The Dallas Cowboys are starting over with a new head coach yet again and one of the team's former stars believes Dan Quinn's success in Washington helped lead to the decision.

A less-charitable one, considering Dallas’ breadth of data on McCarthy’s performance and this season effectively being over since October, is this being the latest clumsy attempt at a football telenovela, with the plot twist—surprise, Mike is gone after all!—timed to drop the morning after two of Dallas’ NFC East rivals each won playoff games.

Dallas fell far short of expectations this year as losses and injuries piled up, with rumors swirling about McCarthy’s future with the franchise on a near-weekly basis. With the book now closed on a challenging 2024 season, McCarthy is focused on what’s ahead and what he hopes is a return to Dallas.