As Mike McCarthy, Cowboys try to move forward, the tragic loss of Markus Paul still weighs heavily

Mike McCarthy was in Kellen Moore’s office discussing the game plan when he received word that he needed to get to the weight room.

John Fassel was in the locker room, rounding up players for a meeting, when one of the trainers bolted by him with a defibrillator. The special teams coordinator followed him out the door to the weight room where the medical staff was trying to revive Markus Paul.

“It was hard,” said Fassel, who had to stop to compose himself at one point when talking to reporters Friday. “Hard to see.”

The Cowboys lost to Washington on Thanksgiving to all but end their chances to win the NFC East. McCarthy dutifully addressed the questionable decisions and flawed performances that led to the 41-16 loss in his day after session with the media.

But the more he spoke, the more it became clear that the loss of Paul is what weighs on his mind as the Cowboys enter this long weekend.

The team’s strength and conditioning coordinator collapsed in his office at The Star early Tuesday morning. He died the next afternoon, roughly 24 hours before the team took the field to face Washington.

McCarthy came across as weary more than unsettled. The Cowboys’ head coach, who watched a young player die in front of him 15 years ago, was at the stage where he seemed drained of energy and emotion.

“It’s been emotionally challenging,’' said McCarthy, who estimated he got to the weight room two to three minutes after Paul collapsed. “Overwhelming.

“I don’t know what words I can use to describe the feeling. It was something that was just so personal for all of us, especially how it happened, where it happened and the timing of it all.’'

McCarthy paused.

“We’re just trying to make plans to move forward,’' he said.

Move forward? When McCarthy made that statement the Cowboys were still scheduled to play in Baltimore on Thursday. The NFL later moved that game to Monday, Dec. 7.

McCarthy again explained the decision to try a fake punt on fourth-and-10 from his own 24-yard line early in the fourth quarter when his team trailed by only four points. Pressed on why Cedrick Wilson ran when he appeared to have C.J. Goodwin open down the field, McCarthy offered what he thought to be Wilson’s rationale before dropping that he hasn’t had a chance to talk to Fassel, Wilson or Goodwin about the play.

He didn’t have any of the meetings he usually does the morning after a game.

“I’ve been on the phone all morning,’' McCarthy said. “I just can’t say enough about the outpour for Markus and just the people that I’ve heard from, just trying to get back to some of those calls.

“He’s obviously a man of significance, and he’ll greatly be missed.’'

McCarthy then expressed how proud he was of the team during this tragic, exhausting period where it also squeezed in two games in five days.

“I just can’t say enough about the team, the way they went out there and competed,’' McCarthy said. “And I’ll say this, being completely honest here, I had no idea how we were going to play.

“That’s a feeling you never have as a coach. You go through weeks of preparation and you line up and you usually have a feel for where the matchups and challenges are going to be, you try to anticipate them and so forth. But we started the game and had adversity immediately with our injured players and we just kept battling.

“They gave it everything they had, and I appreciate that.’'

McCarthy met with Paul’s wife, Heidi, at the hospital earlier this week. He’s had several conversations with Mike Nolan.

The Cowboys’ defensive coordinator was the head coach in San Francisco in 2005 when a young offensive lineman named Thomas Herrion, who was born in Fort Worth and played at Kilgore College before going on to the University of Utah, died after a preseason game in Denver.

A young coach named McCarthy was the offensive coordinator on that staff.

“It’s tough to talk about for Mike,’' Nolan said. “I don’t know if Mike shared with you, but Mike was just an arm’s-length from Thomas Herrion when he passed away in our locker room back in 2005.’'

McCarthy spent Friday afternoon returning more calls about Paul and working on a schedule now that the team’s next game has been moved back four days. His family is in town, and he was going to spend time with them in the evening.

Paul was never far from his mind.

“This is life,” McCarthy said. “This is the hard part of life.”

Catch David Moore and Robert Wilonsky as they co-host Intentional Grounding on The Ticket (KTCK-AM 1310 and 96.7 FM) every Wednesday night from 7-8 p.m. through the Super Bowl.

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