Ex-Cowboys tight end Dalton Schultz stirred some things up with recent comments about the time spent with his old team.
Current Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson used far fewer words to answer back with a message of his own.
Schultz, the six-year veteran who spent his first five seasons in Dallas, just signed a three-year, $36 million contract extension to stay with the Houston Texans after joining them in 2023.
As a guest on The Pat McAfee Show earlier in the week, the 27-year-old was asked about the difference between the two clubs.
Schultz had thoughts, and he shared them freely.
While he said he enjoyed his time in Dallas, Schultz also ruffled some feathers within Cowboys Nation with remarks about the showbiz atmosphere that came with wearing a star on his helmet… and how things are quite different in Houston.
“That was one of the first things that kind of stuck out to me,” Schultz said on the show. “It feels more like- I don’t want to say college, because it’s not- but the focus is just football, you know what I mean? Going back and telling some people what being around the Cowboys is like: practice facility, gameday, describing some of the interactions and stuff that you see on a day-to-day basis… that surprised a lot of people. Like, ‘Holy crap, that actually happens, like, at a practice facility?’ You think it’s normal, and then you come to a place like this…”
When pressed for an example, Schultz talked about having to sometimes co-exist with fans taking guided tours of the team practice facility at The Star in Frisco, which is the literal centerpiece of a massive 91-acre entertainment and business development district.
“Like, there’s people literally going on tours while you’re lifting in the weight room. And they’ve got, like, a one-way mirror for people to look. Literally, it’s a zoo, dude. People tapping on the glass trying to get people’s attention as they’re doing power cleans or whatnot.”
Schultz’s “zoo” remark touched a nerve. Headlines screamed once again about a Cowboys culture that’s allegedly too much about glitz and glamour and not nearly enough about wins and losses.
“It’s different,” Schultz continued. “That’s the brand that they’ve built, that’s what Jerry Jones likes, that’s the way they run things. And there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just you don’t realize how many eyeballs and how much that can maybe distract from stuff in the locker room, being in the facility, until you go somewhere else and you’re like, ‘Holy crap, dude, there’s none of that.”
As McAfee himself pointed out on his show the next day, Schultz likely wasn’t really calling the entire Cowboys organization “a zoo” as much as he was describing the very specific feeling of football players behind a pane of glass being on display to the public as they go about a normal workday.
But the perceived slight was already out there, and the top takeaway was that a former Dallas player was slamming the circus-like culture that the Cowboys purposely create and operate within.
Ferguson made a post to his Instagram story Friday that seemed to give a response in one simple photograph.
The slogan Ferguson highlighted- It is a privilege, not a right, to play, coach and work for the Dallas Cowboys– is plastered in several high-profile places around The Star. While it’s certainly a photo-op sight visible along the (rather expensive) ticketed fan tours that Schultz so casually blasted, it’s also a very intentional reminder to everyone in the building that things are, indeed, different at the most valuable sports franchise on the planet and the largest draw in the NFL.
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Ferguson will be entering his third year with the Cowboys in 2024. He caught 71 passes for 761 yards and five touchdowns and was named to his first Pro Bowl as the Cowboys’ starter, the role Schultz had held previously.
