It is, in the end, an opportunity to teach. And to learn.
"I'm really excited to be in the game,'' Jason Garrett tells CowboysSI.com in an exclusive interview as the former Dallas Cowboys head coach.
"The game'' isn't coaching. And it isn't the NFL.
Instead, he'll use the tool of television to continue the teaching, working as an analyst on nationally-televised USFL games.
Garrett, 55, was recently a candidate for the vacancy at Duke as head football coach. This offseason, he was dismissed from his offensive coordinator job with the New York Giants. And before that, of course, was his lengthy stint at the Cowboys head coach, with a history as a Dallas quarterback before that.
Garrett as a TV guy? The intellectual Princeton grad and son of Jim Garrett, who was involved in the game as a Cowboys scout and finally as an Ivy League head coach over a 49-year career, will get a chance to express himself ... and his teachings ... in a new way.
The USFL starts in mid-April, with games on Fox and NBC.
"I m truly excited to be involved here,'' Garrett tells us. "I will be covering the return of the USFL as part of the NBC broadcast team. I'm ready for the challenge.''
It's been a lifelong motto that has served Garrett well as a Cowboys player and coach. "I only concern myself,'' Garrett will say, "with things that are within my control.''
He can't control his NFL opportunities as a coach. So instead, he'll join the deep roster of former Cowboys figures who have found success in media.
Is he Troy Aikman? Is he Tony Romo? The TV world is about to find out whether Garrett - who during his coaching career was purposely middle-of-the-road when it came to being colorful and revealing - can now show a colorful and revealing side.
"I'm ready,'' Garrett said. "First game is Michigan Panthers vs. Houston Gamblers, Week 1 - let's go!''
Those who truly know Garrett can push beyond the silly memes oozing hatefully from his time as the Cowboys head coach from 2010 until 2019, recognizing that he rebuilt a program and compiled an 85-67 record with only the one real blemish being the absence of a Super Bowl.
And all along, he will proudly tell you, he "Did it The Right Way.''
Now he'll do TV. And it's a good bet that he will indeed be ready.
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