That Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is inept as a general manager in the National Football League is now so painfully obvious that it has ceased to be worthy of mention. Pointing out his management guffaws is like shooting fish in a barrel or beating your seven year old grandson in an arm wrestling match. There is just no joy in it, no sense of fulfillment.

I just happen to be joyous and fulfilled enough to do it anyway.

The announcement that kicker David Buehler has been cut brought to mind the worst draft in the history of the Dallas Cowboys, and one of the worst in the history of professional football.

If you remain unconvinced that Jerry Jones is lost as a GM, unless he has his hand held by an actual football man like Jimmy Johnson or Bill Parcells, I give you (drum roll, please) your Dallas Cowboys’ 2009 NFL Draft extravaganza.

You be the judge, the jury and the helpless fan.

Round by round, here we go…

Round One

Your Heroes had no pick. Jerry had already used it to acquire—wait for it!—wideout Roy Williams. Yes, that Roy Williams. The Lions used the Cowboys’ 20th pick on TE Brandon Pettigrew. Still on the board to be taken later in round one: Clay Matthews (Packers, 26th overall) and Hakeem Nicks (Giants, 29th overall).

I would give this a grade, but I do not want to insult teachers.

Round Two

The Cowboys had the 19th pick and traded it to the Buffalo Bills for the number two third round picks and a fourth rounder. Let’s withhold judgment until we see how this turns out.

Round Three

With the fifth pick (from the Browns), the cowboys take LB Jason Williams out of Western Illinois. In his first three years in the league, Williams has amassed an astounding 20 tackles. (Yes, my tongue was in my cheek there.) He has never worked his way into the starting lineup. He’s a bit player at best; a two-bit player at worst.

With the 11th pick of the third round (from the Bills), the Cowboys take OT Robert Brewster. If you do not know anything about him, don’t bother. He was hurt his rookie season and when he healed, they discovered he couldn’t play. He’s no longer with the team.

Round Four

With the first pick in the fourth round (from the Lions), the Cowboys select QB Stephen McGee out of Texas A&M. McGee was a fabulous high school quarterback, a decent college quarterback on a team that had no real passing game, and has been—and shall forever remain—a backup at best in the NFL.

The 10th pick in the fourth round is spent on LB Victor Butler from Oregon State, because, in a three-four defense, you can never have too many quality linebackers. Butler is a quality backup linebacker. In three years, however, he has managed just 30 tackles and 15 assists. Not the worst mid-round pick ever, but not the man you want to hang your hat on as the best pick of your 2009 draft, which he probably is.

The Cowboys traded for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 20th pick in the fourth to snag DE/LB Brandon Williams—a brilliant move. (Again, facetious.) Williams recorded three tackles in 2010, then moved on to Arizona, where he did nothing at all.

Fifth Round

The Cowboys traded with the Oakland Raiders to get the seventh pick in the fifth round. They saw something they liked in CB DeAngelo Smith, out of Cincinatti. DeAngelo ended up playing in Detroit in 2009, recording six tackles. That’s it. Nothing since.

With the 30th pick in round five, the Cowboys took FS Michael Hamlin. Hamlin made it through the ’09 season and part of 2010 before he was set free. His numbers were nil.

Number 36 in the fifth was spent on K David Buehler, the strong-footed, linebacker-looking kicker our of USC, whom the Cowboys cut yesterday. He was supposed to be for the purpose of kicking the ball too deep to return on kickoffs and for kicking the ridiculously long field goals. He was a luxury the Cowboys could not afford. And he was not that luxurious anyway.

Sixth Round

In this round, the Cowboys picked up SS Stephen Hodge,TCU, and TE John Phillips, Virginia. Hodge is another bust. John Phillips has proved himself a player, especially in the blocking game. He has shown potential as a receiver, as well. That’s good, because the second round pick from the 2008 draft, Martellus “Marty B” Bennett, another colossal bust, is likely on his way out.

Seventh Round

Here, the Cowboys picked up CB Mike Mickens from Cincinatti and WR Manuel Johnson from Oklahoma. For some reason, the Cowboys were completely enamored with the Cincinatti Bearcats’ backfield. They took two players from that unit. One has worked out about as well as the other. If you don’t remember Mickens or Johnson, it is likely because you are not family or a close personal friend to either of them.

I would offer insightful commentary on the lost draft of 2009. I would mention how a team cannot afford to just skip entire years of drafting and developing quality players. I would talk about Jerry Jones and company and how overmatched they are in the NFL.

But the facts do not need me. They speak for themselves.

Susanna Kim of ABC News has written a sad, sorry story about former NFL sensation Terrell Owens.

Terrell Owens was despised by almost every fan of every team on which he did not play and by many on the teams on which he did. He was seen as selfish, self-centered, a Prima Donna. In San Francisco and Dallas, he was ultimately perceived as a team cancer. In Buffalo and Cincinnati, he was mostly a non-factor.

But Owens was bright. He was innovative. He was a showman. From dancing on the midfield star in Texas Stadium to hauling out a sharpie and signing a football after scoring a touchdown, Owens incensed the opposition and entertained the masses.

Owens possesses an infectious smile and a quick wit. He is also a special, Hall of Fame–caliber talent. He has all the traits that could have made him beloved by all.

All but one.

Owens never bought into the notion that there is no “I” in team. He always figured the best thing for whatever team he was on was for him to be the focus of the offense and the center of attention.

On the sidelines during one Dallas Cowboys game, Owens was captured screaming, “I love me some me!”

And he did love him some him, but apparently few others do these days.

Kim opens her article, Terrell Owens, the former NFL star receiver who has signed to play for and co-own an indoor football team, is friendless and nearly broke, he told GQ magazine. “I’m in hell,” Owens, 38, said he tells people who ask about his well-being.

Hardly the picture of a man reaping the rewards of an NFL career that garnered him a reported 80 million dollars in earnings.

Hardly the expected testimony of the man who once said, “Getcha popcorn ready, because it’s gonna be a show.”

Kim concludes her article, “I don’t have no friends,” [Owens] told GQ. ”I don’t want no friends. That’s how I feel.”

The sadness of this man is palpable. What a tragedy!

Did you ever hear the term “Good-Time Charlie?”

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a “good-time Charlie” as  a happy-go-lucky convivial man given to fun making, hilarity, and the general pursuit of amusement.

Terrell Owens was the NFL’s most colorful Good-Time Charlie. And what is wrong with that, really? There is nothing wrong with enjoying the ride.

Get ready. Here comes my analysis.

Someone has to be the life of the party and if you are that person to whom others naturally gravitate, more power to you. You make them laugh. You make them cry. You leave them wanting more. They all want to be you.

Cool.

But be careful, shining star, of listening too closely to the accolades. Be careful of making yourself the focal point of your own attentions. The crowd is fickle and glory fleeting. When the lights go out and the party ends, it will be those people you loved, those people in whom you invested, those people you made feel important that remain.

Be careful how you party, party hound.

Or, you may end up a party of one in a forsaken dive Owens called “Hell.”

It is time for a Jones family coup.

It is time for the Jones family to salvage what is left of their dignity and community status. This mess Papa Jerry Jones is making of the Dallas Cowboys threatens to destroy every shred of goodwill the people of Dallas/Fort Worth ever had for the Arkansas clan.

After the Cowboys concluded yet another disappointing, playoff-missing season with an 8-8 record, which they achieved by dropping four of their last five games, Jones was peppered with the usual questions about hiring a general manager.

The stubborn ol’ coot once again stood his ground, set his jaw and defiantly declared himself the best man for the job. At this point, exactly one person in the universe believes that to be true: Jerry Jones.

Jerry’s reasoning is beyond ridiculous.

David Moore of DallasNews.com shared the belligerent owner’s reaction to the idea of the Cowboys bringing a football man like Bill Polian on board as GM:

“I know we can do better, but I think there are some positives there.”

“I’d call on the very same kinds of influence and people and the information that someone like Bill Polian does.”

“The way we’re structured and the way it is, our fans need to understand that I have the ability to go get anybody and any bit of information that there is, sports or football, and I do. I go get it. We get it from a lot of sources.”

If you really listen to what Jones is saying, it is pretty clear that he has lost the last shred of sanity he possessed. He thinks that telling Joe Fan that he hasn’t been acting unilaterally all these years will make the mediocrity he has mired this club in easier to digest. He thinks he can fool the entire world. He thinks that if he can just make you understand that he really is the best choice for GM of the Dallas Cowboys, everything will be just fine.

But you ain’t buying it. Neither am I. Neither is anyone else in the known universe.

During the 15-year period from 1997–2011, Jerry Jones’ Cowboys have posted a regular season record of 120–120. They have been to the playoffs six times. They have one playoff victory.

The Dallas Cowboys plowed through five head coaches during the aforementioned span. Jason Garrett is coach number six. One of those coaches, Dave Campo (the current defensive backs coach), rode herd over three consecutive 5–11 teams.

We are not talking about the Cardinals here! This is the Dallas Cowboys. And these are the Dark Ages in this team’s storied existence. Fans of America’s Team continue to suffer through the longest Super Bowl drought in franchise history with no sign of relief on the horizon and no reason to hope for a better tomorrow.

Still, Jones says hiring a general manager would “deter from the mix” at Cowboys headquarters. This has to be among the most insane things the man has said to date. He is overseeing a faltering, failing organization but does not want to mess up the chemistry?

Huh?

Jerry “Nero” Jones continues to fiddle while Rome burns and nobody can do a thing about it. Unless…his own family joins together and overthrows the tyrant.

A Jones family coup may be the only thing that can save the Cowboys from the destructive force of an insane owner.

This morning, I am afflicted with Tony Romo Disease: A particularly nasty virus that leaves a writer dazed, confused and all but paralyzed.

There are so many ways to go with a Dallas Cowboys morning-after-the-train wreck article, I find myself staring at the keyboard.

There is so much to say, I find myself dumbfounded.

I could suggest to the mayor of Detroit that he present Tony Romo with the key to the city. And why not? Romo handed the keys to Cowboys Stadium to that beaten down city’s NFL football club. When the Lions could do nothing to help themselves, Romo provided that helping hand the Motor City has so long needed.

I could suggest to Jason Garrett that he pull Romo in the fourth quarter if his team has the lead and play him if the team is down. And why not? What QB has equal flair for single-handedly blowing big leads and guiding unlikely comeback victories?

I could float the theory that God is holding Jerry Jones to that deal he glibly joked about making with the Almighty in order to get that third Super Bowl win in the ’90s. Jones told that one on a 60 Minutes interview a year or so back.

On a similar note, I could muse as to whether Cowboys Stadium is cursed in some way. Think about it: After watching Texas A&M blow a 35–17 halftime lead, did you think there was any way in the wide world of sports a team could have a bigger meltdown on that very same field that very same weekend?

Me neither.

I could defend Tony Romo as the Cowboys’ best option at quarterback.

Or, I could finger Romo as the primary reason the Cowboys will not enjoy ultimate success any time soon.

Either way, I would be right.

Instead, since I am speechless, numb, dumbfounded and bewildered, I will let the inimitable Bob Costas say for me exactly what I was thinking…

Rich Dalrymple of the Dallas Cowboys may have the toughest job in professional sports.

No. He does not play quarterback, cornerback or left tackle. To my knowledge, he has never had to read a blitz, cover a speedy receiver or block a bull rushing defensive end.

Compared to what Rich Dalrymple does have to do, however, those things seem a bit like child’s play. You see, Dalrymple’s unfortunate title is Director of Personal Relations for the Dallas Cowboys.

You do see the implications of such a title, right?

Dalrymple has to cover Jerry Jones’s tracks. He has to spin the news when his boss spins out of control. He is the one jerking the steering wheel to keep the car from crashing into a telephone pole when Jerry’s brain falls asleep at the wheel, but his mouth continues to accelerate toward disaster.

Consider the story SI.com recently broke about what Jerry Jones said and did at the meeting between the NFL Executive Committee and the NFL Players Union representatives.

According to SI columnist Jim Trotter, Jerry Jones said, “I don’t think we got your attention. You clearly don’t understand what we’re saying.”

Jones then made a gesture of bumping his fists together and got up from his seat to make a dramatic exit.

The implication was that the players took Jones’s actions and words as the powerful Cowboys’ owner attempting to impress upon them the imminent reality of the NFL lockout in dramatic fashion.

Trotter reported that the move may have backfired since some of the players thought it was funny:

“I think everybody in the room thought it was overly dramatic, almost hilarious,” one player said. “It was like a Jerry Maguire moment. You know, ‘I’m leaving. Who’s coming with me?’ I know it didn’t scare any of us.”

The report put Jones in a bad light and tossed him right in the center of the circle of blame for the failure of the two sides to reach an agreement and avoid the shutdown of NFL football.

Guess who had to go to work putting lipstick on that pig?

Yep! Rich Dalrymple.

Dalrymple told the Dallas Morning News, “A lot of people were reading into that story that Jerry walked out of the room and that simply wasn’t the case. He never left the room, and he wasn’t trying to orchestrate anything. I guess the story was that Jerry Jones can become animated when trying to make a point. That’s not news to anyone around here.”

See why the man who goes through coaches like they were bags of potato chips has kept Mr. Dalrymple around throughout the entirety of his ownership of the Dallas Cowboys? It is because the man with the toughest job in sports is as smooth as butter.

Like a franchise NFL quarterback, Dalrymple can read a media blitz and attack it with great success. Like a shutdown corner, he covers the often swerving, unpredictable route-running Cowboys owner like a blanket. And like an All-Pro left tackle, he takes on bull rushing fans and speed rushing reporters with equal success, always keeping his boss upright.

Dalrymple is Alice in Wonderland. He is the voice of sanity in a world of crazy. Or, maybe it takes a little crazy to seem so sane.

Brings to mind the words of the Mad Hatter to Alice: “There is a place. Like no place on Earth. A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger! Some say to survive it: You need to be as mad as a hatter.”

Welcome to Jerry’s world. Mr. Dalrymple will be your guide. Watch your step, keep your eyes on the ball, and never believe what you hear…until Mr. Dalrymple explains it for you.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wants to draft Cam Newton. Is the Dallas Cowboys owner officially crazy— or is he crazy like a fox?

One of the entertaining things that happens around this time of year is the way prospective rookies allegedly “move up and down” the draft boards of NFL teams. This often occurs for no other reason than some writer or commentator throws out a suggestion and, like bloody meat in  a pool of sharks, it creates a mindless feeding frenzy.

But then you have those stories generated by statements from teams and players themselves. This is the case with the Cam Newton to Dallas Cowboys furor. It was none other than Cowboys Owner/GM Jerry Jones that said he was, in fact, considering taking Newton with the Cowboys’ number nine pick.

Then Cam Newton confirmed the Cowboys’ interest.

“I did have a meeting with the Cowboys last night for 15 minutes,” Newton admitted, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “It was one of those teams that I did speak with. As far as any teams right now… I’m not going to get particular [about] which teams that I’m interested in, because right now I’m interested in every single team that’s in the NFL who’s willing to take me as a player.”

All of this raises the question: Is Jerry Jones serious about drafting Cam Newton, or is this a bluff?

Certainly, part of the intrigue of the NFL Draft is the games these men play with one another. It is like watching the World Series of Poker. Who is really doing what?

Jerry Jones could be feeding the Newton fire as a bluff for a couple of reasons:

• Interest in Newton is gaining steam, even by teams at the top of the board. With Carolina, Denver and Buffalo sitting one, two, three, it is unlikely the Auburn phenom and Heisman trophy winner makes it past those guys. Jerry could simply be confirming for them the perceived value of the pick, nudging them onward.
• It makes sense that the Cowboys would like for teams to take as many quarterbacks as possible before they pick at nine. Each pick burned by a position that is not a need for the Dallas Cowboys pushes a player they do want another notch down, closer to them.
• The Redskins are picking at eleven. If Newton slides down the board, the Cowboys may be looking to move down, but not too far down. Maybe the Redskins, who do need a quarterback and would be salivating at the prospects of nabbing Newton, would give up the family farm to move two slots and get their man, especially if Jerry Jones is threatening to take their man to Dallas.

Of course, it may not be a bluff at all. Jones and Jason Garrett may actually believe in Cam Newton. Or, maybe they have lost faith in Tony Romo? I do not believe that. But it is possible.

The problem with Newton to the Cowboys is that the team would be burning a rare top ten pick on a player that would not likely see the field for two years, at least. It is highly unlikely that they would throw him to the sharks his rookie year, especially when they seem to believe they have the talent to compete for the Super Bowl right now, if they can just get a couple of key pieces.

The Cowboys drafting Cam Newton would confirm to me that Jerry Jones is, as suspected, more suited to running a circus than a football team. He is just the 21st Century’s version of P.T. Barnum.

What a lethal combination Cam Newton and Jerry Jones could be for Cowboys fans.

Newton has already declared himself bigger than the game of football: ”I see myself not only as a football player, but an entertainer and icon.”

That might work for guys like Lebron James in the narcissistic, superstar-driven NBA, where raw ball skills are enough to win titles. But in the complicated world of NFL football, a guy who hasn’t completed a single pass in the league already worrying about his “brand” has to be a red flag. Kind of makes you think maybe the big stud is actually his father’s son.

Here’s hoping Jerry Jones is bluffing. Here is hoping he is just goading some other poor slob to mortgage his team’s future on the NFL’s next great disaster. If not, here is hoping Jerry’s boy, Stephen, will grab the nearest straight jacket and have dad committed before he destroys what is left the Dallas Cowboys.

[picappgallerysingle id="9581046"]One sure sign that a struggling team is beginning to implode: Players start criticizing other players and/or coaches. Defensive players blame offensive players. Offensive players blame the defense. Players blame coaches.

Usually, when a player  tosses a coach under the bus, he does so to a coach to whom he answers. Defensive end Igor Olshansky, however, has elected to call out offensive coordinator Jason Garrett instead.

Olshansky was a guest this week on the Bradie James show on 105.3 the Fan. During his interview on the show, the big Russian offered this critique of Garrett’s offense:

“Don’t give the ball away. I mean, there’s a lot of things that can go wrong when you pass the ball. You can get sacked, the ball can get tipped, you can get an interception. If you run the ball, you can get tackled and get a forced fumble. See, there’s a lot more things [that can go wrong on pass plays]. … You’ve got to run the ball.”

Apparently, Olshansky doesn’t see any problem with the way the porous Dallas defense has played. Allowing the Giants to fly up and down the field at will and then yielding 35 points to a pedestrian team like the Jacksonville Jaguars is just OK with the big oaf.

In fact, during the course of an embarrassing loss to the New York Giants, Olshansky could actually be seen celebrating the only two plays he made the entire game.

Here is what Cowboys’ management should do right now. Wade Phillips should call a press conference today to announce that he has cut Igor Olshansky. He should take the opportunity to talk about “teamwork” and being a “team player.” Then, when the media inevitably runs to Jerry Jones for comment, Jones should make it perfectly clear that this was Wade’s call, not his.

Three things would be accomplished

1. Rid the team of an overpaid, under-producing knucklehead
2. Send a clear message to the rest of the team.
3. Restore a modicum of credibility to Wade Phillips as the team’s coach.

Will they do it? No. And that is why they are a listless, uninspired, embarrassing 1-6. The inmates are running the asylum.

I was six years old when my Uncle Daryle began drilling me on Dallas Cowboys’ names and numbers. Whenever our families would get together, usually on holidays or random summer trips to visit them in San Antonio, the Dallas Cowboys would ultimately become a topic of discussion. The tales of gridiron heroics had me dreaming of one day wearing a star on my helmet, of playing the world’s greatest game for the world’s greatest team.

If it wasn’t Uncle Daryle, it was Uncle Gary, both of them uncles by marriage, and neither of them around anymore. They were better Cowboys fans than they were husbands, so they got themselves kicked to the curb, but before they did, they helped burn the storied Dallas Cowboys’ star into my medulla.

I have rarely missed a game since. From the Hail Mary heroics of Roger Staubach and Drew Pearson to the unbelievable Thanksgiving Day play of the one-hit wonder, the Mad Bomber, Clint Longley, to the Tony Dorsett Monday night 99-yard dash into the history books to the three Super Bowl wins of the Triplets and their compadres, I have been there, cheering my lungs out, sweating bullets, bleeding silver and blue.

I have been there through the bad times, too.

I remember those heart-wrenching Super Bowl losses to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the ’70s. I remember. I remember the circus-catching, high-flying Lynn Swann and the frying pans-for-hands Jackie Smith and the roles they each played in determining “the team of the ’70s.” I remember 1-15 in 1989. I was in shock with the rest of Cowboys Nation when Jerry Jones failed to check his ego and fired Jimmy Johnson after he had won a second consecutive Super Bowl!

Through thick and thin, come Hell or high water, up or down, I have cheered for my team. I have never wavered even once in my loyalty. Nor will I now.

Yet, I wonder if it isn’t time that a true-blue Dallas Cowboys fan cheered for his team’s failure.

Hear me out before you write me off or chunk me under the nearest bus. Roughly 99.9 percent of us can agree on this fact: Jerry Jones and his massive ego have played in indisputable role in this team’s 15-year failure to return to glory. He thinks himself a better football mind than he is. He cannot abide a strong leader in the locker room, sucking up the air and the glory he desires for himself. Witness the Jimmy Johnson firing, the Bill Parcells exit, and the hiring of puppet-coaches like Chan Gailey, Dave Campo, and now the finest puppet of them all, Wade Phillips.

The only thing that has ever forced Jones’ hand, the only thing that has ever made him bite the bullet and seek out a real head football coach, is desperation. Even now, when his team, a preseason Super Bowl favorite, sits at 1-5, he remains unmoved. He stubbornly insists that Wade Phillips is exactly the man he wants on that sideline.

So, what will move Jones to consider making the wholesale changes necessary to mold this collection of undisciplined, underachieving over-hyped prima donnas into a real football team? Abject failure. Total implosion. A half-empty billion-dollar football palace. That…and nothing else.

Jones has been too successful in his lifetime. The mold is cast. He believes in his own invincibility. He actually swallows those heaping spoonfuls of bull hockey he tries to feed the fans and media. He is in grave danger of becoming Al Davis, whose past glories have helped to rot his brain, ruin his perspective and mire his club in perpetual disarray.

If the Cowboys are to ever rise to glory again, it will be under the leadership of a new head coach. Therefore, they must fail enough to force the stubborn owner into making that change.

It is a quandary, is it not? While you watch the Cowboys line up against a very beatable Jacksonville Jaguars team, your natural instinct will be to cheer your Boys on to victory. But should you? Should I?

Or is it time for real Dallas Cowboys fans to lower the team flag, raise the white flag, and cheer for failure until it forces the hand of the man who has the gun to his own franchise’s head?

What is the worst news you could get right now as a fan of the Dallas Cowboys?

Would it be a season-ending injury to Tony Romo or DeMarcus Ware? Or maybe that Miles Austin had been traded?

While any of those things would absolutely stink, none of them is the worst scenario I can imagine. My worst nightmare concerning the Cowboys has actually come to life, thanks to Jerry Jones.

After Sunday’s debacle sent the clueless Cowboys to their worst 5-game start since the Campo days, Jerry boldly proclaimed, “I believe in the coaching staff. I believe in Wade Phillips.”

Mr. Jones did not say whether he believed in fairies, the Easter bunny, or Santa Claus.

"Look at him. Isn't he cute?"

The worst scenario has happened. Rather than Jerry Jones, through the sheer force of his indomitable will, turning Wade Phillips into a winner with a winner’s mentality, Wade has instead turned Jones into a contented loser — one who believes good stats are every bit as important as putting up W’s in the win/loss column.

Jones went on to say, “A lot of people say the old saying, ‘You are what you are.’ We are not that team. Our team is doing some very good things.”

His veiled shot at Bill Parcells—who loved to make that ‘You are what you are’ proclamation—notwithstanding, the chilling truth of Jones’ mindset is that he really is buying Wade’s crap.

You remember what good ol’ boy Wade said, right?

“I guess we think we are a better 1-4 team than some teams that are 1-4.”

I guess that means it is time to celebrate then? Get ya’ pom-poms ready! Give me a an ‘L!’ Give me an ‘O!’ Give me…you know the rest.

The thing that is so disheartening here is that, unless Jerry is just being the salesman he is, trying to put lipstick on what he thought was his prize pig, the owner of this mess we all want cleaned up thinks the place looks pretty damn good messy, thank you very much.

He still believes in Wade.

Well, I believe in Chicken Little.

While Texans celebrate the triumph of an organization that has been built the right way from the ground up, namely, those incredibly resilient Texas Rangers, Jerry Jones kicks the collective fan base in the groin by stubbornly insisting he still believes in Wade Phillips.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that Jerry and Stephen Jones both stated their unequivocal commitment to— and belief in— Wade Phillips and his staff. Despite clear and indisputable evidence to the contrary, The Joneses insist that Wade has taken responsibility for his team’s inexplicable failures in the first quarter of the 2010 NFL season.

Stephen Jones, the man I had hoped might bring a sense of sanity to Cowboys leadership absurdly insisted,