Mike McCarthy is running up against a huge Dallas Cowboys fanbase and is the butt of the joke across the NFL world this week. But on Tuesday, Bomani Jones argued it’s even harder for McCarthy to win in the court of public opinion because of his weight.
Appearing on The Rich Eisen Show following the Cowboys’ disastrous home loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, Jones made the case.
“The world’s a little bit skeptical of our portly brothers,” Jones explained. “This is not a small part of the discussion, man. People don’t treat them right. You know I’m not lying about this.”
Jones may have been performative in his delivery. But his opinion here was genuine. When you’re on the national stage, it’s harder to get the benefit of the doubt when you are perceived as having a weight problem.
“I’m not going to say anything about the man, but I know [with] the rest of y’all, I know where it comes from,” Jones said. “The double extra large is not helping his case in terms of the skepticism people feel about him.”
When Eisen probed further, the two agreed that fans, analysts and executives believe that if a coach doesn’t have the discipline to stay fit, they don’t have the discipline to coach a team.
Jones believes it’s a bigger American problem, not just around the NFL.
“We just have to acknowledge the fact that we struggle a little bit with how we deal with our chubbier friends,” Jones said.
The Right Time host added that people would be “a little less harsh” toward McCarthy if here were a smaller guy.
Skip Bayless once publicly criticized McCarthy’s weight, proving Jones’ point. And it’s hard to argue with Jones that many Americans like to take aim at bigger people.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.