The speculation has been there for a while. It won't die down with Mike Holmgren's team coming to Cowboys Stadium this weekend.
But Cowboys owner/GM Jerry Jones restated his case during his weekly radio show on 105.3 "The Fan" Tuesday morning when he dismissed the notion he would be interested in Holmgren as the next head coach of this team, reiterating his excitement for Jason Garrett.
"I can't get into that conversation because of how fired up I am about the future of Jason," Jones said. "The future is now. I'm fired about him and what he can be as coach of the Cowboys."
Holmgren is still the Browns' president but has recently said he is considering getting back into coaching and his future in Cleveland looks bleak. There were recent reports in Cleveland that Holmgren has been linked to the Cowboys, but he tried to dispel those rumors earlier this week.
"'I haven't booked my tickets to Dallas,'' Holmgren said. ''I haven't talked to a single soul. That's the first thing. The second thing is I honestly don't know what the future holds or what I want to do. Honestly. Believe me on that. Thirdly, I've always been, quite honestly, bothered by the speculation during the season when coaches are trying to work and they're fighting like crazy for their jobs, and I would never do that. I would never do that to anybody. I have tremendous respect for Jason Garrett.''
Speaking of respect, Jones obviously has that for Holmgren, who coached the Packers from 1992-98. In that span, Green Bay lost to the Cowboys in the playoffs four straight years, capped off by the 1995 NFC Championship Game at Texas Stadium.
So while Jones had a front-row seat for Holmgren's ability to build a team, he made sure to point out he's not wavering on his own coach.
"Mike Holmgren is someone I can't tell you on an individual basis how much I respect," Jones said. "He is everything you would want as far as a coach is concerned. I appreciate the compliment when he was talking about how he was impressed with our talent and the fact the fact that we could work together. That is just the case. But the bottom line is it's all about Jason with me."
