FRISCO, TX — It's a new season for the Dallas Cowboys and that means it's time for a new mantra they hope will define the success of the season. The team has seen more than a few as of late, from Finish the Fight to Carpe Omnia, but head coach Mike McCarthy is going in a different direction entirely for the 2024 season.
The theme this time around?
Rooted.
The word carries a lot of weight in the mind and career of McCarthy, who ties it directly into things he learned from his blue-collar father.
"It's based on the foundation we've built here over five years," he said. "I got good advice from my father about living your life in five-year increments, and what you can learn in that time and space to not do too much too fast. It's more of a life lesson. We're in the fifth year of what we've done and what we have to build off of as part of the root system that's in place here.
"… Staying in the present and staying where your feet are … It was his advice to me early in my coaching career."
There is also another angle of the term "Rooted" that McCarthy felt fits perfectly this year in Dallas, and that's tied to a specific Chinese bamboo tree that requires its seeds be watered for four years without the reward of growth until the fifth year — when the tree not only begins to finally sprout, but explosively, growing at a pace of upwards of one inch every 40 minutes, upwards of three feet per day to a height of nearly 90 feet in a month's time.
This is McCarthy's fifth year with the Cowboys, by the way.
And so as they begin to ratchet up preparation for the Cleveland Browns in the season opener, it's clear that's all the Cowboys are focused on: one game. McCarthy noted his 21-game plan for Dallas and that doesn't mean he's looking ahead to the 21st game, e.g., the Super Bowl.
Instead, he's looking only at Cleveland, having watered this team for four years now.
