Jason Garrett Shares The Real Story Behind Getting The Cowboys Job | 01/19/23

take us through the interviewing process when you got the Cowboys job so when you get off the plane then what happens like take us through the steps of how many interviews how many people are you selling yourself to Jerry Jones my philosophy of the franchise this is what I see this is the you know the crystal ball do you want the real story Dan yeah yeah yeah uh it's a really good story it's a long story um you know I was coaching with the Miami Dolphins at the time I just finished playing and then Nick Saban became the head coach there and uh and so I was a quarterback with the dolphins my last year for the last part of the season and a couple weeks later I became their quarterback coach and I did that for a couple years then Coach Saban Went to went to Alabama and uh Cam Cameron was hired as the Dolphins head coach and I wasn't going to be there but I was still with them but I was under contract so I was going to kind of see what the potential options were maybe in college football um and just kind of play it out a little bit so I go to the I go to the Senior Bowl wearing my Miami Dolphins gear and and Coach Parcells retires from the Cowboys uh on Monday of that week so I'm at the Senior Bowl on Tuesday and I'm at practice and I get a phone call and uh it's uh you know some people from the Dolphins saying that the Cowboys want to visit with me about this job and uh you know Wayne hizanga was the owner of the of the Dolphins at the time and he and Jerry Jones obviously have a relationship and and they talked and uh Jerry had explained to him that you know I had been a player for the Cowboys for eight years and that had been a big part of my life before and he'd love to have a visit with me even though I was under contract and so the the deal was you have until 12 noon on Thursday you have this window to talk and figure something out so I kind of get all my stuff together and I leave early Wednesday morning to to go from Mobile Alabama to Dallas and it was kind of a surreal experience I think the flight was was literally at six A.M and and I get to the airport early and there had been a WWE event in Mobile the night before so so I'm I'm on this little plane uh from Mobile to Dallas with all these professional wrestlers and uh so I'm in line with these guys I'm like who are you guys oh yeah we had this big event the night before and you know these CL I mean there were like 10 of them you know men and women it was like the crazy you know it was dark and Misty out I'm like where am I right now what am I doing and uh so anyway I got my Dolphins gear on and I'm heading to Dallas and I get there early I get there like eight o'clock in the morning and I go over to Valley Ranch the old facility and and uh I just spent the day with Jerry and Steven and uh and we just talked all about kind of what the idea would be now you got to remember that the Cowboys didn't have a head coach so it was you know I'm two years into coaching so you know what is this for is this for the head coach is this for a coordinator position you know why are we talking so we kind of explained all of that and and you know what my philosophy would be and how I would build a program and and everything and so it went on all day long and I've known Jerry for years and Stephen for years but we just spent a lot of time together uh that day and it ended up at like two o'clock in the morning at this place Al bernay's in Dallas which is kind of this famous steak place in the back just listening to uh Stephen and Jerry and us having a great conversation and and when you when you play it back I'd probably gotten up at three o'clock in the morning in Mobile and now it's about two o'clock so I've been up for about 23 straight hours talking philosophy and were you offered a job at the steakhouse what's that were you offered the job at the steakhouse no uh Stephen told me later the stamina that I had that day was really impressive to Jerry when did they offer you the job uh I can't remember you know we talked about it the next day and and and and eventually we said hey don't leave we're gonna figure something out here wow and uh and so before 12 noon on Thursday which was the deadline we decided that I was going to stay in Dallas in some capacity did you ever think that maybe it was too much for you too soon after your playing career with not having a long coaching history well it certainly happened fast there's no question about that um but but I had been in football for a long time and I was fortunate to be around really good people and eventually I'd be I was named the offensive coordinator and you rely on your experiences with North Turner and Ernie zampizzi and Sean Payton and John Gruden and and a lot of those guys that I was fortunate to be around and uh you know you dive in you know when you get when you've got your first job at ESPN you probably weren't ready you dive in you figure it out you make your mistakes you keep going and that's what we did