As the Cowboys make a change to their defense, they needed to tweak the personnel to fit the adjusted front. That effort has included a trade that sent defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa to San Francisco.
It wasn’t easy, for the player or his head coach, Brian Schottenheimer.
“Anytime you go through a scheme change, there’s going to be adjustments where you move on from an incredible person, an incredible leader in Osa,” Schottenheimer said this week at the NFL’s annual meeting in Arizona. “That was one of the hard ones. I’m happy to share with you guys: I wept, we both wept on the phone together. It was hard. That’s the nature of the business, and I’m thrilled that he’s going to a place that is a great fit for him.”
This is one of the realities that get overlooked by media who view trades as all-caps, exclamation point-worthy proclamations. For every goofy “TRADE!” tweet we see, there’s a human being who may not be thrilled about the sudden change in his overall work and life circumstances.
Odighizuwa, who has spent five years with the Cowboys, had no reason to want to leave. Especially with no state income taxes in Texas and a whopping 13.3 percent in California.
But that’s one of the realities of playing in the NFL. Absent a no-trade clause, any player can be traded. Whether he wants to be or not.
Every player is a piece in a football machine that will eventually replace each of them with a new part. And “the best interests of the team” always control those decisions.
The best interests of the player are secondary, at best. For most teams, the best interests of the player don’t even matter.
Especially when the team decides it’s ready to move on from the player.
The NFL announced earlier this year that the Cowboys would host a game in Brazil. The details were to be released at a later date.
Giana Han of The Baltimore Banner reports that the Ravens will be the Cowboys’ opponent in Week 3 in Rio de Janeiro.
It will be the first NFL game played in Rio and the first of at least three games to be held at Maracaña Stadium over the next five seasons.
The NFL played games in São Paulo the past two seasons, with the Packers and Eagles meeting in 2024 and the Chiefs and Chargers matching up in 2025.
The NFL will have a record nine international games across seven countries in 2026.
When the World Cup is played at AT&T Stadium this summer, grass will be the playing surface. So what would Cowboys owner Jerry Jones say if players asked him to keep the grass playing field for the NFL season?
“No,” Jones answered, when given that hypothetical.
Jones said it’s better for the Cowboys to use primarily artificial turf and that he doesn’t buy any claims that grass is a safer playing surface for the players. Jones even claims the players are better off on turf because it’s better for the Cowboys’ bottom line, meaning more money filters to the players.
“We have more flexibility with the way we handle our surface at the stadium. We have no belief that it’s any safer to play on grass,” Jones said. “The turf, actually like many things, improves the economics of being able to play this game and our players are the biggest benefactor of all. They get the best benefit of when we do good things financially, the players benefit. So I’m working for you, baby, if you’re a player.”
So why grass for soccer? Because FIFA requires it.
“I’m very comfortable putting some grass down for soccer under regulations and proud to be able to do it, but quickly getting the turf back there to get back to the other business of the stadium and the team,” Jones said.
NFL officiating will rely more on technology and get better because of it, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones says.
Jones was asked about the New York officiating office getting more involved in making calls based on replay angles that the on-field officials don’t see, and while he was careful not to say anything about the league’s ongoing negotiations with the officials’ union, he did make clear that he supports more use of replay and communication technology to get calls right.
“If you look at some of the technology that has evolved and some of the practical use of that technology, then you’d feel pretty good about improving the accuracy of calls using the technology we have available today,” Jones said. “So while we all know we’re looking to the future, we have to look at what’s happened in the past, but some of this technology is really impressive. Consequently, I have a lot of, for our game in general — I’m talking about officiating — but I have a lot of hope for improving the entertainment value, and, if you will, the accuracy involved when it comes to somebody making a judgment. I think we’re in for some great future days of getting better all the way around. And we all think we can do a great job of zeroing in and training and looking for nuances to help the decision making regarding the calls on the field. We all think that. Everybody’s been striving, that’s nothing new, to try to get better. But it’s our job to put the incentives into place and demands in place to get better. Fans deserve that.”
The NFL plans to rely heavily on the New York officiating office if there’s a labor stoppage requiring the use of replacement refs, but Jones’ comments suggest that the league should do that for all games, even with the regular officials. If technology can make officiating more accurate, the NFL should use that technology.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wants to expand the regular season to 18 games, and he says players should want that, too.
Jones said that adding another game to the regular season, while cutting a game from the preseason, would mean more money from the NFL, which under the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement would mean the players’ share grows as the owners’ share grows.
“My interpretation of the 18th game would be less preseason games. I like that,” Jones said. “I think that’s great for the players — emphasize great for the players. It increases the viability of the financial aspect, more gate and more money for the players as well.”
Asked if it’s great for the players other than financially, Jones said it’s also an opportunity for them to get more exposure.
“I think it’s a better application of their careers and talent. less preseason, more playing in games that have the right balance of the financial rewards as well as exposure,” Jones said.
So far, the players’ union has not been supportive of a longer regular season. Jones thinks when the players see how much more money they’ll make with a longer season, they’ll come around.
