Jerry Jones reacts to Mike McCarthy’s watermelon-smashing routine
Mike McCarthy pulled out all the stops in an outside-the-box effort to pump up the Dallas Cowboys before Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings. Given that the embattled head coach’s efforts were possibly successful given the Cowboys’ 31-28 victory, Jerry Jones found the wild bit delightful.
Word has surfaced since the Cowboys’ big win that McCarthy used a sledgehammer to smash watermelons on Saturday night during a team meeting. Comedy fans of a certain age undoubtedly know the routine was a nod to a bit stand-up legend Gallagher famously did back in the 1980s with his “Sledge-O-Matic.”
During his weekly appearance Tuesday morning on 105.3 The Fan, Jones relayed what he thought of McCarthy’s unique motivational methods.
RIGHT NOW on @1053TheFan — Jerry Jones says he was not in the room for Mike McCarthy’s motivational watermelon smashing speech and says he hasn’t seen the clean-up bill, “I’ll get it, for sure” #DallasCowboys pic.twitter.com/SUySJOXyXE
— (@TommySledge) November 24, 2020
#cowboys owner Jerry Jones was not in the room for the watermelon smashing & but laughed when Mike McCarthy said he forgot how much water was in a watermelon. Jones says he said it felt like the Gulf of Mexico was coming out of it. Didn’t get bill from hotel yet but says “I will”
— Jane Slater (@SlaterNFL) November 24, 2020
Mike McCarthy motivated the team Saturday by smashing watermelons with a sledgehammer.
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) November 24, 2020
McCarthy to Jerry Jones: “I (didn’t realize) how much water is in a watermelon.”
Jerry: “We both laughed. Then we thought about it, ‘Hell, there has to be a lot of water in a watermelon.’”
It is of course great that Jones could have himself a chuckle over McCarthy’s antics — not to mention the impending bill from the hotel — but imagine how embarrassing it would have been had the watermelon-smashing routine backfired in a hail of pulp and rind. Given how McCarthy was believed to be firmly placed on the hot seat in only his first season in Big D, such an act would have come across as hackneyed and desperate had the team lost.
For what it’s worth, McCarthy stressed that it’s “important to have fun” and the Gallagher tribute was “well received.” What’s more, Sunday’s win leaves the Cowboys at 3-7. While that record would most certainly doom most teams, the fact that Dallas resides in the historically atrocious NFC East means their postseason aspirations somehow remain alive.
