NFL News: Former Dallas Cowboys Player Accuses Jason Garrett Of Not Being Able To ‘Deal’ With People Of Color
The Dallas Cowboys have had a rather interesting offseason — with some free agent signings, some player losses, and even suspensions. Now, even more is going on. After being suspended again for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, defensive tackle David Irving announced his retirement from the league. Now, he’s spouting some strong words about Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett, and they’re quite scathing.
Irving’s suspension earlier this year was his third, and he apparently believed that it was time to call it quits instead of waiting to be reinstated again. Now, he’s been speaking with CBS Sports Radio, and he spoke on that topic — as well as on a number of other things regarding his former team.
Irving spoke with Damon Amendolara of CBS Sports and had a lot of interesting things to say about the Cowboys, the NFL, and his abrupt retirement from the league. As the interview went on, though, Irving got into speaking about Jason Garrett, and how the coach handles dealing with those around him.
While Irving didn’t go as far as to call Jason Garrett a racist, he did say that the Cowboys head coach has some issues dealing with people of color. His words are quite strong, and Irving went so far as to say that Garrett is the only person he’s never been able to get along with throughout his football career.
Irving let it be known that he and Garrett simply “have never really got along,” but he’s not the only one.
“It’s not just one person that doesn’t get along with him. It’s a lot of people. I feel like he needs to be more comfortable with people of color, to be honest with you. This is a league where there’s a lot of people of color around, and you’re going to have to deal with us. If you don’t know how to talk to us or relate to us – we just never got along. He’s the only person I haven’t gotten along with in pretty much all my career in football.”
It was at this point that Amendolara wanted things to be clarified by the former Cowboys defensive tackle. He wanted Irving to tell him if he believed it was a personal thing with Garrett, or if the coach simply had problems connecting with people of color on any level.
“I think it’s a little uncomfortable for him. Not to say the man’s racist. He’s definitely not racist. Do not get me wrong. It’s just maybe he’s socially awkward.”
David Irving played four seasons under the guidance of Jason Garrett, and he said that the coach wasn’t always happy with his performance. Irving said that “Garrett didn’t like that I didn’t work as hard as he wanted.”
Irving believes that mindset comes from Garrett always being a “second-hand man or the third-string guy” in football, and having to work harder to even get on the field. Irving feels as if Garrett didn’t like the fact that he could “roll out of bed with a hangover and go outperform anybody” when with the Dallas Cowboys.
Former #Cowboys DT David Irving tells me he thinks Jason Garrett is “uncomfortable with people of color.” I found Irving to be pretty insightful & thought-provoking during our 20-min conversation. pic.twitter.com/yu2gdoXMrm
— Damon Amendolara (@DAonCBS) April 3, 2019
