Last week’s blowout loss to the Denver Broncos already had Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer tossing and turning. Now an unusual encounter with an unwelcome houseguest caused another tumultuous night for the veteran coach.
While Schottenheimer was preparing for Week 9’s Monday Night Football clash with the Cardinals, a different kind of bird invaded his home. An owl got in the house and proved to be one of Schottenheimer’s most challenging opponents so far this season.
“I don’t know if the owl was looking for the snakes [that recently bit his dogs] or what was going on,” Schottenheimer explained, per The Athletic’s Jon Machota. “So I’m in game plan meetings last night doing some red zone stuff and I leave the meeting about 10 o’clock and I go back to my phone, and I literally had 72 text messages on my phone. Seventy-two.”
Schottenheimer says the ordeal started “with a text from my son to his mother saying, ‘There’s a big hawk-sized bird in here,’ and I began to look down and there was an owl. My son was doing some work and he had the sliders open and all of a sudden an owl came [into the house].
Brian Schottenheimer battles owl ahead of Cardinals matchup
“We’re not very outdoorsy people and so he wasn’t really quite sure what to do, so he called my soon-to-be nephew… Frick and Frack tried to figure it out. They couldn’t do it. All they did was piss it off. And so in typical coaching fashion, I called my wife and I said, ‘Honey, I’m going to stay at the condo tonight, you got this.’
“But they got the owl removed. The owl has been returned to its safe domain. … They called animal control. A gentleman came with a net, like a pool net,” Schottenheimer said.
The coach’s handling of the owl situation raises concerns about how he’ll deal with the Eagles in Week 12. The Cowboys lost to Philadelphia 24-20 in the season opener. The Cardinals seem like a good stepping stone in bird hierarchy.
The Cowboys are exceeding expectations under Schottenheimer in his head coaching debut. The offense is humming in 2025, ranking second overall in total yards and points per game.
Defense has been the Cowboys’ biggest weakness – perhaps not a surprising development after Jerry Jones traded away Micah Parsons just before the start of the season. Schottenheimer remains supportive of Matt Eberflus, believing the veteran coordinator can turn the defense around. But Dallas allows an average of 31.3 points per game – the second-highest PPG mark in the NFL.
The 3-4-1 Cowboys host the 2-5 Cardinals on Monday Night Football in Week 9. Schottenheimer hopes to put the Broncos’ blowout and his harrowing owl experience behind him with a win in prime time.
“I think we won when we had the snake issue, so that’s probably a good omen. I’ll put an elephant in my garage if I have to next. If that’s what it takes to win, I’ll do it.”
