With Brent and Sam sideshows, Garrett tries to keep Cowboys focused on football

IRVING, Texas -- Cowboys coach Jason Garrett knew what was coming, but he eventually became weary with all the questions about Michael Sam, who was officially signed to the team's practice roster Wednesday.

Sam is the first openly gay player attempting to play in the NFL. His presence on one of the NFL's most high-profile teams was the main topic of Garrett's regularly-scheduled press briefing.

"I  think we've got to be careful about spending too much time on a practice roster player," Garrett warned after fielding a number of questions about Sam. "We traded for a defensive end who's going to be on our active roster (Lavar Edwards) from Tennessee. We picked up a defensive lineman (Jack Crawford) that we think is going to be on our active roster."

The break room where Garrett holds his press conferences was filled to capacity on Wednesday. The Cowboys normally draw a large media crowd, but this day there were more cameras and reporters than usual.

And far more questions about a practice squad player than in any previous press conference by a Cowboys coach. 

"Again, I think we've probably talked too much about all that," Garrett chided when asked whether Sam's homosexuality mattered. "He's a practice squad player that we're going to bring in here to try to give an opportunity to help our football team. Our attention and focus is on the 49ers."

The 49ers are the Cowboys' opponents on Sunday when the season opens. Signing Sam is a distraction for the Cowboys, although Garrett insisted it wouldn't be within the team.

"That's your decision as to what question you're going to ask. We're focused on football," Garrett said.

"Any of this stuff really comes from the exterior, comes from this group right here (reporters). Again, we're focused on getting ready for the 49ers. We understand what the challenge is."

To that end, Garrett said the signing of Sam was strictly about football. The Cowboys are especially thin at defensive end, where Sam plays. Two potential starters, Anthony Spencer and DeMarcus Lawrence, aren't available because of injuries. This is after losing DeMarcus Ware, one of the club's all-time greats, to free agency in the offseason.

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"This is about football," Garrett said. "We evaluate him as a football player, we thought he could help us as a football player. We want to see what he can do. Our attention and focus is on football."

Garrett said the Cowboys heard good reports from St. Louis, which drafted Sam in the seventh round and kept him until the final cuts on Saturday. While Sam had three sacks in the preseason, the Rams are one of the few teams with an abundance of good pass rushers.

"We feel like he has a chance to come in at a position that we tried to address really throughout the offseason, throughout training camp, and compete for a spot," Garrett said. "We just want to give him a chance to come in and see if he can help our football team."

This was also Garrett's first opportunity to address the media about the 10-game suspension the NFL gave former Cowboys defensive tackle Josh Brent. 

The Cowboys organization stood by Brent both before and after his conviction for intoxication manslaughter for the car crash that killed teammate Jerry Brown, Jr.

"Obviously that was a tragic situation that we all had to work our way through, no one more than Josh and Jerry Brown and his family," Garrett said. "We have been very supportive of Josh through the whole process, through the legal process. I know his teammates have been supportive. We want to make sure as an organization, as a coaching staff and everyone from the Dallas Cowboys support him. It's a very, very difficult situation to deal with, as anyone can imagine."

Brent's agent said he will appeal the suspension, citing the time already missed when Brent voluntarily retired prior to the 2013 season to focus on his legal issues.

"We feel like, like with any member of your family, it's important for us to support him, help him in any way we can first and foremost as a person," Garrett said. "Any interaction we have with him individually, teammates, coaches, from where I sit, from where our organization sits as a whole, it's just important that he understands that we're there for him."

With the news of the day dominated by two players who won't even play Sunday, Garrett had little success trying to steer the line of questioning toward football matters. In fact, he was nearly 10 minutes into his press conference before the first question was asked about the polarizing player who usually dominates media discussions: Tony Romo.

Follow Keith Whitmire on Twitter: @Keith_Whitmire