OXNARD, Calif. – Cowboys coach Jason Garrett has a unique perspective on tragedies that can affect an entire city – or even the entire world.
After all, Garrett was a quarterback for the New York Giants on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and had a first-hand view of those tragic events.
Similarly, Garrett was the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys at the time of the tragic police shootings on the night of July 7, 2016. At his afternoon press conference on Sunday, Garrett touched on the responsibility NFL clubs have to the cities they represent, as well as the impact of Saturday's ceremony with members of Dallas law enforcement.
"When you're part of these teams that are so important to these cities, there's a certain responsibility you feel above and beyond that you feel anyway," he said. "An expression we use with our team all the time is our goal is to build a football team that we're all proud to be a part of. When I say all I mean the people directly involved, ownership coaches, players, staff members -- but really anybody connected with the NFL, anybody who has an interest in the Dallas Cowboys. We want to build a team that we're all proud to be a part of. And we have a role in this city. We have a responsibility in this city. And we want to stay in our lane and do what we're supposed to do, but at the same time I do think being an example to everyone is really, really important. The message of yesterday was about unity and uniting and the message that we have every day here in the Cowboys organization is about team. And it's really the same message."
He added: "I think that concept of unity and uniting and team and being bound together is really, really important. And when you're trying to build a football team, when you're trying to build a community, build a country and a world, those are magic words and it's a magic concept and they're hard to achieve, but I think we all have to try to achieve them and I think we took a step in that direction yesterday with what the people in our organization and the city officials and the families did here out here in Oxnard."
-- David Helman
