ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith said on Thursday's First Take that Cowboys coach Jason Garrett enjoys a "significant privilege," and is the "walking epitome of the angst and the frustration and the disgust that black coaches feel for not getting opportunities."
Smith discussed Garrett in response to Jerry Jones' comments after Dallas' win over the Washington Redskins on Monday night.
Jones told reporters after the game: "I am stunned that we haven't been able to win more games without Tony (Romo). And I would have thought that we could have coached it up enough, and put it together enough, that we would not have lost those games without Romo early. ... We won on will, not tactical mastery."
Smith said he wasn't joking when he began his comments.
"This is the most uncomfortable I've been talking about this, because I really don't want to start trouble," Smith said. "Jason Garrett is the walking epitome of the angst and the frustration and the disgust that black coaches feel for not getting opportunities."
Smith went on to discuss Garrett's past of going to Princeton and his playing career and how he developed a relationship with Jones.
"He's 6-3 as a starting quarterback. He gets the offensive coordinator job with Dallas eventually after being in the league, Tampa, Miami, other places as an assistant coach or whatever. This man was getting paid just as much as the head coach Wade Phillips. A coordinator getting paid $3 million a year. And whenever things happened it was never his fault. Jerry Jones pointed, Wade Phillips pointed, everybody had a problem but Jason Garrett-can't touch Mr. Teflon himself! I'm still trying to figure out how he's Teflon but you can't touch him.
"So Wade Phillips starts out 1-7. Jason Garrett finally gets the head coaching job. Fair enough. He goes 5-3 over the last eight games. Dallas finishes 6-10. What happens thereafter? 8-8, not once, not twice, but three times in a row. And all three times it was the final regular season game which would have propelled the Dallas Cowboys into the playoffs and at least one of those times they were far more expected to have a better record than they actually had. Somehow, someway Jason Garrett still keeps his job.
"Then last year comes (the Cowboys won the NFC East with a 12-4 record). You want to call it coaching, go right ahead. But it also was, give the ball to DeMarco Murray 392 times. Let him touch the ball an additional (57) times out of catching passes. All total, 449 touches for DeMarco Murray combined with the MVP-caliber year that Tony Romo had and somehow, someway Jason Garrett gets credit for this.
"But they lose seven straight when Tony Romo goes down this year. And we're talking about everybody else. We're talking about Greg Hardy. We're talking about Randy Gregory getting suspended. We're talking about Orlando Scandrick getting injured. We're talking about Romo going down. We're talking about Dez Bryant and when he's going to be ready. We're talking about DeMarco Murray and how he went to Philly. We're talking about everybody but Jason Garrett. Coach Herm Edwards would have been fired. I'm not just talking about Herm Edwards and I'm not just talking about black coaches. I can name you at least 20 coaches regardless of ethnicity that would have lost their job had they done the job that Jason Garrett has done.
"When you sit up here as an African-American in this nation, what you're after is fairness. You just want the curtain to fall, you want the proverbial glass ceiling to disappear. You want to know that it's the closest thing to a meritocracy as you can find.
".... We understand that Tony Romo is important. The quarterback position is important. You can't lose, but how in God's name do you go 0-7? 0-7? You can't win a couple of games? Anybody else would have been fired. But somehow Jason Garrett keeps his job. You know why he's got his job? Because the owner loves him."
"All I'm saying to you is that, what's another person supposed to do with that? It's not about my credentials. It's not about my education. It's not about what I've accomplished. It's not about what I know. 'Oh, I'm friends with the owner who's like a father to me, so I get to keep my job.' I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but it is rare in America that a black man has that luxury. And that is the problem. Jason Garrett is the walking epitome of the frustration and the disgust and the unfairness and the proverbial glass ceiling that black folks continuously allude to that never come their way. It's a damn shame that this man is the head coach of this team, considering nothing but his record."
