Louis Riddick says Deion Sanders wouldn’t work with the Cowboys considering the man who would be hiring him in Dallas.
Riddick gave his take on Sanders’ reported candidacy for the Cowboys’ head coaching job while on ‘Get Up’ on Tuesday. He gets why it’d be a huge publicity hire but doesn’t get how it would work for Coach Prime considering what he already has at the college level as compared to the usual issues that coaches deal with in Dallas that are unlike other gigs in the NFL.
“There’s the business and then there’s the profession. Look, from the business standpoint, this has a lot of people excited and I get it. I understand why. These are two of the biggest personalities in American sports, in the history of American sports for obviously different reasons. But then there’s the profession,” said Riddick. “See, I know Deion the professional as well as the businessman. But I know him even more so as the professional. This is just not a match to me that seems like it makes a whole lot of sense from a professional standpoint. Deion is the ultimate alpha – the ultimate alpha. He has his hands on every single part of the Colorado football team and of the Colorado football organization.”
“I can tell you this – I know what Deion values. Deion values culture, he values alignment. He values relationships, and he values trust. If I’m him and I’m objectively sitting back and I’m looking at this situation? Yeah, this would be great for business. You think Deion’s hurting for money? You think Deion needs to generate business? He don’t need to generate any business. The man is a walking corporation, you know, in and of itself,” Riddick continued. “He needs alignment. He needs a great situation. Now, you give him a great situation and a lot of money? Then you’re talking. I just don’t see the situation, though, that really suits what he’s looking for.”
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Of course, Riddick is referencing Jerry Jones. Jones, the team’s owner since 1989, has the franchise his way and, as such, makes it one of the more challenging teams to work with in the National Football League.
“He won’t have the same kind of influence in Dallas,” Riddick said. “We all know this. We talk about this on ‘Get Up’ every year. We understand what head coaches are up against when they’re going and working for Jerry Jones and working with the Dallas Cowboys. It’s a unique situation and a situation that probably, on its surface, looks a lot differently than it does once you get in it and once you’re kind of going through the motions every single day.”
Riddick continued that point later in the debate this morning on ESPN by asking what evidence there is that Jones would allow Sanders to do anything different than the other coaches during his 35-year tenure in Dallas.
“There’s been no indication whatsoever given by Jerry Jones that he’s willing to pivot and go in a different direction as far as, philosophically, how he wants to run his organization – none. As a matter of fact, he has dug his heels in even more,” continued Riddick. “He said, and I’m paraphrasing, but he said that he bought the team so he can run it, so he can be the boss, so he can be the figurehead, so he can be the guy who’s making all the decisions and that’s what comes with having billions of dollars and being able to do that.”
“Has he given you any indication that he’s willing to say, ‘Hey, you know what, Deion? I’ll let you sit with me and I’ll let you reevaluate every single aspect of the football operation and tweak it how you want it, tweak it how you did at Colorado, how you turned that morbid university, from a football program perspective, into someone now and into a program now that is doing millions and millions of viewers for every Saturday simply because you’re there, because you made them better,’” said Riddick. “He’s given no indication that he’s willing to allow someone like that to come in there and do that.”
It was obviously a huge conversation this morning on ‘Get Up’, with takes from several including those of Mike Greenberg and Jeff Saturday, following the reports on Monday that Jones and Sanders had spoken since the team had let Mike McCarthy walk as a free agent.
However, as for Sanders specifically, Dallas doesn’t seem like the job for him to Riddick, especially with the team owner from when he was a Cowboy himself there still in place today.
“Does that, to me, sound like a match for Deion? Look, I don’t want to speak for the man. You should never try to speak for the man. But I’ll speak from experience. It doesn’t seem like a good match for me,” said Riddick. “Could it be something that absolutely would light headlines on fire forever? Yeah, it would. But there’s a difference between the business and the profession and, professionally, I just don’t see this as being a match.”
