Doomsday101
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 107,762
- Reaction score
- 39,034
SAN ANTONIO - Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and head coach Wade Phillips held a training camp-opening press conference just outside the Alamodome in the Ford Tent on Tuesday, and here are a few of their answers from the hour-long session.
WADE PHILLIPS
What are your expectations of Terrell Owens during this year's training camp?
Wade Phillips: I expect all our players to have a good camp. Our Pro Bowl-type players, I always expect them to do well. So him with the rest of our guys, you can't foresee injuries certainly, but like I said, I think it helps working indoors. We're not going to work two, two-a-day practices in a row where we wear them down and then they pull a muscle. There is still always a chance for injuries but I expect all of our guys to have a good attitude and to really do well and be ready to play that first preseason game.
Why do you think you're going to be successful here compared with your head coaching positions in the past?
Wade Phillips: Coaching-wise, you do all you can do. I'm proud of what I did before. I'm proud of my record in the league. I think I can do more. I'm given the opportunity and I appreciate it from Jerry to give me the opportunity to be able to coach and be a head coach in the league - not only a head coach but a head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, a team that was in the playoffs last year. So it's a unique opportunity for me and it's also being home with family, which is important to me. But I think I can make my mark in the league. Like I told Jerry in the interview, I will go down surely as a really great defensive coordinator. I don't really think anybody will say any different. If my career was over last year that's what they would have said, but I would like to go down as a great head coach in the league, and he gave me that opportunity, and I'm going to do it for him.
Watching from afar last year, what do you think Tony Romo has to do this year to get past what happened in last year's playoff game?
Wade Phillips: I hope Tony's through that already. Again, he wasn't the quarterback at the time. He was only the holder. And he's not going to be playing that. He's the ex-holder now. That couldn't happen to him again. He's the guy that got them down there in position at quarterback to be able to win the game. I don't think he should look back at it except, "Yeah, I botched a play as a holder and that's it.' Now if he's botching plays as a quarterback then that would be more devastating on him.
JERRY JONES
Phillips joked that it sounds like this team shouldn't lose a game. How close are the Cowboys to becoming dominant?
Jerry Jones: Well, I'm going to be a realist. I know that you've got 31 other clubs, some of them starting today, thinking pretty highly of their chances. Pete Rozelle told me one time that every owner he talks to this time of year is one player away, and may have him from getting to the Super Bowl. So I want to be a realist. I must tell you that as I've started a season before I've known that we have more issues than when we've started other seasons. And I think we have every right to think, though, that we will be a better team than we were last year.
What are you worried about heading into this training camp?
Jerry Jones: "I said yesterday, health. I didn't know you could have a football season and have as good of health as we had last year. If we could have that kind of health and be that fortunate . . . To me when I look at teams that were supposed to have gotten there that didn't, that is always maybe (number) two or three of why they didn't get there, they lost. Now of course we lost Greg, but still it was phenomenal, our health. And frankly at the risk of going by a lot of hard work and some very important things, I think that we need to have some good, sound quarterbacking play. We need to have some good decisions there. I am excited about it because I feel like I know that Tony can make those decisions, but if we can have a good decision-maker there then those are the things that might make me keep from standing up here and be a little more aggressive with my prediction."
Why are you so optimistic?
Jerry Jones: You are what you are. And I couldn't do it without being an optimist. I think because you're what you are, that an optimistic attitude literally, tangibly makes things happen. I think a negative attitude can tangibly make some things happen. I think it could. I think it can affect that. So by nature I come out of the shower optimistic. I go in that shower sometimes so low, lower than a crippled cricket's butt. Now all I'm trying to say to you is that it is not natural to be optimistic all the time. I work on that. I really work on that real hard. So I do it to help maybe things move along."
WADE PHILLIPS
What are your expectations of Terrell Owens during this year's training camp?
Wade Phillips: I expect all our players to have a good camp. Our Pro Bowl-type players, I always expect them to do well. So him with the rest of our guys, you can't foresee injuries certainly, but like I said, I think it helps working indoors. We're not going to work two, two-a-day practices in a row where we wear them down and then they pull a muscle. There is still always a chance for injuries but I expect all of our guys to have a good attitude and to really do well and be ready to play that first preseason game.
Why do you think you're going to be successful here compared with your head coaching positions in the past?
Wade Phillips: Coaching-wise, you do all you can do. I'm proud of what I did before. I'm proud of my record in the league. I think I can do more. I'm given the opportunity and I appreciate it from Jerry to give me the opportunity to be able to coach and be a head coach in the league - not only a head coach but a head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, a team that was in the playoffs last year. So it's a unique opportunity for me and it's also being home with family, which is important to me. But I think I can make my mark in the league. Like I told Jerry in the interview, I will go down surely as a really great defensive coordinator. I don't really think anybody will say any different. If my career was over last year that's what they would have said, but I would like to go down as a great head coach in the league, and he gave me that opportunity, and I'm going to do it for him.
Watching from afar last year, what do you think Tony Romo has to do this year to get past what happened in last year's playoff game?
Wade Phillips: I hope Tony's through that already. Again, he wasn't the quarterback at the time. He was only the holder. And he's not going to be playing that. He's the ex-holder now. That couldn't happen to him again. He's the guy that got them down there in position at quarterback to be able to win the game. I don't think he should look back at it except, "Yeah, I botched a play as a holder and that's it.' Now if he's botching plays as a quarterback then that would be more devastating on him.
JERRY JONES
Phillips joked that it sounds like this team shouldn't lose a game. How close are the Cowboys to becoming dominant?
Jerry Jones: Well, I'm going to be a realist. I know that you've got 31 other clubs, some of them starting today, thinking pretty highly of their chances. Pete Rozelle told me one time that every owner he talks to this time of year is one player away, and may have him from getting to the Super Bowl. So I want to be a realist. I must tell you that as I've started a season before I've known that we have more issues than when we've started other seasons. And I think we have every right to think, though, that we will be a better team than we were last year.
What are you worried about heading into this training camp?
Jerry Jones: "I said yesterday, health. I didn't know you could have a football season and have as good of health as we had last year. If we could have that kind of health and be that fortunate . . . To me when I look at teams that were supposed to have gotten there that didn't, that is always maybe (number) two or three of why they didn't get there, they lost. Now of course we lost Greg, but still it was phenomenal, our health. And frankly at the risk of going by a lot of hard work and some very important things, I think that we need to have some good, sound quarterbacking play. We need to have some good decisions there. I am excited about it because I feel like I know that Tony can make those decisions, but if we can have a good decision-maker there then those are the things that might make me keep from standing up here and be a little more aggressive with my prediction."
Why are you so optimistic?
Jerry Jones: You are what you are. And I couldn't do it without being an optimist. I think because you're what you are, that an optimistic attitude literally, tangibly makes things happen. I think a negative attitude can tangibly make some things happen. I think it could. I think it can affect that. So by nature I come out of the shower optimistic. I go in that shower sometimes so low, lower than a crippled cricket's butt. Now all I'm trying to say to you is that it is not natural to be optimistic all the time. I work on that. I really work on that real hard. So I do it to help maybe things move along."