Martin joined Pardon My Take and shared several Cowboys stories, including his recollection of Mike McCarthy's infamous watermelon smash.
Former Cowboys offensive lineman Zack Martin joined Pardon My Take, a Barstool Sports podcast, to discuss his retirement from the NFL, memories with the Cowboys, gave his thought's on this year's Cowboys team and more.
Here are some of the highlights, edited lightly for clarity.
You retired this last offseason, have you had any moments where you wished you played one more year or was it the perfect time?
Zack Martin: It was the perfect time. I really haven't had any, maybe the first game when they played Philly to start the year and just the start of the game, the heart was pumping, you know how that place is when you go on a night game. So maybe a little bit then, but really, haven't had any of those feelings. It was kind of a perfect ending, my contract was up and I was ready to be done.
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When you're with the Cowboys, does it feel different knowing you guys are going to be talked about more than any other team?
Martin: It's really more, I feel like the years we weren't great. It's like "Why are they talking about us? We're 5-8 right now." I think it just kind of comes with it, obviously with what Jerry Jones has built down there and the success that the Cowboys have had in their history, it's just going to come with it and you just got to take it. It's cliche, but don't live in the comments section and go out there and do your thing.
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In detail, give your side of the Mike McCarthy watermelon smash story.
Martin: We were in Minnesota, we were bad, it was the COVID year. The night before in the hotel, you're in the big ballroom for dinner and five minutes before the meeting, everyone moseys over to the ballroom where they have the screen set up and chairs for the guys. They had a stage this time, which wasn't normal. He had the picnic table laid out all over the stage. I forget what his message was, but it was something about smashing whatever we've done now and moving forward. He just started smashing watermelons and spraying all over us. He was bringing people up. I don't think I got a swing on the watermelon, but I do believe he was bringing either other coaches or certain players up. It gave us a little conversation when we go get ice cream before we go to bed. We were laughing about it at the ice cream stand.
[McCarthy] would do props, he grew up and his dad was a bar owner. I remember one time he had the bar props and was doing something with it with the towel and the shaker. I forget what the message was, but he'd use props once in a while.
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What was it like meeting Jerry Jones for the first time?
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Martin: I met him on my pre-draft visit. It was a real quick, five minutes, he wasn't doing a lot of the deep diving questions. Over my career I obviously had interaction with him, he was great, always treated me great. Then my contract stuff came up a couple years ago, that's when I started having one-on-one conversations with him. I got to know him a little bit better and got closer with him, but yeah, it was cool to kind of sit just us in the room. Several times, we were sitting through and talking about our contracts and you kind of had to pinch yourself that you were negotiating with this oil tycoon billionaire. He takes care of us, obviously he's got the business thing going heavy, but the dude wants to win. There's no mistake about it, he does want to win. The business side of it pays the bills, so he puts a lot of time into that.
Has Dak Prescott always done the "Here we go" cadence?
Martin: That changed, we put that in. When McCarthy came in, it was all about "Get off the ball, get off the ball, we're trying to fly off the ball." Then people started jumping the snap count and it just didn't look fluid. That's when we added the "Yep, here we go," because everything got kind of screwed up when guys were getting off at wrong times.
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With Dak, it's also a Cowboys thing. Whoever the quarterback of the Cowboys is, you're going to make fun of him.
Martin: That's in my opinion, the most impressive part about him. The amount of stuff he has to go through and the amount of things that are on his shoulders. If people knew the amount of stuff he has to deal with on a daily basis, it's ridiculous.
In your entire NFL career, you only had seven holding calls, how many do you think you got away with?
Martin: A lot. A lot. I feel like I had a good understanding of what is a hold. If the ball's on the other side of the field and you're holding, they're not going to call it. It's really when the ball is passing you. If you've got a play that's coming right behind you and you start feeling your guy fall off, you either have to let go or get yourself in position. I think I was smart enough to let go. If someone were to ask me what's my best attribute, it was I could get out of terrible situations. I could be in these funky body situations, it looks like I'm beat and I could just naturally get my body in front of a guy and I think that helped with the holding penalties.
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Walk us through the play final play against the 49ers in the playoffs where Ezekiel Elliott was lined up at center. Where we you for that play?
Martin: I was out wide at receiver. Me and Tyron Smith were out wide. The play was supposed to be Zeke snaps the ball and we do a hook and ladder, but Zeke is the guy that's gonna get the lateral, but he's kind of hiding at center. Well, San Francisco came out and put Dre Greenlaw over the top of him and bull rushed him into the ground and the play was dead. Tough way to go out. That was salt on the wound too, because the 49ers had bounced us two years in a row and kind of got after us.
Walk us through the other final play in the playoffs against the 49ers where you tried to clock the ball but didn't get it off in time?
Martin: I stand by that one, because we practiced that play a lot. Now, when we coach that play, we talk about how the left guard has to move and give space for the ref to get through. I still think, if he didn't get hit by the official, we could have clocked it and had time. I'm not saying we would have won the game, but I think we would have had at least a second on the clock. That was one of the years where you think you have a chance and everything gets ripped out and you're done.
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This year's Cowboys team is so fun to watch. The offense is amazing but the defense hasn't looked great. What do you think their ceiling is?
Martin: Offensively, I don't think anyone's been better than them consistently over the course of the season. I love Javonte Williams. That was a hell of a signing. Obviously, [George] Pickens picking up the slack when CeeDee [Lamb] was out. Really up front, I saw a stat they've played nine different guys so far this season up front. They really haven't skipped a beat, there's three or four guys who have backed up there for a couple years that have gotten playing time the last couple years and they stepped in and did a great job. Offensively, it's been awesome.
Defensively, you trade arguably the best defensive player a week before the season, it's not going to be perfect. I think they will get better, I played for Matt Eberflus in Dallas my first five years, I do know how he coaches. It's not really about the plays, it's about how you play. I think he'll get those guys on defense playing the right way and at least be able to stop some bleeding and win some of these games down the stretch.
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