Brian Schottenheimer had been waiting 51 years for this. First game as an NFL head coach. Aug. 9 at SoFi Stadium was his first real test. A preseason opener against the Rams. His Dallas Cowboys – retooled, recharged, and supposedly ready to put 2024’s disappointment in the rearview. Instead, his debut will be remembered for a prayer gone wrong, an offense that started in reverse, and a locker room laughing for all the wrong reasons. Jerry Jones trusted him with the job. New faces like George Pickens had been added. The stage was perfect. A chance to set a tone. And, well…the Cowboys set one. Just not the one they wanted.
The Cowboys’ first preseason outing under Schotty was ugly early – 1 net yard in the opening quarter to the Rams’ 160. Stetson Bennett carved them up for 188 yards and two touchdowns. And after the 31-21 loss, Schottenheimer closed the day with an unplanned comedy bit. “I talked to my wife, I talked to a couple of the guys on staff,” he said. “Actually, I’ll make fun of myself here for a second. So, after the game was over, I did the team prayer…Well, I went straight Ricky Bobby on them, and I actually cursed.”
It wasn’t just a slip. “I think I asked God to help us in the red zone. I said, like, you know, damn, we left some opportunities out there,” he admitted. And he wasn’t wrong – Dallas went scoreless on its first four possessions, coughed up a 0-14 deficit, and didn’t find the end zone until late in the second quarter. Emotional from the night – from tearing up during a pregame moment with JJ to challenging a Rams catch in vain – Brian Schottenheimer let his competitive frustration creep into his prayer. And once the words left his mouth, there was no taking them back.
Oct 29, 2023; Arlington, Texas, USA; Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb (88) catches a pass against Los Angeles Rams cornerback Derion Kendrick (1) in the third quarter at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
The Cowboys rallied late, but by then the Rams had already built a lead off Blake Corum’s short rushing scores and Bennett’s TD throws to Cody Schrader and Brennan Presley. Joe Milton found Rivaldo Fairweather for a touchdown in the fourth, Will Grier scrambled in for another, but Dallas never truly threatened. Schottenheimer admitted the result “is not the one we wanted” – understatement of the night.
Players immediately picked up on it. “And we played the whole clip of Will Ferrell at the kitchen table doing the prayer where he’s talking to baby Jesus and all that stuff. And I think everybody knew because I think Sam Williams was like afterwards, he said to Dak, he goes, can you swear during the prayer?” Schottenheimer recalled. For a coach who has made “discipline” the foundation of his message since training camp, the irony was brutal. It wasn’t just a bad day on the field. It was a day when the head coach became the punchline. And then came the most Schotty thing of the day.
Brian Schottenheimer ends his own Dallas chapter
Schottenheimer handled it the only way he could – by benching himself from the role entirely. “So, I fired myself from doing the post-game prayer. I will not be doing that anymore,” he said. The team even played the clip for laughs, pairing it with Will Ferrell’s baby Jesus prayer scene from Talladega Nights. It went from an awkward moment to full-blown locker room entertainment.
“Chalk that one up, that when you’re that emotional and there’s the ups and downs of a game, you don’t need to be the one talking to God,” Schottenheimer said. In his words, it was an “after-action report” moment – good, better, how we fix it. Step one: Find someone else to lead the prayer. Step two: clean up the mistakes that led to the loss in the first place.
It’s not how Brian Schottenheimer envisioned his start as Dallas’ head coach. But it might be the kind of slip that humanizes him to his players. He owned it. He laughed at himself. And now he has three more preseason games to prove that the only thing he’ll be firing is the offense next.
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