Stephen A. rants about the Cowboys: They 'fold like cheap tents...find ways to lose!' | First Take

first go with this team absolutely I think he should because it's not about what he needs it's about what they need like if if you know if you Zach Wilson you need to be out there for you you see I'm saying if you type Ryan Tannehill you need to be out there for you you know it's a few quarterbacks Russell Wilson after the year he had last year you need to be out there for you all right but Aaron Rodgers that's not the case the issue is Garrett Wilson you never played with him before McCall Hardman came out over from Kansas City you never played with him before yeah you played with Azad and Randall Cobb but you never played with those two dudes and your primary target is obviously your number one receiver that's that's gonna be Gary Wilson and so it's one thing to have that chemistry and cohesiveness in practice a game situation is entirely different now I'm not trying to tell you to endanger yourself excessively or anything like that I'm not trying to say that you know under no circumstances should it be a situation where he's out there for an inordinate amount of time but you certainly in a game situation want to get out there and throw a few passes to a guy like a Gary Wilson and Nicole Hartman who you've never played with before just to make sure you get those reps in because again it's 17 games and we understand how violent the sport is you got to protect yourself D would you know that a hell of a lot better than me but my mentality is is that it's just 17 games and you have very very little rule for mistakes you have very very little time to get acclimated and get yourself right and that's period but then you take into account that the AFC East is arguably the best division of football even though I would say the AFC North when you look at the AFC East with Miami with Buffalo and the Jets and with New England finally having an offensive coordinator to help out Matt Jones and you know their defense is real okay the fact is you can't afford to take time figuring stuff out the sooner you do it the better that's where my mentality comes from in terms of Aaron Rodgers just playing at some point in the preseason yeah you're wrong on this okay and I want to explain why and just I'm gonna explain not only to you but to also the fans out there so what we've seen in the past few years in the NFL a lot of these teams do what's called Joint practices okay so for the Jets this year they have joint practices with the Carolina Panthers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers okay and what's great about the joint practice is see a lot of times in training camp especially at this point you're getting tired of hitting the same guys so when you do is you bring another team in and guess what happens everything ramps up to a whole different level but at the same time the coaches can control the environment you don't get to hit Aaron Rodgers so you get [Music] during the preseason without exposing your quarterback to the opposition that can go that can tee off on your quarterback so that's what you're seeing out of these teams right now they're going to get all of these work they can work on all these different situations that they would do in preseason or regular season game but the coaches can say hey you can't do this you can't do that but we can still have the same type of intensity so if I'm the Jeff I'm trying to get my guy Aaron rods to week one that's what all of these coaches want for their guys ultimately you it's a necessary evil in training camp but ultimately you want to make sure you get all your dogs to week one you can't do that if you're going to be exposing your guys to preseason meet what I call meaningless preseason games okay you can do it in the you know you can get all this work in these joint practices but I need my guy I need Aaron Rodgers on the field week one right against the Buffalo Bills first of all I appreciate that I get your point eloquent points no doubt about that but when you're talking make no mistake about it when I'm ready to give you the smoke I'm gonna give you the smoke yeah okay go ahead don't get too big for me he's wearing the special watch too so something's happening today so you know another thing I didn't think about I didn't think about the shoes yes I do you don't the other one is with especially I didn't see what type of shoes he would want he's red bottoms yeah I mean and he's at the watch I mean I think it's Spanish A lot's happening right now what are those listen I like them they're comfortable they're comfortable you just want to pop of color add a little orange this is a Christian Louboutin sneakers I know what they are I just told the audience all right well they didn't listen to you they're hearing me the point that I'm trying to make to you Damien seriously Hey listen but listen you could take my content seriously I can tell you that much because let me get to my point that I'm trying to make to you I get what you're saying you're not wrong seriously you're not wrong but here's what I would challenge you on again I brought up Nicole Hardman right and Garrett Wilson who's going to be too let's face reality we hope that lizard is going to be that dude you know he hasn't been he's been decent he's been respectable but he hasn't been great but he's growing and developing he played in Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers last two or three years we got that right Randall Cobb is the age-old veteran he's going to lean on and rely upon we get all of that but the bottom line is Nicole Hardman and especially Gary Wilson are going to are expected to be the two primary targets okay am I right about that I'm right about that okay now Aaron Rodgers hasn't played the preseason game since 2018. how's that worked well they did get to the NFC championship game they lost to Tom Brady then the next year they lost in the playoffs to San Francisco where they only scored 10 points at all three games were at Lambeau Field Tom Brady lost 10 points against San Francisco at Lambeau Field last year's season finale against the Detroit Lions and Jared Goff we got outplayed by Jared Goff Aaron Rodgers 17-27 205 yards one touchdown one interception a relatively pedestrian performance in a season finale with a playoff birth on the line okay we understand what we're looking at here again I'm not saying in any way that Aaron Rodgers needs preseason I'm saying the guys that he's playing with need him in the preseason with them even if it's for a few plays just to try stuff in real action that's all I mean by that I understand the two days I get I get your the Dual practices I get all of that I get it I'm just saying when we look at Aaron Rodgers um one can easily argue they're not playing in the previous season not to say that that was the reason they lost or whatever but certainly going to a new team it doesn't hurt Damien are the raised expectations good for Dallas by the way should I tell America this is the team you root for Oh I thought you're a Cowboys fan Molly don't make me walk off the set right I know I remember you picked the Cowboys to go to the Super Bowl yeah that was like yeah that's like three years ago and that man I'll never forget it to this day has not has not let me finish you know here like he's been giving me the business I know what it is I know what it is it's my bad you're a Lakers fan yes I knew you had a bandwagon team like whoa whoa whoa are you okay Molly everything good first you getting on Steven name I mean I thought we were good until you add one now my wife is a cowboy there you go yeah yeah you married a Cowboys fan well how in God's name do you have the wonderful family that you have when you what you married a Cowboys fan how did I do that with something you know I don't even I don't even know okay I don't even know but that's beside the point but listen I listen the Cowboys there's always expectations like yes like why not I have raised expectations with the couple here's what I'm gonna tell you you don't think those guys in the locker room know how good they are they know that they have an elite roster I've said the Cowboys roster top to bottom is just about as good as anybody in the National Football League those guys in the locker room know how good they are now they got to go through the process just like any other team that's aspiring to win a championship but I mean we're talking about America's team to the Dallas Cowboys like there's always pressure on the Dallas Cowboys he's going to put pressure on the Dallas Cowboys you're going to put everyone puts pressure on the Dallas Cowboys so Jerry Jones saying that does it really matter they're going to have pressure anyway yeah y'all will never learn y'all just will never learn I just I try what's wrong with them happening what's wrong with this the Dallas Cowboys are allergic to prosperity they have spent 27 years proving that whenever you have expectations for them they fold like cheap tents Now Jerry Jones is my buddy that's my Libra buddy right there I saw him at the fight so I'm at the fight or what was supposed to be a damn fight in Vegas this past Saturday I saw the man I saw the man okay and they're uh came over gave me a big hug I mean I'm standing next to my brother Michael Irvin who was making the scene swearing that Aerosmith was going to knock out Terence Crawford but once again he was wrong no surprise there and so I'm doing all of this right and and to look at the Cowboys I'm being sensitive this week because everyone Spence who's a beautiful person really and sad what happened to him the beat down that he suffered I've never seen the Dallas Cowboys look that depressed I've seen the Dallas Cowboys after the playoff loss look better than they looked at Saturday night they were that depressed because they came near in droves to support their brother their homeboy and and he obviously got demolished and so I'm trying to be sensitive here to my brother Micah Parsons and Trayvon Diggs and Demarcus Lawrence and all of these guys I'm trying to be I'm trying to be I'm trying to be sensitive I'm trying to be sensitive right but then stuff like this happens and we're talking about raised expectations the reality of the situation is the Dallas Cowboys and the word expectations it should be an oxymoron it shouldn't even exist shouldn't even be in the same sense why should they have expectations when have you lived up to it what proof that you have in the last quarter century plus to have expectations that are justifiable when it comes to the Dallas Cowboys listen this is the point I'm trying to help y'all out Dallas Cowboy fans I'm not trolling you right now I'm gonna save that for September I'm not going to I'm not gonna control you in August September through January you it's coming but for the month of August I'm not going to control you I'm gonna be fair-minded and just give it to you straight every time y'all chirp the fall is imminent the brothers can't live up to it Dallas is a different breed you understand what I'm saying it's the only football team with the White House yes some football team with the White House man I mean they just everywhere you go to star in the helmet the the paparazzi's just the fandom and everything you can't live up to it you can't do it and every time they chirp I laugh because what do I say every single year be patient just wait it's coming they won't let you down somehow some way they're gonna find a way they invent ways to lose you understand that it's gotten so bad with the organization I sat up there and said a black cat was running around the franchise and we had to leave First Take and the damn Sports Center the night before because when the Dallas Cowboys had a Monday night game at MetLife Stadium a black cat was running around I mean you can't make this stuff up okay you got all types of problems you got all types of problems throughout history a multitude of ways they can mess up a season they're the only team that we are aware of that had a practice and then a dude got arrested because he tried to steal some cologne and a pair of drawers you can't make this up it's my all-time favorite I'm not lying it's right there it's right there it's my altar I swear to you because you're not when you're not laughing about a person stealing you're not laughing about a person getting arrested but you know you don't get no jail time anything like it was just a fine my point is you leave practice and you still cologne and a pair of drugs what were you doing that you felt the need to steal a pair of drawers and some cologne of all things not money not money he stole a pair of drugs this is who can't make this up these are the Cowboys man you got Dak Prescott last year he led the league in interceptions okay time David Mills why was that relevant because he's the first quarterback in NFL history to lead the league and interceptions despite missing five or more games you can't make it up you can't make a they find different ways and somehow some way the Cowboys steal headlines they always gonna be in the headlines they're gonna be on this show because damn it when we talk about America wants to when we don't talk about them they're tweet that's why I ain't talking about the Cowboys they they walked around like champions full of Pomp and Circumstance signifying nothing outside of Jerry Jones he's the only person that signifies something because he's an astute brilliant businessman that's always making the Cowboys money thanks for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming Sports and premium content subscribe to ESPN Plus

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Keywords: dallas cowboys, First Take, First Take full show, first take espn, espn first take, Stephen a smith, Stephen a, Stephen A. Smith, First Take on ESPN, first take full, first take full show, Stephen a first take, Stephen A. First Take, ESPN, stephen a. first take, stephen a. smith, stephen a smith, first take, first take on espn, stephen a, stephen a first take, cowboys, dallas cowboys news, dak, dak prescott, nfl, jerry jones, damien woody, prescott, jerry jones cowboys

Id: hAIXDXIBPWw

Length: 13min 48sec (828 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 03 2023