The Dallas Cowboys are moving into shiny new facilities this summer, and head coach Jason Garrett has an interesting name for the team headquarters.
Jason Garrett calls the Cowboys' new headquarters the "No Excuses Facility." Players, coaches, trainers, etc. have everything they need
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) July 17, 2016
A state of the art practice facility, The Ford Center at The Star really will have it all.
It includes a practice field that seats 12,000 fans and will eventually feature a hotel, member’s only club and many other high-profile ammenities that could cost upwards of $1.5 billion in the end.
One of the things the team is doing is allowing high school teams to use the same facilities, which is truly an exciting prospect for everyone involved.
“This just totally has blown me away in terms of what we can do, the visibility, the tying it in the football, then regular athletics,” owner Jerry Jones said recently, via the Associated Press. “This area will be a template and an example far beyond Frisco, all over the country, of an example of Romo walking off on Thursday, Friday practicing and then high school quarterbacks coming in to play football, side by side, talking to each other about the game tonight. I can see that.”
A major development is the fact that Dallas will no longer travel to Oxnard, Calif. for training camp after this year. After a few weeks in Southern California, everything will be happening in Frisco, Texas, where the team will hunker down to finish preparing for the upcoming season.
Aside from the amazing facility, the Cowboys are facing some stout challenges this summer as they prepare for life without some key defenders to open the season. Pass rushers DeMarcus Lawrence and Randy Gregory are both suspended for the first four games of the season and inside linebacker Rolando McClain will be out the first 10 games of the year — all for violating the NFL’s drug policy.
Still, despite what will be a difficult task to get the defense ready to play at a high level without those starters, Garrett is right to set the bar as high as it will go.
The Cowboys really don’t have any excuses not to make the playoffs unless Tony Romo is out for the year again with injuries. This is a team that has been carefully built to win a championship, and anything less than at least challenging for a title is a huge disappointment.