Cowboys’ Barry Church finds being vocal the hardest part of leadership
By Mike Dyce
The Dallas Cowboys parted ways with defensive end DeMarcus Ware and defensive tackle Jason Hatcher during the off season. Middle linebacker Sean Lee is out for the season with an injury, and now there are leadership questions about the Cowboys defense.
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Head coach Jason Garrett named safety Barry Church as a player who can step up and take the defense under his command.
“It just shows them that they have all of the confidence in the world in me to go out there and lead their crew into battle,” Church said, via the Dallas Morning News. “I feel grateful to have that responsibility.”
The only issue for Church is that he is more of a lead-by-example kind of player, and he finds being more vocal difficult for him.
“I’m not a big rambunctious guy that’s out there rah rahing, so it takes a lot for me,” Church said “I usually just lead by example but now they’re asking me to be more of a vocal leader. That’s kind of tough for me. I practiced a lot on it this off-season and I feel like I have a pretty good handle of it.”
Church sounded more comfortable being vocal on the field making sure everyone is in position in comments he made roughly a week ago.
“I pretty much know the defense front and back, so the more I can communicate to the other guys and get people lined up, the better,” Church said. “I definitely feel like I can do it. I could’ve done it last year, but Sean was the designated leader and the vocal captain, so you roll with him. He was the guy. He proved himself. I was coming off an injury and had to re-prove myself.”