Jerry Jones Releases Statement After Jason Garrett's Dismissal

For seven whole days, football fans were left in the dark on the status of Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett. Ironically, during halftime of a Philadelphia Eagles playoff game, the Cowboys leaked the news that Garrett was informed he will no longer be a part of the organization.

In lieu of making the announcement in the middle of a circle of reporters, team owner Jerry Jones released a statement immediately after making the decision to move on from Garrett.

"We are extremely grateful to Jason Garrett for his more than 20 years of service to the Dallas Cowboys as a player, assistant coach, and head coach," said Jones, via press release.

"His level of commitment, character and dedication to this organization has been outstanding at every stage of his career. ... His tenure of leadership will be characterized by his ability to produce teams that always played with great effort, emotion and passion, and he represented our organization with great pride, loyalty and respect."

The temperature on Garrett's seat grew hotter through the final month-plus of the season, as the Cowboys, a team loaded with talent, moved further and further out of playoff contention. After losing the NFC East crown to the Eagles, many expected Garrett to be handed his walking papers immediately on Black Monday.

Oh, you thought wrong.

Dallas brass held meetings with Garrett for at least two days this past week, and left the media and the public completely in the dark.

But after holding interviews with former head coaches in Marvin Lewis and Mike McCarthy, Jones came to his senses, ultimately deciding the team would be better off with anyone other than Garrett coaching the team.

Still, the length of this whole ordeal was completely unnecessary. But hey, that's the Cowboy way.