload of money, he's got an actual boats. I mean, he gets to be like he you know, he's the most powerful owner in

the NFL. But the one bad thing of all of that is until he gets back to the mountaintop that it's just you're gonna get anytime you say anything like that, you're gonna get dogged because generations, like how many generations of Cowboy fans now are just rolling their eyes at this point saying like, yeah, we hear this every July and that's just that's just the story. That's just what it's gonna be. Until you do it. Hey, it wouldn't matter.

They could have gone out, they could have gotten Earl Thomas, and if they still had the same results, people be like, well, yeah, you're stupid. You should have known Earl Thomas was washed up. So it's just you're it's not damned if you do and damned if you don't. Well it is, you're but you're just damned until you do it. It's the result doesn't.

But that's okay though, I mean, like you wouldn't really want to be the way you could roll your eyes and say, I've heard this before, but I mean think about it, like like even for us working stuff like that, everybody's even if they know you guys know how I am or how you are. You know, like I'll get mad about the stupidest stuff, right, the little things that have it'll it'll annoy me the day that stops annoying me, and get me out of here. Get me out of here.

If I stop caring, then then it's over. And that's the thing. If Jared didn't keep that thing that's saying, if if he comes to train camp one year and said, you know, I don't I don't know, I don't know William, I don't know, it's gonna be kind of tough this year. Then you know, maybe it's like, all right, this this isn't time, which is ironic because one of the best seasons, one of the years memories. I knew you were gonna say that. Jerry was like, we got an uphill battle,

that's probably not gonna be a very good team. And then thirteen and three, No. Twelve and four, twenty fourteen, Romo could have been MVP and just a great year all around. So maybe he should try to help man, Like I said, it's he did say is the most challenges they've ever faced before entering a season. I don't know if he said, yeah, yeah, no, that was protocol

stuff or whatever. Probably a little bit of everything, yeah, find everything, But I would I would suspect that's you know, it's hard for me to think that anything was worse than or harder than last year. Like last year probably was the hardest that any of us, including the team, including the coaches, have ever experienced. It for me of doing your job here in the inn, and yeah, I

just it reminded, you know, we live in Dallas. I know not everybody listening does, but you know, the Mavericks are kind of in a similar situation where they have a very hands on owner and everybody's stressed out about how Mark Cuban's gonna handle putting a good team around Luca, And it's Mark cuban Or problem. Does he talk too much and for like drive people away? Like It's very

similar for Jerry Jones. And I've always said, give me the guy who cares too much over the guy who's just using this as a way to make money and have a tax right off, Like, give me, give me Jerry Jones every single time in terms of like, I want the owner that wants to win as much as I do. But at the same time, you're gonna get criticized until you get the results. It's just it just is what it is. Parted And at this point, is it twenty six years now, I don't even know it's

twenty five, twenty six, Yeah, something like that. With the best intentions doesn't matter. Whatever you say is just gonna get an eye roll at this point, You're just the fans are just gonna roll their eyes until you proved that they shouldn't. It is what it is. We're gonna take a final break when we come back from that break, we're gonna jump a little bit farther into this nineties conversation. He said there were there were some things that he's

pointed out. No, no, no no, not talk football. No, we al gon'n talk abouba were gonna talk about from the standpoint of reasons why they are optimistic that this year it could be a year that they could get back to some level of of of success in the NFL. We're gonna go through those and you guys are gonna rate them for so Den we come right back. This

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the break. We're lifem Oxnard, California. Just you guys are aware today at ten am, and actually this is gonna be most days while we're out here to camp, Coach McCarthy will have his daily press conference. That'll be You can catch it live on all of our channels from Dallas Cowboys dot com, Cowboys Mobile are Connected TV app on rokup, Amazon Fire, and Apple TV, as well as on our social channel, so it'll be everywhere and you

can check it out that they're coming up today. We might have a little bit of a little bit of news there. Nick, you're hearing some things well, I mean this is the time where they first press commers. They're gonna announce some injury. You know, a designation's pup physically unable to perform. It's an active pup list, which means it's not the list that they'll be out for six games or something like that. They can always like count to the ninety man roster. They're not going to be

able to practice until they're healthy. Then they get off the pups. So there's gonna be some names like that, guys that are coming off some injuries, some surgeries. I think Amari Cooper will be in there. D law Um didn't really hear a lot in the summer about Greg Zirline, but I think Greg Zerline is dealing with a back injury. It's going to keep him on there. Which you know, there's a lot there's backups at receiver, in defensive line. There's not a backup. Kick gonna say that's yeah, that's

so yeah, looking for a hunter. Nice wonder to be doing some of that. Um, he can do everything, kickoff, punt and all that. Um, we'll see if he's a jack of all trades, master of none, or he can be a jack of all trades everything. So that's wonderful to battle with with anger for the pun and all of a sudden he has to kick off and who's holding anger? I don't you know, Like I don't know. I mean, it's gonna be interesting to how that how

that plays in. And I guess we'll see on the severity of it, because I mean, people get worked up about pup and training camp, but like and and sometimes it is serious. But sometimes you're on it for like four days, Like they just don't want you out there until you're ready. Sometimes it's because you're out Yeah, exactly,

you have the yesterday they had. They're they're testing where they kind of figure out where everybody is physically, and so you might come out of that and there may be some things they're like, get him some work with the trainers, just just kind of getting him in shape, and then we'll put him out on the field. But if it is serious with zirline, again, you know, I don't I don't care. If Amari Cooper's practicing, he's fine,

he'll be good to go. And there's eight other receivers, but Zeroline, you only have one kicker, and they also have a roster spot right now. They waved a receiver when we got here, or like the day we left, and so I wonder if they would bring a guy in to help with that, because that's awesome that Hunter can do everything, but probably don't want him to, yeah, or maybe want to see what somebody else can do. I don't know, that's interesting, zirline. He's been in the

league for a while. If he's a too, yeah, he's he's an older guy. I guess he's thirty three. Yeah, that just you know. I've said this before on this show, and it was typically we were talking about offensive lineman. But I get really nervous when when players start having back issues because it's that's not something that necessarily, necessarily, I'm gonna say, gets better over time. Even if you get you know, whatever you're going to get done to it,

it doesn't necessarily get better over time. And so that's something worth keeping an eye on. If he's starting the starting on pup and and uh, you know, just seeing where that all develop, seeing what there they think the prognos is, and I think we also should follow the t leaves they start bringing in guys. Oh yeah, then you really start wondering kind of what's the long term

just the Uh this is important to note too. And I don't know how many practices are going to be unpadded, because that's it's a normal total of thirteen practices and the first padded practices next Wednesday, the twenty eight. So they have a practice today, Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, So they're four practices that are unpadded. Back in the Garrett tenure, it was normal to do two unpadded just to kind of get everybody acclimated. It's gonna be more than that.

And so that's not a league because I know, no, no, no, it's it's not. I just I designated it by Garrick upcake care. Now it's a league rules, right. Yeah. But the point is we're gonna have a much longer wait, We're gonna have a much longer way than we're used

to for the real deal. And so I'm even less worried than I normally would be about this and one of these injuries I bet is actually significant just playing the numbers, but I'm not gonna sweat about it until we have a chance to see some practices and see what's going on. Okay, we will also u and I think that the conversation we were going to get into is going to be a little bit deeper than the

four men said. We have little stuff, so we'll say that, but I do want to give everybody an idea of what they can expect during the time that we're your training camp. We will be doing a podcast like this one every morning at nine am Pacific time, that's eleven am back Central time. It will alternate between our group and Talking Cowboys. Talking Cowboys with Kyle Yeomans will host

that show with Rob Phillips and with Mickey Spagnola. We will also in the afternoons or actually it's afternoon back in Dallas, will be ten thirty here after Coach McCarthy's press conference. Every day, we will have two shows that are that will also be alternating. We'll have Players Lounge and we will also have Hanging with the Boys. Those two will alternate at ten thirty Pacific time every day.

Monday through Friday, and then in the afternoon, we have a new show we'll be rolling out for you guys at three pm. It'll be a show about practice. It'll only happen on days that there is practice, and it will be a recap of what the sights and sounds were at practice, the guys that played well, any highlight moments, anythings that may have gone wrong for the team during

those practices. But that's kind of the layout of the type of content we're gonna be putting out for you guys from a podcast standpoint here every day on Dallas Cowboys dot Com and all of our channels. So we're gonna wrap this thing up. We will be back with you again our crew on Saturday. We will talk a lot about some more things that we have from that opening press conference that we didn't get a chance to get to today until then. For Gateman and Dave Helmet,

I'm Derek Eagleton. This has been the Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.