A Study of Jerry Jone's Ego - And Why I'm Breaking Up WIth My Team.

Dallas Haters are going to love this one:  This is going to be long and rambling, so I apologize in advance.

Let me state that I have been a Cowboys fan for as long as I have been fully able to comprehend and follow football competently, basically, the majority of my life.  This has been a long time coming, but yesterday was the last straw for me.  After witnessing a team that has Super Bowl talent lay down and die without even an ounce of effort in a huge game, I can longer back them as my team.  I can no longer support a team that I have zero respect for.  They are a microcosm of their owner: flashy with no substance.  Show boaters with no guts or grit.

Let me state that this is not because they lost yesterday.  The Final straw was the WAY they lost, but they have been losing like this for quite some time now.  Let me just state that as someone who knows Dallas well, I knew the second Oakland beat Tampa giving the Eagles life that the Cowboys would fold like a cheap tent on the road against a jacked up, tougher, more vicious team.  I KNEW it would happen.

 Why?  Because Football is a man’s game, a warrior’s game.  Champions are born and bred through leadership, through toughness, through togetherness, through continuity, through pride, through playing like a fucking warrior, as a unit.  That is how successful football is operated.  Manning up.  Not just wanting to beat the guy across from you, but to dismantle him.  Not playing for a paycheck or women or the press, but because it is a battlefield, and the greater man should emerge victorious.  Carrying yourself with dignity.  Being a team.

The current Dallas Cowboys are none of these things.  For the sake of argument, the Dallas Cowboys have never been ANY of these things when Jerry Jones had complete control of the team (basically, every year where Jimmy Johnson and Bill Parcells weren’t coaching).  Jerry Jones has made a mockery of this franchise, and his massive ego has at every turn dismantled every bit of momentum this franchise has ever generated when he has owned it.  In short, he has killed this team whenever he has decided to let his ego get in the way and run the show, and I will no longer support it.

For those who do not believe me, let’s take a chronological look at the Dallas Cowboys under Jones’ ownership, broken into five distinct eras.  This will show how his ego has ruined this franchise. 

Phase 1:  The Jimmy Johnson era.

-          One of the few things Jones ever did right was hiring Jimmy Johnson.  He hired him as an ego play because everyone told him not to do it, but it turned out to be brilliant.  At the beginning, Jones stayed away, and Jimmy Johnson absolutely had control of this team during his tenure.  During this time, he assembled probably the greatest collection of talent on one team in the history of the NFL.  This was not done by Jones; it was done by Jimmy Johnson completely hoodwinking Vikings GM Mike Lynch into trading a multitude of draft picks for Herschel Walker, something that Jerry Jones DID NOT want to do.  Jimmy talked him into it, and proceeded to cut useless weight, and turn those gift draft picks into MORE draft picks.  Jimmy also ran the drafts, and the list of players he drafted, traded for, and developed are staggering.  Darren Woodson, Emmitt, Maryland, Kevin Smith, Charles Haley, Irvin, Novacek, Erik Williams, Stepnoski, Moose, etc,etc,etc.   In short, Jimmy Johnson built a team through the draft and making shrewd trades, while Jones has proven he builds by trading away draft picks for flashy, underachieving veterans, which we will get into later.

-          Now, we know that talented teams aren’t worth a damn without leadership and discipline.  Everyone jokes about the 90’s Cowboys teams as being criminals, but none of that shit happened until Switzer came around.  Johnson was a hammer, a disciplinarian.  His players hated him but they damn sure respected him.  The talent and egos he assembled were somewhat questionable at times, but they WORKED under him.  Role players played with pride or were cut.  Stars were kept in check.  They were brash, they were cocky, but they played together and they absolutely laid waste to opponents, getting back to back Super Bowl victories.

-          At this time, the media was in full suck up mode to Johnson, praising him at every turn for being an outright football mastermind.  This absolutely drove Jones nuts.  He thought he knew football because he played, dammit, and after all he was the one who hired Jimmy in the first place.  Jones also resented how much personnel control Jimmy had and did not take kindly to Jimmy telling him to mind his own damn business when it came to personnel decisions.  All of this led to Jones slowly plotting to fire Johnson, which he eventually did before the start of the 1994 season.

Phase 2 – The Switzer Era

-          One of the biggest travesties in sports history was the hiring of Barry Switzer, who with Jones’ help singlehandedly destroyed what could have been the greatest run in the history of professional football.

-          The hiring of Switzer showed just how massive Jones’ ego was.  First of all, hiring a man who encouraged criminal behavior at Oklahoma (the buckle of the Bible Belt, no less), and singlehandedly destroyed one of the greatest programs in college football history took huge balls.  In short, a huge ego.  Also, Jones knew that Switzer had a laizze fair attitude that that he could easily push his old pal around, and have complete control of the team.  This is when the train went off the tracks.

-          The Switzer era will forever be marred by colossal disappointments on the field, and famous, ridiculously almost criminal transgressions off of it.  The White House happened under Switzer.  Players flying in hookers and strippers on road trips happened under Switzer. The team holding less intense practices happened under Switzer.  The team losing focus happened under Switzer.

-          This would also be a pre-cursor of Jones’ anything goes mentality when it comes to signing players.  The signing of Deion Sanders was the beginning of the end for Dallas, as it destroyed their salary cap position and brought in a flashy player who refused to lead, lift weights, or play hard.  A flashy PART TIME player at that.  Jones had to have him, and he not only destroyed the team’s financial position by signing him, but he brought in a cancer who set a very poor example for younger players and caused a schism in the locker room.

-          In Switzer’s first year, 1994, a talent wise far superior Cowboys team played a sloppy, uninspired game in the 94 NFC Championship and got whooped by the Forty Niners.  I have been convinced for a long time, that if Johnson had coached that team Dallas would have won by at least ten points.  Aikman said the players were not prepared from boozing, banging hookers, etc. This would not have happened under Johnson, as Johnson OWNED the Niners.  A Chargers team would have posed little threat to Dallas, and a three peat was nulled simply by Jones’ ego.

-          Switzer did manage to win a Super Bowl, congratulations, with one of the most talented teams in history, and getting HUGELY lucky in the process.  That Dallas team was ill-prepared for that game and won purely on talent and Neil O Donnell throwing the game (literally).  Many Dallas players were hung over for the game and Jones and Switzer spent the entire week partying with the players.

-          The end came fast and soon.  Jerry let several key free agents walk, drafted horribly, and after getting their asses whipped by Carolina in 96 and a colossally bad 6-10 showing in 2007, Jones fired Switzer, leading to his new era of yes men.

Stage 3: The Chan Gailey/Dave Campo years

-          This era can be defined simply as INEPT.  Both Gailey and Campo were complete yes men  who cow-towed to Jones’s ego and took whatever shit he gave them.  (Campo was worse, which is why he lasted a year longer than Gailey)  This era was marred by bad coaching, drafting, and overall personnel decisions, led mostly by Jones. This era included an embarrassing playoff loss to the Arizona Cardinals and another thumping by the Vikings.  It included the downfall of Emmitt, Troy, and Irvin.  I don’t blame Jones for their age getting a hold of them, but I blame him for every other part of this five year debacle.

-          Some highlights of Jones’ tenure of running the show during this era:  Not drafting Randy Moss when he was practically begging Dallas to do it.  Trading two first round picks for Joey Galloway, who in 4 years barely eclipsed 2000 receiving yards.  Seriously.  2 First Round picks for Joey Galloway.  Running an offense through Rocket Ismail (can we see the pattern that Jones loves flashy, mouthy, fast, underachieving players?)  Jones drafted Quincy Carter in the second round, about 2 rounds too early, because he didn’t have a first round pick because he gave it to Seattle for Galloway.  Think about it, a team that went 5-11 three years in a row had a three year span with one first round draft pick.  Oh, does anybody remember Chad Hutchinson or when he brought in RYAN FUCKING LEAF??

-          This era speaks for itself.

Stage 4 – The Bill Parcells era

-          After getting his ass completely handed to him, and after 9 years of yes men coaches, Jones finally swallowed his pride and hired another hammer.  Another disciplinarian.  Parcells took control of this team and turned it respectable again.  He had almost nothing to start with, thanks to Jones’ complete ineptitude, and slowly built a much stronger team, and managed to win despite having Quincy Carter, Chad Hutchinson, Drew Bledsoe, and Vinny Testavere as his quarterbacks for most of the tenure.

-          Dallas returned to respectability because of Parcells, period.  Parcells was the one who drafted most every competent player you see on the Cowboys today: Ware, Ratliff, Barber, etc.  He started to build a contender.  He built the foundation for what is now arguably the most talented team in football.  He built the bricks, but Jones eventually destroyed it, because once again he simply couldn’t handle not making the personnel decisions.

-          Jones had to have TO.  Jones was also getting sick of Parcells getting credit and running the drafts and the show.  Parcells was infuriated by TO’s signing, as was I.  He was trying to build something, a TEAM, and here was Jones handing out huge money to the biggest cancer in NFL history.  Jones under-cut what Parcells was trying to do, which is why he jumped ship.  By the way, I’m convinced that if Parcells never had left this Cowboys team could have won a Super Bowl either last year or this year, which leads me to my next point:

Stage 5 – The Current Wade Phillips Era

-          Once again, Jones could stand no more than 4 years of having a no holds barred, discipline orientated coach who wouldn’t take his shit.  Enter Wade Phillips, one of the biggest pushovers in NFL history.  Enter, again, a yes man who would not question Jones and let the inmates run the asylum yet again.

-          We don’t need to get as historical or lengthy here, as most of this is fresh:  But we currently have a Cowboys roster with two felons : Tank and PacMan, both JOKE signings.  We have Jones trading away multiple draft picks for a flashy, fast, underachieving Wide Receiver AGAIN (Roy Williams).  We have Jones signing Flozell Adams to a five year deal despite him being on the wrong side of 30.  We have him signing Romo to a huge contract before noticing the guy has NO GUTS OR BALLS.  We have a team run amuck, a team that got its ass handed to them by the more physical and mentally tough Giants last year, and the embarrassment of yesterday.  In short, Jones took a perfect window with this Dallas team that Parcells built, and destroyed it by hiring a pushover coach and refusing to hire a competent GM.   In short, his ego has ONCE AGAIN derailed what could have been a great team.

Conclusion:

If anyone bothered to read this know that I am no fair weather fan.  I would back this team going 0-16 if they played with any toughness or pride.  If they didn’t self destruct and waste talent.  If they had a backbone.   As a Dallas fan under 30 I have also sat through almost twice as many sub par years as successful years. 

If Jones fired Wade tomorrow, stepped down as GM, and hired an ass kicker like Cowher, I would be back on board.  This won’t happen, and I cannot continue to support a team that has no leadership, that kills itself, that makes horrid personnel decisions through its owner, that has a quarterback with no guts or leadership, that has no continuity.  This will not change when Jones is at the helm.  The Cowboys will continue to try to be the Yankees of football, with pretty much the same success rate.

I wish them well, and hold no ill will.  But I will no longer support Jerry Jones unless he is simply writing checks and keeping his mouth shut.  He is one of the worst decision makers in the NFL, and his ego has created so much wasted opportunity it is confounding.  Simply put, without Jones’ ego this Cowboys team would have at least 5 Super Bowls during his tenure, and would not be self-destructing and going back to irrelevance as we speak.

Let the traitor calling, name calling, and bashing from Cowboys fans begin….