News broke on Thursday that the Dallas Cowboys had parted ways with longtime head coach Jason Garrett, but the team shut those rumors down. Sunday night, however, the decision was made official. Jay Glazer of FOX Sports revealed that the Cowboys have indeed informed Garrett that he is no longer the head coach of the team.
Breaking News from @JayGlazer:
The Cowboys have officially informed Jason Garrett he is out as head coach. pic.twitter.com/DRJiTuNHoB
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) January 5, 2020
With Glazer releasing the news on Twitter, there was skepticism from many fans on social media, but both Adam Schefter of ESPN and Ian Rapoport of NFL Network confirmed the decision. Garrett’s tenure will indeed come to an end after nine full seasons and another eight games as the interim coach, a span of time in which he achieved a win-loss record of 85-67.
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With this news, the fans of the Cowboys finally had the answer to their long-awaited question. Some responded to the news with multiple animated GIFs depicting celebrations. Others simply posted “let’s go!!!” on Twitter. Although some simply laughed about the timing of the decision considering that the rival Philadelphia Eagles were in the middle of a playoff game when the news broke.
“What a way to do it in the middle of a rival playoff game,” one user wrote. Others voiced the opinion that Jerry Jones did this to take headlines away from the Eagles.
Of course, that relief was quickly replaced by other concerns about the replacement. Early in December, the belief was that the Cowboys would pursue a young, exciting prospect such as Lincoln Riley of Oklahoma. However, that situation changed when Jones interviewed former Packers head coach Mike McCarthy and former Bengals coach Marvin Lewis.
Since Jones bought the team in 1989, he has now seen seven head coaches come and go after firing Garrett on Sunday evening. Of this group, only Wade Phillips was fired midway through a season. Jones made this surprising move in 2010 after a 1-7 start and a 45-7 loss to the Green Bay Packers. Garrett took over as the interim coach and was promoted following the season.
While Garrett had success during the regular season, his fate was sealed when the Cowboys were eliminated from playoff contention in week 17. The expectation was that the Super Bowl was the final destination of this season, but Dallas missed out while the Eagles moved into the postseason.
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