McCarthy eager to ‘be more genuine’ leading up to Cowboys’ opener with ‘Hard Knocks’ crew gone

The Dallas head coach joked about the HBO cameras being absent on Friday, wanting to protect the team’s ‘competitive advantage.’ | From @ToddBrock24f7

Mike McCarthy stepped to the lectern for his Friday press conference, and took a quick, slightly puzzled glance around the room of reporters.

“Is somebody missing here?” the Cowboys head coach asked.

“No Hard Knocks,” someone pointed out helpfully.

McCarthy flashed a knowing grin and gave a double-finger point.

Bingo. Cue the laughter.

The coach had gotten them. Hook, line, and sinker.

The Cowboys skipper was clearly happy to have the ship back under his sole command, without the distraction of a camera crew and live microphones underfoot. The teams from HBO and NFL Films have pulled out of The Star in Frisco, having collected all the footage necessary to put together the season finale, which will air Tuesday night.

With less than a week to go before the season opener against the defending champs, McCarthy said that the crew’s absence allows show business to finally take a backseat to the business of football around the facility.

“I would say it gives you a chance to be more genuine,” he told the media members assembled. “I think a lot of things we do in life, especially in professional sports and specific to the Dallas Cowboys, it’s about time and place. There are things you’re able to do and say in particular spaces that are important to the individuals in that space. And you clearly wouldn’t say it, probably, exactly how you would or maybe behave exactly how you would or respond exactly how you would. And I think it’s human nature if there’s 15 cameras in the room. I think we all understand that.”

McCarthy didn’t always seem comfortable in his scenes on-camera. He joked, for instance, about his address to the team- and more specifically, his abbreviated dance moves- in the most recent episode.

Now without the all-seeing cameras, McCarthy kidded that he’ll be able to, in his words, “Just bring it.”

A record third starring appearance on the HBO series brought a good deal of exposure to the Cowboys, something that seems hardly necessary for the league’s most valuable- and most visible- franchise. But team owner Jerry Jones never met a public relations opportunity he didn’t fully embrace.

But McCarthy was well aware that having the inner workings of his team meetings, coaches’ conversations, and practice sessions broadcast to a primetime audience certainly had the potential to chip away at any competitive advantage the Cowboys might have coming into a season that has very high expectations.

This is, after all, the coach who had the numbers removed from his players’ jerseys before last year’s intrasquad scrimmage when he learned it would be broadcast live. And even then, no wide shots showing actual plays or formations were allowed to be shown.

Letting a camera crew embed with the team for the entirety of training camp couldn’t have been McCarthy’s idea of a good time. But the coach tried to put a bow on the ordeal Friday.

“I think the Hard Knocks experience was a good one. I thought they were very professional. I think we worked very well together. But it’s different having that in your space. And I just don’t think you get the maximum results out of a group dynamic activity and beliefs and conversations and interactions with that type of environment. As a coach, you’re always protective of your environment because of what you’re trying to develop.”

And now the environment around the Cowboys becomes maybe just a little less circus-like as McCarthy and his players try to develop a winning game plan for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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