The Dallas Cowboys are under new ownership, and have been for awhile now.

No, I am not reporting that the Jones family has sold one of the world’s most valuable sports franchises. The ownership exchange has not been the result of an asset exchange. It has been more of a hostile takeover.

Let me explain.

Andy Reid owns the Dallas Cowboys

In 13 seasons as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, Reid has posted a 17–9 record versus America’s Former Team. While the Cowboys have ventured past the first round of the playoffs but once in that span, Reid’s Eagles have won seven division titles, played in five NFC championship games and been to one Super Bowl.

Oh, by the way, the Cowboys have plowed through five coaches in those 13 years. They have, however, kept the same GM. Apparently, owner Jerry Jones is willing to let coach Andy Reid dominate his team year after year, just as long as GM Jerry Jones gets to keep deluding himself into believing he is a competent “football man.”

The thing Jones is most proud of these days is his shiny new $1.2 billion play pretty in Arlington. But he doesn’t own that, either.

Eli Manning owns Cowboys Stadium

The Giants were the Cowboys’ first-ever opponent in the new stadium. Eli & Company spoiled the grand opening by beating the Cowboys. Eli would add insult to that injury by signing the locker room wall after the game.

“First win in the new stadium,” Eli wrote.

It would not be his last. Manning has posted a 3–0 record in Arlington.

Manning is not the only Cowboys opponent enjoying success in the place ESPN analyst Chris Carter called, “That night club the Dallas Cowboys call a football stadium.” The Cowboys’ overall record (to date) in the new stadium is 14–11. That amounts to a .56 winning percentage, barely above .500.

Of course, the underwhelming performance in the new stadium has everything to do with the teams Jones and his cronies have fielded and little or nothing to do with the new digs.

December owns Tony Romo and his Dallas Cowboys

For Tom Landry, December was important. The legendary coach that lead his team to 20 straight winning seasons, five Super Bowl appearances and two Lombardi trophies talked about streaking into the playoff. He put emphasis on playing your best football when it counted most.

Romo would, apparently, disagree with Landry. The current Cowboys QB has posted a December record  8–13. But he feels like people that pay attention to that sort of thing are just silly.

John Machota of DallasNews.com quotes Romo on the subject:

“The problem with December sometimes is I don’t know how many times you’re out of the playoffs, in the playoffs,” Romo said. “That stuff plays a role. Sometimes you’re sitting starters. Sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you’ve got Philly, Baltimore and the Giants to finish the year.

“You need to make it over 15 years is what you need to do, not four or five years. It’s just silly. Any stat you can make over a short period of time. That’s four games. Stats are just stuff, in that regard, they come and go with whatever’s in vogue recently.”

See? Stop worrying about how the Cowboys perform in December, you silly ol’ fan.

Who really owns the Dallas Cowboys? Jerry Jones does, of course! And he does not care how far into the ground he has to grind the once-proud franchise in order to prove it is his team and he will run it his way.

And so, if you are that lifelong fan that refers to the Dallas Cowboys as “my team,” you will just have to come to the stark realization these are not your Daddy’s Cowboys. They are not yours, either.

These Cowboys belong to Jerry “Blankety-Blank” Jones…and Andy Reid…and Eli Manning…and the cold, lonely howl of a lost December.

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

And I am still having a hard time believing what happened in this tale of two cities, two teams, and two football fates.

With a 12-point lead and just over five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the Dallas Cowboys managed to squander what would have been a formidable division lead and lose a gut-wrenching, heart-rending, back-breaking game to the New York Football Giants.

Final score: 37–34.

As soon as the punch-drunk, dumbfounded Cowboys fan sobers up, he will want to know whose fault this is. To whom do we assign blame for this epic meltdown?

The usual suspects will be scrutinized first.

Coach Jason Garrett, fresh off the debacle in the Arizona desert and the worst day of his brief head coaching career, will get his share of crotch-kicks. There will be the usual complaints of how he should have run here or thrown there or done something else that might have saved the game.

Tony Romo will be targeted. By football idiots, mostly.

Romo was 21 for 31 with 321 yards passing. He threw four touchdowns and no interceptions. He did take a sack in his own end zone to start the game. He also missed a crucial downfield pass to Miles Austin that would have sealed the win.

Let us not forget, however, that, after the Giants had taken the lead and left but 46 ticks on the clock, Romo drove his Cowboys from their own 20 yard line to the Giants’ 30 and set up rookie kicker Dan Bailey for a game-winning field goal.

I guess Romo could have played interior line on the kick team and blocked Pierre-Paul to keep him from blocking the FG attempt. Other than that, I am not sure what more you could have asked of him on that last drive.

If you are blaming Romo for this loss, you either did not watch the game or have no clue about the game of football. Romo was solid with flashes of brilliance. His offense racked up 444 net yards and hung 34 points on the world’s biggest scoreboard.

Um, hello? That ought to be enough offense to win a home game in the National Football League. If you are too silly to understand that, then please refrain from watching football and stay away from sharp objects and Sudoku puzzles. We don’t want you hurting yourself.

So, whom do we blame?

How about Rob Ryan and the vaunted Ryan family tradition of blitzing every down, whether it is working or not? How about the uber-blitzing, coverage-blowing, 510 yards-and-37 points-yielding, Swiss cheese defense?

How about mixing in a defensive stop every now and then, especially when the game is on the line and your offense has presented you with a 12-point lead and just 5:30 to kill?

How about not lining Gerald Sensabaugh up 35 yards from the line of scrimmage so that he cannot even lend assistance on a 19-yard Eli Manning pass that looked more like a punt? May as well have sent your safety for a couple dozen Krispy Kremes. He was closer to the Krispy Kreme on Cooper Street than he was the line of scrimmage.

How about maybe not holding a receiver that was running into double coverage anyway, Frank Walker?

How about not sending DeMarcus Ware onto the field with his shoulder screaming and his arm hanging limply at his side, especially when Victor Butler is playing well in his stead? The result of putting the ailing superstar back into the game: two crucial neutral zone infractions.

This was a massive loss, a meaningful loss, with major implications.

It was another reminder that this Dallas Cowboys’ team is not ready to be called elite. They could not defend their home stadium. They could not defend their goal line. So, it is no surprise they were unable to defend their slim division lead.

They lost a game they could have won and there is plenty of blame to go around.

Blame it on Rob Ryan. Blame it on the defensive backfield for getting toasted at the end of the game. Blame it on the defensive front’s inability to put much pressure on Manning. Blame it on Jerry Jones and that deal he made with God (or was it the Devil?) back in the ’90s.

Heck, blame it on a gutsy performance by the Giants or the “brilliance” of Eli Manning’s quarterback play. But, don’t blame me. Don’t blame yourself.

And just once, please, don’t lay all the blame on Tony Romo.

Jerry Jones ought to have the world by the tail. If you are a sports fan and a fan of financial security, notoriety and power, you would likely trade places with him in a heartbeat.

But Jones’ thirst for recognition is beyond insatiable: it is irrational. Despite being the owner of three Lombardi trophies and the owner of a franchise that has won five of them, despite having built his dream stadium to the accolades of the world, despite owning one of the signature franchises in the world’s greatest sports league, Jones still smarts over not getting credit for the success of the early ’90s Cowboys.

How else do you explain Jones’ response to the suggestion that Jason Garrett consider hiring an offensive coordinator?

Last week, Jones made the following statement during an interview on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas:

“Jimmy was what I call a walk-around coach. [Bill] Parcells was a walk-around coach. Joe Gibbs is a guy who believes that the head coach needs to be in charge of either the offense or the defense and needs to be the coordinator. It brings you stature, it involves you in the game and gives you more respect with the players.

“It’s different schools of thought. I’ve always thought that Jason Garrett could handle coordinating as well as being the head coach.”

So, Jones, in defense of Garrett acting as his own coordinator elects to denigrate the achievement of two of his former coaches— two coaches that just happen to have among the most impressive resumès in NFL history?

Granted, Jerry was responding to Jimmy Johnson’s insistance that Garrett should hire an offensive coordinator, an opinion the former Cowboys’ coach shared during the Fox pregame show a week ago Sunday.

So, you might say that Jimmy fired the first shot.

Still, Jones’ return volley was an overreach of gargantuan proportions.

This past weekend, Johnson fired back at Jones by naming several “walk-around” coaches, including Tom Landry and Don Shula and reminded Jones that between them they have won 20 Super Bowls. He wondered aloud whether Jones thought such men had the respect of his players.

We are closing in on being 20 years removed from the glory of the ’90s Cowboys. Almost universally, Jimmy Johnson has been seen as the architect and driving force behind the three championships won by that team, though he was not even present for the third one.

The fact that Johnson is given so much credit has been the driving force behind most every decision Jerry Jones has made since.

Everything Jerry Jones does as the owner of the Dallas Cowboys appears to be for the purpose of building a successful team in such a way that he will get the credit. I am convinced he would rather not win another Super Bowl than win one and have to defer credit to someone else. Thus, he does things like bringing in Bill Parcells just long enough to rescue the franchise from the quagmire of mediocrity a decade of his insane selfishness placed it in.

All of this rancor and recriminations notwithstanding, Jason Garrett may be the perfect answer for both Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys fan. Garrett is, I believe, destined to greatness as an NFL head coach. He is also Jerry Jones’ very own, homegrown, hand-picked prodigy.

If Garrett wins it all, it may finally be a win-win for all.

Unless, of course, the world fails to give Jones credit for it.

It is a great time to be alive and living in Dallas/Fort Worth.

Dirk Nowitzki— the NBA finals MVP, world champion and Dallas Mavericks great— threw out the first pitch at game three of the World Series, where the Texas Rangers find themselves for the second straight year.

The very next day, last year’s American League MVP and Rangers’ great Josh Hamilton served as honorary captain for the coin toss of the Dallas Cowboy – St. Louis Rams’ game at Cowboys’ stadium.

The Cowboys went on to crush the Rams 34—7 on the strength of DeMarco Murray’s record-setting day toting the pigskin. Murray rushed for 253 yards, eclipsing Tony Dorsett’s 206-yard Cowboys’ rookie record for running backs. He also surpassed Emmitt Smith’s Cowboys’ single game rushing record of 237 yards in a game.

More importantly, Murray, Romo, Witten and company pulled themselves back to a .500 record. They now sit 3—3 and tied for second place in the NFC East, one game behind the New York Football Giants. Not great, but not bad.

As Cowboys’ Stadium emptied, the Ballpark in Arlington, a mere stone’s throw away (if it is Nolan Ryan throwing the stone), was cram-packed with rabid Rangers’ fans ready to get the taste of a 16—7 drumming at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals out of their mouths. Stung but not stunned, the only team to have ever been owned by an eventual United States president silenced the might Cardinals, 4—0, and evened the 2011 World Series.

The Mavericks are reigning NBA champions, a title they may hold an extra year the way the NBA labor talks are going. The Rangers are repeat World Series participants. The TCU Horned Frogs and SMU Mustangs are enjoying a resurgence on the college football scene. The Trinity Trojans of Euless are a perennial national powerhouse in the all-important world of high school football.

Heck, even the soccer team, FC Dallas, played for a championship last year.

While we wait for our beloved Dallas Cowboys, the flagship Metroplex sports organization, to join the party, we will be satisfied to cheer the baby steps.

Thank you, DeMarco.

Now that the tenth anniversary of 9/11 is done and we are no longer “all New Yorkers,” the good Texans can get back to being bitter about their team losing a game they were supposed to lose, but never should have lost.

Your Dallas Cowboys once again began an NFL season with a near-miss.

According to Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison and Tyrannosaurus Rex Ryan, the Cowboys were supposed to lose to the New York Jets and lose big. None of them saw what was coming, because what was coming was a better team than Team Green. A better offense. A better coaching staff. A better game plan. A better quarterback…

Well, wait. Check that. The quarterback thing: Let me retract that. More talented? Yes. Better? Not so much.

So, who to blame?

Tony Romo is an obvious choice. First, he fumbles on the goal line, trying to make more out of a play than was there. This at a time when a field goal would have done just fine. Then, after the defense made a valiant stand to get him the ball and an opportunity to win the game in the waning minutes, he hit a wide open Darelle Revis right between the numbers.

This will have many saying, “Same ol’ same ol’.”

Or, “See? Romo sucks!”

We could blame the punt team. Or its coach: Joe DeCamillis. NFL teams are not supposed to give up a blocked punt to someone charging right up the gut.

A militant few will blame Jason Garrett just because he is redheaded or something like that. Those people I pay no attention to because they obviously do not know great coaching material when they see it.

I am going to go ahead and let my favorite punching bag share some of the blame. You know him as the man with the common name and the uncommon ability to turn the simplest communication into utter nonsense.

I am talking about the man whose commitment to winning has nothing to do with anything but his own ego. I am talking about the man that punked Tom Landry. I am talking about the only man in the history of the world to run off a coach immediately after his team won back-to-back championships.

I am talking about the man who found a way to stroke his ego and keep himself in the national spotlight without winning anything but the vote of the citizens of Arlington, Texas.

This man allowed his team’s archenemy, the Philadelphia Eagles, to swoop in and steal the free agent cornerback his team so desperately needed. This man pinches pennies on personnel from his magnificent billion-dollar edifice. This man was content to enter the 2011 NFL season dangerously thin at cornerback.

This man has a mortgage to pay.

This man had us all watching a kid named McCann do his dead-level best to cover Plaxico Burress.

Blame whomever you like. I say Jerry Jones is as much to blame as Tony Romo and the punt team.

Jerry Jones had to make a change at head coach. His hand was forced by an embarrassing 1–7 start, punctuated by a 45–7 shellacking at the hands of the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football.

The day after the Wisconsin massacre, Jones fired Wade Phillips and named Jason Garrett interim head coach.

Today, January 6, 2011, Jerry Jones lifted the interim tag and made Jason Garrett the eighth head coach in Dallas Cowboys history.

Jones could have pursued any number of coaches currently wearing Super Bowl rings. He could have made a splash by snagging a big name coach with a track record and a reputation.

Come to think of it, Jones did just that. He selected Jason Garrett.

Garrett has two Super Bowl rings—as a player for the Cowboys. He has a track record as one of the most hotly pursued young coaches in recent years. And, he has a reputation as a fiery, no-nonsense, intelligent football coach.

Some will say that Jason Garrett is just the next Jerry “yes man.”

I disagree.

Others will say that Garrett is part of the problem and cannot, therefore, be the answer.

Again, I disagree.

I believe Garrett is precisely the right man for the job of head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. He has earned it. He deserves it. And, he will be successful doing it.

Before you call me crazy, hear my case.

Consider his track record.

As a player, Jason Garrett had limited abilities compared to players like Troy Aikman. Garrett was a career backup quarterback.

Still, Jason Garrett made the most of his opportunities when opportunity presented itself. Garrett started nine games in his eight year career. He went 6–3 in those games. He threw 11 touchdowns and five interceptions. He also orchestrated one of the most exciting comebacks in Cowboys’ history on Thanksgiving Day.

As a head coach, the sample is small, but compelling. He has only coached eight games. He managed a 5–3 record, which seems unremarkable.

Unremarkable. Unless, of course, you consider that the team was 1–7 when Garrett assumed the helm. The Dallas Cowboys he inherited were listless, uninspired, underachieving, embattled, and embarrassed. Once considered contenders, they had been exposed as the worst impostors in the NFL, maybe in the history of the NFL.

Garrett immediately changed the culture of the team. He established a no-nonsense, no-excuses, deliberate approach to game preparation. He started practices and meetings earlier, demanded punctuality, put the team in pads mid-week, and even installed giant digital clocks all around the locker room to eliminate excuses for tardiness.

The turnaround was immediate. The Cowboys went to New York and beat the Giants 33–20. The Giants, who finished 10–6 on the season, are sitting at home during the playoffs this season, partly because of Garrett’s Cowboys.

Under Garrett, the Cowboys swept their NFC East opponents in the second half of the 2010 season, after having lost to all three of them the first time around. They also beat the Indianapolis Colts in Indianapolis, contributing the difficult road that team had to take to a division title.

Garrett’s Boys would lose three games–by a total of seven points. In other words, they competed. They fought every opponent tooth and nail. They even won a game at the end of the season that most fans wanted them to lose. While fans whined about dropping three or four spots in the upcoming draft, Garrett refused to approach any game with what he called “a loser’s mentality.”

Consider what his players have to say about him.

A major component of success for a head coach is how he handles the room. Does he command the respect of his players. Do they buy what he is selling? Do they believe in him? Will they follow him into battle? Will they implement his plan of attack with confidence?

Following are some quotes from some of his players, courtesy of the Dallas Morning News:

“There is zero gray area there. It is black and white. Very direct and to the point. No misunderstanding.

“I’ve been hit in the head a lot, but I could understand what he is saying when he stood up there and communicated to our football team. I believe in anybody like that.”

– Linebacker Keith Brooking.

“I don’t know if I can say it. Hard ass. Hard butt. And I like it.”

– Receiver Roy Williams describing what Garrett is like as a coach.

“The way he’s responded, I think he was born to be a head coach.

“Jason Garrett is the fire. He has that fire in his belly and he motivates us, man. He really does. I’ll be honest with you. He gives you something to think about and guys respond.”

– Linebacker Bradie James after overtime win against Indianapolis.

Pretty high praise, don’t you think?

Consider his reputation around the NFL.

Under the heading, “Fast Track,”an unnamed author at the Dallas Morning News writes:

Garrett’s star has been on the rise since he began his NFL coaching career with Miami in 2005.

Scott Linehan was so impressed with Garrett that he hired him as Miami’s quarterback coach 10 hours after meeting him. When Linehan became head coach in St. Louis he tried to bring Garrett along as his offensive coordinator.

Nick Saban wanted Garrett to follow him from the Dolphins to Alabama . Butch Davis wanted him at North Carolina and Les Miles tried to entice him to LSU. Norv Turner tried to get Garrett on his staff when he was in Oakland and Sean Payton wanted to hire him in New Orleans.

When Dave Campo was the Cowboys head coach he made a run at Garrett in 2000, but the quarterback wasn’t ready to walk away from his playing career.

Garrett was hired as the Cowboys offensive coordinator in ’07 before head coach Wade Phillips was in place. Miami didn’t want to let him go. Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga allowed the Cowboys to talk to Garrett on the condition that if he was hired he would call the plays.

He has interviewed for the head coaching jobs in Baltimore, Atlanta and St. Louis in his brief time with the Cowboys.

Jerry Jones is not alone in his belief that Jason Garrett is one of the hottest commodities on the market. Plenty of savvy football minds agree.

Troy Aikman went so far as to say that Garrett may be selling himself short by being a coach when he could be a leader on any level he chose, including president of the United States. That may be an overstatement. Time will tell.

Consider the options.

To date, no head coach has ever won a Super Bowl with more than one team. Only Don Shula and Bill Parcells have taken more than one team to the Super Bowl, but each only won with one team. There is no guarantee that Jon Gruden, Bill Cowher, or Brian Billick can recreate the magic of their past heroics.

Some of the most successful coaches in the NFL right now are first-time head coaches. Look at the Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens, New York Jets, and last year’s world champions, the New Orleans Saints.

Will Jason Garrett ever hoist the Lombardi trophy as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys? I do not know. Neither do you.

But I am with Jerry Jones on this one. I like his chances.

Dateline: Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, Texas – December 19, 2o1o

The Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins played two games in one on Sunday. The first was a blowout, with the Cowboys jumping out to a comfortable, commanding 27–7 lead. The second game was a nailbiter that saw the Redskins, still down by 16 going into the fourth quarter, make an improbable comeback to tie the game, 30–30.

The Cowboys ultimately won the two-in-one game, 33–30.

But I am burying the lead here.

View from Section 453

The big story of the day is that I attended my first ever game at the new Cowboys stadium. Well, I was technically in the stadium. My father-in-law and I were in row 11, section 453. We may have been closer to home plate at the nearby Rangers Ballpark than we were to midfield at Cowboys Stadium, but we were in the house, thanks to a wonderful birthday gift from my lovely wife.

Consequently, I am able to file this official bleacher report for the 102nd meeting between one of the NFL’s most storied rivalries.

There is not a bad seat in the house.

I had heard people say that, but was skeptical after having toured the complex a couple of times. It is hard to imagine how a place so massive, with so many seats, could possibly afford a decent view of the action for all of its patrons. But they do.

We sat in the northeast corner of the stadium, not far from where a few doves hang out in the rafters. We were not in the nose-bleed section. We were in the section above that. Still, we agreed that our vantage point was not bad. We could see the action on the field just fine, plus we sat in such a place that we could see both the end zone-facing video board and the 60-yard monstrosity facing the sideline.

The game presentation is magnificent.

It is sensory overload. The sound system in the stadium is outstanding. As we moved about, exploring, the quality and clarity never altered. The video presentation, as one would expect, is second to none. They keep you engaged even during television downtime.

The Dallas Cowboys fan base has changed.

Beyond words...

Back in the 1970s, when the Cowboys were one of the two best teams in the league, there were constant complaints about how stoic the Cowboys’ fans were. In places like Pittsburgh and Denver, fans were rabid. But in Dallas, they were more “polite.” They cheered, but they just didn’t want to break a fingernail doing it.

Jerry Jones came along and made the Cowboys more of an “every man’s” team. For one thing, he immediately obtained licenses to sell booze at Texas Stadium, a thing they had not been able to do before. Nothing loosens the tongues of fans like getting them good and oiled.

One local radio personality used to say that the Dallas sports fan was the “coke and boob job” crowd. You know, the yuppies. The movers and shakers.

Those folks are still around, sure. But they have had to make room for the redneck factor. The average Cowboys fan today is blue collar, hard working, passionate, and ready to get rowdy and loud and poke a finger in the chest of a Redskins’ fan whenever appropriate.

Moreover, the Dallas Cowboys appear to be the official team of Mexico and all her descendants — and they know a thing or two about being passionate fans.

The Party Pass is not a bad deal.

Jerry Jones’ brainchild, the standing-room-only open areas in both end zones, for which fans pay just $29 to be a part of the scene, is a hit. We left our seats just outside the Pearly Gates and descended to earth to watch the final five minutes with the party crowd, just to get a feel for it…and to be near an exit.

It was a hoot.

Costumes abounded. Friendly confrontations between Cowboys fans and Redskins supporters erupted here and there. It is safe to say there are no passive fans in the party crowd.

Dallas Cowboys fans have to deal with transplants and carpetbaggers.

About ten percent of the Crowd was dressed in Redskins garb and there to cheer the ‘Skins and boo the ‘Boys. The same thing happens when the Eagles, Giants or Steelers come to town. Heck, even the Detroit Lions have fans in Dallas.

It isn’t that those teams have such a broad fan base. It isn’t that their fans travel well. It is simply that those places are stuck up there in the Northeast, where the cost of living is through the roof, the weather is better suited to penguins, the job market sucks and so does the traffic, and the skies are all cloudy and gray.

So, they hightail it to Mecca. They pick up and move to Dallas, scoop up our jobs, clog up our roads, take up space in our Tex-Mex joints, and boo our team.

In the past twenty years the Dallas/Fort Worth area has swelled to more than six million people. We may be productive, but we are not that reproductive.

Nope. A huge part of the growth is due to transplants and carpetbaggers, who didn’t forget to pack their war paint and headdress when they fled the Beltway.

While waiting to be frisked and get into the stadium, I turned to a group of four Redskins fans and said, “So you come down here to get your money, but you keep your loyalty to the place you fled?”

One of them grinned and said, “That is about right.”

To him I replied, “Yeah. Sounds about right…for a Redskins fan.”

Bryan McCann is an undrafted free agent rookie cornerback who got himself cut by the Dallas Cowboys, cut by the Baltimore Ravens, and then then signed to the Cowboys’ practice squad. He is also set to win NFC Special Teams Player of the Week after having won NFC Defensive Player of the Week just a week ago.

While Wade Phillips was coach, McCann found himself buried in the depth chart and inactive on game day. His penchant for big plays at crucial moments was unknown and untapped. But then, nobody was making plays for Wade this season.

Instead, the players were making mistakes, the coaching was making a mess, and the head coach was making excuses. Like some sick spoof of a certain burger joint, Wade Phillips’ Dallas Cowboys were serving up heaping helpings of Unhappy Meals.

They were the McCan’ts. And the fans weren’t loving it.

It took a half season of putrid play and a midway record of 1-7 to awaken the proud but stubborn owner/general manager Jerry Jones to the fact that he was in danger of selling a product nobody was buying anymore. With 80,000 seats to fill and a billion dollar note to pay, Jones did what he said he would absolutely, positively not do. He canned Wade Phillips mid-season.

It was a painful thing for Mr. Jones. Never had he looked more beleaguered, more defeated than he did the day he announced he had fired Phillips. .

But this is the season of thanksgiving, the time to remember the blessings in our lives. It is also a good time to understand that sometimes blessings come disguised as crotch-kicks.

In Mr. Jones’ case, for instance, there are several examples of this truth…

First, Wade Phillips’ miserable 2010 failure and his admitted inability to get the team to play to their capability seemed like the worst possible scenario for Jones, when in fact it forced him to rid himself of a man who would never be leader enough to take this team to the Promised Land. It is also provided him a no-obligation, no-risk opportunity to see if Jason Garrett could be everything Jones had hoped he could be when he made him the (wink, wink) head coach-in-waiting.

If Garrett fails miserably, Jones can begin the courting process of Cowher, Gruden, Dungy, or whichever of the glamorous coaches he believes in. If, however, Garrett succeeds, then Jones is validated and, potentially, has his man for years to come.

Second, Franchise quarterback Tony Romo cracks his collar bone right in the middle of the most disappointing campaign in franchise history. What seems like a season-ender as far as any hope of fielding a competitive team and keeping fans interested goes, proves instead to be an opportunity to show that Jon Kitna is more than a caretaker as a backup quarterback.

The guy can play.

What’s more, Kitna is a leader on a team that desperately needs leadership.

Third, 2010 draft pick Akwasi Owusu-Ansah is lost for the season with a high ankle sprain. There goes the depth in an already razor-thin defensive backfield and there goes the kick return game.

But then, here comes McCann. The undrafted guy does more in three weeks than the drafted guy had done in half a season, and maybe more than the drafted guy will do in a career.

So, when Jones’ Cowboys line up against the Super Bowl defending champions, the New Orleans Saints, on Thanksgiving Day, Jerry will have plenty for which to be thankful, regardless of the outcome of that game.

He can be thankful that the Hamburglar is no longer coaching his team. He can be thankful that McCan’ts is out of business, boarded up, and won’t be serving 80,000 fans another lukewarm turkey. He can give thanks that a redhead whose name is not Ronald and is nobody’s clown has his 3-7 team believing…

“Yes, we McCann!”

Jerry Jones can be thankful for Garrett, Kitna, McCann…all those blessings in disguise.

And so can we.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

[picappgallerysingle id="10098297"]Jerry Jones was finally backed into a corner. He was reluctant to do it, but in the wake of the worst three-game skid in Cowboys’ history, he cut the head off the listless, poisonous snake and fired head coach Wade Phillips.

I am not calling Phillips a snake. I am saying that the culture of excuse-making and defensive posturing he cultivated was a poisonous environment. Accountability was missing. Motivation was absent. Direction was nonexistent.

Jason Garrett’s offense has not contributed much of value this year, either. One could conclude that his play-calling has been suspect at best, that his in-game adjustments have been either missing or useless. The question still remains: Does he have the stuff to be a successful head coach in this league?

We are all about to find out.

Here are five suggestions for Mr. Garrett as he takes the helm this week: Five moves he can make to send a message to his team.

Number one: Cut Igor Olshansky.

I already wrote about this guy in a previous article. His open criticism of Garrett on a Dallas radio station, coupled with his celebration of a couple of individual plays at the end of an embarrassing shellacking by the New York Giants is enough to show him as a cancer on this team. Send him packing and open competition this week to find his replacement.

Number Two: Turn the offensive play-calling over to Wade Wilson.

Jason should work with Wilson to generate a game-plan during the week, implement the game plan, and then let Wilson execute it on game day.

As head coach, he retains the right to interject his own plays or decisions during the course of a game, but a head coach needs to see the big picture. Wade never wandered over to the offensive side of the ball and often touted his defense’s play in a loss. A head coach is not just about a unit; he is responsible for a team.

Number Three: Bench Mike Jenkins, for at least a quarter this Sunday.

Jenkins has been a penalty-generating machine. He has been burned in coverage again and again. And he played matador on a goal line play Sunday night against the Green Bay Packers, electing not to stick his head in and try to help stop a runner who was waltzing into the end zone.

Jenkins was a Pro Bowl player a year ago, but he has regressed. Make him earn his way back into the starting lineup. Make him prove he wants the job.

Number Four: Make it clear that individual celebrations of small accomplishments that don’t really contribute to team success are no longer welcome and will be fined at his discretion.

Support that point by benching Marion Barber, whose play is declining and whose fiery celebration of three-yard scampers is just plain ridiculous. Start Tashard Choice. See if he is a part of the future of this team or not.

Number Five: Make Dez Bryant a focal point of your offensive game plan.

Miles Austin had a miraculous, breakout year last season, but has been plagued with dropped balls and the inability to get open on routes this year. Bryant makes some mistakes (see the goofy muffed punt in the fourth quarter last Sunday), but he plays with fire in his belly, he breaks tackles, and he makes catches even when the coverage is tight.

Now is not the time for bandaids on open wounds. Now is not the time for coddling millionaire players who cannot wait for the final gun to sound so they can cash another of Jerry’s checks.

This is the time for the bold to be bold, for leaders to lead. Jason Garrett must prove in the course of the next eight games that he is the kind of take-charge, no-excuses leader this team needs. If he fails, he will not return as the coach of this team.

The ball is in your hands, Jason. Time for a Hail Mary.

Good luck.

In the 1998 draft, Jerry Jones failed to pull the trigger on drafting future superstar receiver Randy Moss, opting instead to go with Greg Ellis.

We all know how that turned out.

Ellis put together a respectable career in Dallas, one that garnered him one Pro Bowl appearance in 11 seasons with the Cowboys. Meanwhile, Moss went to seven Pro Bowls and was named to 4 All-Pro teams while amassing nearly 15,000 receiving yards.

Moreover, the jilted receiver made the Cowboys pay every chance he got, lighting them up for one spectacular touchdown catch after another.

Jones’ reason for passing on Moss, while greatly debated, was solid at the time. Moss was seen as an attitude risk, a potential off-field problem. He wasn’t, as it turned out, but that was the book on him back then. Jones’ Cowboys, fresh off the “white house” drug scandals involving Michael Irvin and others and the gun incident involving Barry Switzer, was dealing with a very successful franchise whose lone black eye was that its players were perceived as lawless trouble-makers.

Now, at 1-6, if Moss is released as has been reported by several sources, the Cowboys would have the second bid on the waiver wire, right after the Buffalo Bills. So, the question arises: If the Bills pass, should the Cowboys do an about-face this time and snag the hall of fame-bound receiver?

The answer, once again, is No. They should not. Why bother? Talent at the receiver position is the least of the Cowboys’ problems. Besides, Moss has proved that, while he is not a threat to break laws, he can be moody and full of complaint when stuck on a team that is performing poorly.

Moss is part of the Cowboys’ past. The future belongs to Dez Bryant.

Jerry can echo the famous words of boxer Roberto Duran and cry, “No Moss! No Moss!”