‘Carpe omnia’: McCarthy, Cowboys look to seize everything in 2023

From @ToddBrock24f7: McCarthy’s powerful theme for the 2023 season comes with a visual reminder that players will find themselves face-to-face with each day.

Mike McCarthy has selected a different theme for each of his seasons with the Cowboys, a word or phrase that serves as the unifying message for the team, a rallying cry for the upcoming season, a mantra meant to guide and dictate the way everyone in the building goes about their particular bit of football business.

In his first season, it was “20/20 vision.” The following year, it was simply “victory.” Last season was the year of “resilience” and came with a brief primer on the Japanese art of kintsugi, a pottery technique that repairs broken pieces in a way that makes them stronger and more valuable for the damage.

This year, the coach is giving his troops a crash course in Latin.

“The theme is ‘Carpe omnia,'” McCarthy revealed to reporters during a Wednesday press conference. “‘Seize everything.’ I presented it to the team today.”

McCarthy knows that to truly resonate with the men in the locker room, the theme needs to be more than just a slogan on a T-shirt.

“I think themes are important,” the coach explained. “I think it needs to illustrate where you think your football team is at, where they are in their progression toward winning a championship. It’s very, very difficult to win a Super Bowl in this league- no question about it; it’s proven each and every year- but sustaining success, I think, personally in my experience, is a bigger challenge.”

Indeed, another 12-5 regular-season finish and early playoff exit isn’t going to satisfy Cowboys fans, players, or ownership. One gets the sense that there could be massive changes coming if the team fails to capitalize yet again as one of the three best teams in a largely mediocre NFC.

It’s all in front of the Cowboys this season, just waiting to be grabbed.

But McCarthy has made sure there’s a constant visual representation of the theme, too: a tangible, physical reminder that the players can’t help but come face-to-face with every single day for the next four-plus months.

“Giving them a touchstone to connect with,” he told media members. “Carpe, ‘seize.’ Omnia, ‘everything’ is the way we’re looking at this season. We have an empty picture frame in the front of the team room to illustrate it. Pictures say a thousand words, but the reality of it is, an empty frame is everything because it’s all the possibilities, capabilities, what’s in front of us. Are we going to do what we need to do every single day, everything we can possibly do to fill that frame and be part of the history and tradition of the Dallas Cowboys?”

Surrounding that blank frame, not coincidentally, are the official team photos of the five previous Super Bowl-winning rosters.

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The statement may be in what’s considered a “dead language,” but the implied message couldn’t be more obvious, alive, and urgent to every man wearing the star.

Soon, we’ll see if McCarthy’s Latin lesson proves to be the words of wisdom that help secure a sixth crown for the Cowboys empire.

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