Washington Football Team head coach Ron Rivera has responded to Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy’s guarantee.
McCarthy said “We’re going to win this game. I’m confident in that” to Dallas media on Thursday.
Rivera responded by telling Washington media executive Julie Donaldson, McCarthy’s guarantee was a “big mistake” and that it sounds like McCarthy is “trying to convince his team” they could win.
I think that’s the big mistake because as far as I’m concerned, you know you do that for a couple of reasons. One is you want to get in our head, and so I’ve told our players ‘that’s interesting it’s not important, what’s important is our preparation getting ready to play on Sunday.’ Secondly, he’s trying to convince his team, you know, so again I think that’s another mistake because he’s made it about him and what he said. It’s not about his players anymore so I think that’s a big mistake. That’s why to me you don’t do those things, what you do is focus in on, get ready and you play football. We’ll show up on Sunday and see what happens.
On Friday, McCarthy was made aware of Rivera’s response and McCarthy clapped back once again.
“It’s irrelevant what anybody thinks about what I said,” McCarthy said per Jon Mochata of The Athletic. “I was talking about my team. I always coach my own team. That’s where I’m at with it. We have great confidence in what we’re trying to do. It was an honest answer to a question from a great group of people.”
The back-and-forth continued later in the day when Rivera was asked again by Washington media about McCarthy’s guarantee of a win.
“I don’t put a lot of value [in it],” Rivera responded per ESPN’s John Keim. “We don’t line up and play, it’s the players so I stay out of that portion of it…. You never know until the game is done. We’ll show up and play; we’ll play hard and see how things go.”
Neither coach is wrong in their assessments. McCarthy should feel confident in his team’s chances to win. Like he added on Thursday, what else is he supposed to say?
A coach’s job is to prepare his team to win a game regardless of circumstances. In this case the cowboys are the more talented team.
Still, hearing an opposing coach spit out a guarantee is nothing more than bulletin board material for Rivera. Rivera’s public responses were a quiet storm. But rest assured, his spill to his team about McCarthy’s guarantee had a lot more venom to fire up his players.
One thing is certain. The trade of words between coaches only intensifies the heated rivalry between Washington and the Cowboys.
