Veteran linebacker Sean Lee responded to reports Dallas Cowboys head coach was losing control of the locker room.
Jane Slater of NFL Network anonymously quoted players as saying McCarthy and his staff have been unprepared for games. McCarthy responded by saying he had not heard any chatter from his team, adding he has repeatedly stressed the idea of airing out grievances in public, rather than behind closed doors.
Lee seemed to show support for his coach on Wednesday, saying the Cowboys would not concern themselves with anonymous sources and instead focus on football:
“The first thing I think with anonymous sources, you never really can take them serious,” Lee said, via Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk. “First, they don’t put their name on it. Second, you don’t know if the person’s in the room, or not in the room. Maybe they were. Maybe they’re not now. Sometimes you don’t know if it’s through a secondhand source. Maybe it is a player, but maybe it’s coming through an agent. You just can’t speculate. So you have to just say, listen, the consensus in our locker room, with our defense right now, is that we all need to work hard. We all need to improve.”
It is curious these reports suggest a lack of confidence in McCarthy, an offensive-minded head coach, when it is the Cowboys' defense that has struggled.
Lee seems to acknowledge as much in the above quote, noting the need for improvement from a unit that ranks dead-last in scoring defense and 27th in total yards allowed.
The 34-year-old Lee has spent the entirety of his career in Dallas, though he has yet to take the field this season due to a sports hernia.
However, the former All-Pro is hoping to instill a greater sense of work ethic and accountability in the Cowboys locker room while encouraging his teammates to stay focused on the task at hand.
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