Troy Aikman: 'unfair' to judge Jason Garrett's coaching on rest of season

Well, lookee here: I talked to Fox analyst and former Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman Wednesday and produced this story, in which he asserts that his friend and former backup Jason Garrett should not be judged as a head coach based on the rest of this season.

I covered Garrett during his four seasons as Kerry Collins' backup with the Giants from 2000-03, but I am so, so old that I recall the most infamous moment in his father Jim's head coaching career.

It was the fall of 1985, and I was in Newsday's Melville office when word arrived that after a 49-17 loss to Harvard first-year Columbia coach Garrett had called his players "drug-addicted losers." He also fired his punter.

The late, great Newsday sports editor Dick Sandler had John Valenti call local businesses to find out what would happen to an executive who had described his employees in that fashion.

Garrett went on to finish 0-10, then was gone after one season, taking his three football player sons, including Jason, with him. They transferred to Princeton.