FRISCO, Texas — When people think of the word “legacy” in the context of sports, most associate it with championships and trophies.
The Dallas Cowboys are certainly no different: their five Super Bowl trophies are just past the front door of “The Star” in Frisco, Texas — their team headquarters. One can’t walk through the lobby without spotting them just to the right-hand side of the entrance.
However, new coach Brian Schottenheimer feels differently. In his mind, legacy starts with people and the impact they make on others. His reasoning for that is because of his late father Marty Schottenheimer. Marty was an NFL coach for 21 seasons with the Cleveland Browns (1984-1988), Kansas City Chiefs (1990-1998), Washington (2001) and San Diego Chargers (2002-2006). The elder Schottenheimer went 200-126-1 across his 21 seasons, good for the eighth-most wins as a coach in NFL history. Of the seven people ahead of him, five are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Don Shula (328 wins), George Halas (318 wins), Tom Landry (250), Curly Lambeau (226) and Paul Brown (2013). The other two, former New England Patriots six-time Super Bowl champion coach Bill Belichick (302) and Kansas City Chiefs three-time Super Bowl champion coach Andy Reid (273), will be once eligible.
Across the younger Schottenheimer’s 25 years coaching in the NFL as an assistant, including 14 as an offensive coordinator, he’s experienced a number of people around the league come up to him at games to talk about Marty. Those conversations typically aren’t about football, they are bigger than the game and hold an even more special meaning for Schottenheimer on Father’s Day.
“Legacy, it starts with people. To this day, I go out on the field for a game and I’ll have two or three different individuals come up to me and say, ‘Excuse me, coach. Do you have a second?’ And I know exactly where they’re going. I drop what I’m doing, because I want to hear it,” Schottenheimer said Thursday at Cowboys mandatory minicamp. “They say, ‘Your father changed my life.’ And it’s his former players. He never won a Super Bowl. He won over 200 games in the NFL, but I would put his legacy up with anyone that’s ever coached the game.”
Schottenheimer has always dreamed of being like his dad and becoming an NFL coach, a journey that took him nearly 30 years before Cowboys owner Jerry Jones gave him his first shot at the top job in 2025 at the age of 51. Despite much of the bond with his father being about football, if Schottenheimer could speak to him now, the reflection on life lessons wouldn’t revolve around football.
“I know he’s proud. I miss him. I would tell him that I used all the life lessons that he taught me, not just about football but about life,” Schottenheimer said as his eyes began to water. “Being a good man, a good husband, a good father. I think I’m doing OK myself, but I know he’s proud. I miss him like crazy. I actually lean on some of his friends now, guys like Bill Cowher. Guys that he coached with. Father’s Day will be a special day. Obviously, I’m a father of two amazing kids. I talk to my mom, and I know he’s looking down on me. Appreciate you making me get teared up here the last day of minicamp.”
The first story Brian would tell Marty since becoming the Cowboys coach would come from his introductory press conference at the end of January. Schottenheimer thought the media availability would be held in the team’s press conference room that can hold around 50 people maximum. Instead, Dallas set it up in the atrium of their team facility and well over 100 people were in the crowd ranging from media, Cowboys employees, family, friends and players. Seeing Dallas players in attendance to support him put him at ease, something his father would have been proud to hear.
“We’re obviously an emotional family, and I was really nervous going to the press conference. Big moment you’ve been waiting for your whole life,” Schottenheimer said. … “Jerry and Stephen [Jones] walked me down, and I saw my family. But when I turned the corner, I saw the players, all the players over there. He [Marty Schottenheimer] would know the fact that all those players showed up that I’m doing it the right way. I’m doing it through connection. I’m doing it through love and energy. That actually calmed me down. It really did. I was nervous and excited at the same time. When I saw all those players waiting for me right around the corner, it totally put me at peace. So that was cool.”
Quarterback Dak Prescott was one of the players in attendance that day, and the three-time Pro Bowler affirmed he’s at peace with Schottenheimer too, saying their communication — among other things, has him “excited as hell” for the 2025 season.
“The communication with Schotty, with the quarterbacks or the quarterback room. Just a lot of good things,” Prescott said Thursday. “A lot of really good things that have me in a great place. I’m healthy, excited as hell. … No [he doesn’t seem like a first-year coach], and I think when you’ve been an assistant for 30 years, that’s the reason he doesn’t seem that way. He’s doing a hell of a job.”
How fatherhood has changed Prescott
Prescott is new to fatherhood unlike his coach, who has a son in college and daughter who is about to head off to college. He and his fiancée Sarah Jane had their first child together, daughter, Margaret Jane (MJ), in February last year, and they welcomed another daughter, Aurora Rayne, on May 22 of this year. Prescott has been molded by a number of events in his life, including the loss of his mother Peggy to colon cancer in 2013 and the loss of his brother, Jace, to suicide in 2020. However, being a father has changed the Dallas quarterback in one way: making him better at smelling the roses as it pertains to the little things in life.
“I’m blessed. I’m blessed to have the opportunity to raise two girls alongside my fiancée. To have a beautiful family, healthy family, for me it’s just about being grateful and not taking the moment for granted when I’m with them,” Prescott said. “But I’ve been through things in my life that I don’t necessarily think fatherhood just showed me something new. I understand the love that my mom had for me, right, in a different way now that I have kids. But I think when you have some of the adversity that I’ve had you’re so thankful for everything you’re given, the good and the bad and anything in between that fatherhood is no different now. It just makes me even more focused on the small moments.”
Author: Garrett Podell
June 15, 2025 | 7:15 am
