It's officially Divisional Round week but the Dallas Cowboys, who didn't come close to making the playoffs, are threatening to take over the headlines. Cowboys GM Jerry Jones decided to wait for a week until after Black Monday to make the decision to fire Mike McCarthy on Monday afternoon. McCarthy's contract ended this weekend and the franchise has an exclusive negotiation window until Jan. 14 to get an extension done.
Both parties seemingly decided it was best to part ways, making Dallas the sixth team to advertise a head coach vacancy after the Chicago Bears, New Orleans Saints, New York Jets, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Las Vegas Raiders.
Jerry Jones is clearly wasting no time in filling that vacancy. The Cowboys GM reached out to arguably the most popular man in college football to fill the seat - Deion Sanders. 'Coach Prime' was linked with the Cowboys all season long and speculation has only mounted overnight since Jones made an overture for the Colorado Buffaloes head coach.
While Cowboys fans are running away with the idea that Sanders will coach the team in 2025, New York Jets GM hopeful Louis Riddick served up a reality check over what that proposition could look like. During an appearance on ESPN's Get Up, Riddick said:
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“There’s the business, then there’s the profession. From the business standpoint, this has a lot of people excited. And I get it. These are two of the biggest personalities in the history of American sports for obviously different reasons. I know Deion the professional as well as the businessman but I know him even more so as the professional.
"This is just not a match to me that makes a whole lot of sense. Deion is the ultimate alpha. He has his hands on every single part of the Colorado football team. He won’t have the same kind of influence in Dallas.”
What would it cost the Dallas Cowboys to prise Deion Sanders away from Boulder?
Like most coaches in college football, Deion Sanders has a buyout clause in his contract that would allow him to leave Colorado to coach in the National Football League. Per multiple reports, that buyout clause stands at a cool $8 million, $2 million lower than Bill Belichick's clause at the University of North Carolina.
Interestingly, Belichick was also strongly linked with the Dallas job before he signed on the dotted line at Chapel Hill.
Also Read: Deion Sanders receives former Cowboys WR's endorsement for HC following Mike McCarthy's exit
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