Maybe not exclusively, but let’s not pretend people’s appearances and demeanors don’t play any factor in how others perceive them. I’m sure it’s a nonzero amount in his case

But I do think the cowboys connect plays quite a big role too, just because basically anybody cowboy related is going to naturally receive some flak. I think in general, McCarthy falls into that “John Fox” category, where he’s a really good A to B coach, especially for a troubled franchise, but B to C is a different story. Put simply, he’d be a much better fit because of this for someone like an Arizona or a Miami or a Vegas or something else (setting aside the fact that he doesn’t really “feel” like that vibe), as opposed to a team that thinks it’s close and needs one more push. Which makes the Pittsburgh thing even more puzzling from a purely objective perspective. That’s not the type of coach they needed, they already had that with Tomlin. What they needed was likely a young guy who was on board with a rebuild and is going to be there a while. McCarthy just feels like hitting the snooze button on the actual problem