Mike McCarthy smashed watermelons with sledgehammer to spark Cowboys

Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy was in search of a way to fire up his team ahead of their matchup against the Minnesota Vikings last weekend. Apparently, McCarthy decided to take an unconventional route to provide his team with some motivation. 

According to Clarence Hill Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, McCarthy packed a sledgehammer and a number of watermelons for the Cowboys' trip to Minnesota. He then destroyed them on Saturday night with some help from his players. 

“I think like anything in this game, it’s important to have fun,” McCarthy said. “You’re always trying to create emphasis in your messaging. That’s really where it came from. We were just using the approach to honor the great comedian Gallagher and it’s an idea that came up and we went for it. The players were into it.

“It was just all part of the messaging so we had a number of points of emphasis that we were trying to hit so a number of guys got to participate and once again I’d say it was a lot of fun. It was well received.”

The watermelons signified different goals the Cowboys were trying to smash against the Vikings. They accomplished those objectives, too, defeating the Vikings 31-28.

Last weekend's game marked Dallas' first win since Dak Prescott exited with a season-ending ankle injury in Week 5. It was also the Cowboys' first time scoring over 20 points since Prescott's departure. 

The quarterback position was somewhat of a revolving door a few weeks ago with Andy Dalton suffering an injury and then testing positive for coronavirus. He impressed against Minnesota, and McCarthy will be hoping he can do the same in a critical matchup against the Washington Football Team this weekend.