Silver and BlueBlood

If you have ever watched MartyB TV on YouTube, or if you are a follower of Jupiter’s Crunch on Twitter, then you know what a Devil-may-care, fun guy Martellus Bennett is.

From his rap about having “Jerry Jone (sic) money, iPhone money” his rookie year to hosting the controversial “Black Olympics” thing with his cousin, Marty B is a prime product of the irreverent-but-always-connected Generation Y. (Or is it  Generation Z? I don’t know. I can never keep up.) Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 37% [?]

A Father-Son Moment

Raise your hand if you have ever dog-cussed Jason Garrett or said Wade Phillips should be fired (or worse).

God bless you. I see that hand. Yes, and yours too. Oh, and yours, way back in the corner. And yes…my hand is raised, as well. Guilty. All over the vast expanse of Jerry’s magnificent, shiny football Mecca, hands are raised.

Four weeks ago, when the Cowboys were fresh off stumbling into December with back-to-back losses to the San Diego Chargers and the New York Giants, most who bleed silver and blue were sighing, cussing, cramping, complaining, puking, bleeding out the ears…and convinced this team was going nowhere as long as Jerry Jones was the General Manager, Wade Phillips was the head coach, and Jason Garrett was the offensive coordinator.

My, how our tune has changed. Now, we have this 11-5 team that has, for the first time in the illustrious history of the franchise, shut out opponents in back-to-back games. Division opponents, no less. We have this team that is roaring into the playoffs by winning the final three games of the season, clinching a division title, and serving notice to the rest of the NFC that the Dallas Cowboys are a team you just don’t want any part of, thank you very much.

We know the what. But do we know why? Why did this team do what last year’s team could not? Why is the feeling around this team even better than in 2007, when they were 13-3? We always know who to blame for the failures around here. But whom do we credit for the success?

Glad you asked. I have some candidates. In fact, I have the top twelve people most responsible for this team’s turn-around. We could call them the Twelve Apostles of the About Face, or the Not-So-Dirty Dozen.

Here they are…

Number Twelve: Jason Witten

It isn’t that Witten wasn’t great last year. He was. He always is. But never has he been more clutch than this year. Whenever you absolutely, positively must have a first down, throw it to Witten. It usually works out. Just ask Tony Romo. When has a receiver only scored two touchdowns in a season and had a more positive impact on his team?

Number Eleven: Mike Jenkins

By the first week in the regular season, Wade Phillips had not been able to decide between Jenkins and Orlando Scandrick as to which one would start opposite Terrence Newman. Newman, it was assumed, was the best corner on the team, and one of these young guys would have to step up and claim that second spot. By season’s end, Jenkins had asserted himself as a Pro Bowl-caliber corner, the best on the team, and one of the better corners in the league.

Number Ten: DeMarcus Ware

Sure, Ware was phenomenal a year ago and probably should have been named the NFL Defensive Player of the Year. But what about this year? What about being carted off the field one week on a stretcher and coming back the next to get two sacks, force two turnovers, and seal the victory over the previously undefeated Saints? DeMarcus on the field makes every other Cowboys defender’s job easier.

Number Nine: Jay Ratliff

He is too small to be a nose tackle. He is also too quick, too tenacious, and too talented to be handled by most centers or guards or centers plus guards. The Ratliff motor is always humming. He creates havoc and helps set a tone for Phillips’ aggressive 3-4 defense.

Number Eight: The Offensive Line

They play so well as a unit, may as well treat them as one. From tackle to tackle, the Cowboys’ line has done a superb job of protecting the quarterback and gashing defenses for one of the league’s most potent ground attacks. Even when Marc Colombo, who was playing lights out, went down, the line never missed a beat. They plugged in Doug Free, and he has been more than serviceable as a replacement. (Witness the block Free threw forty yards downfield on Felix Jones’ 49-yard scamper last Sunday.)

Number Seven: Anthony Spencer

Did anyone else notice that Peter King selected both Spencer and DeMarcus Ware for his All-Pro team? And why not? Spencer has been a force, a monster, a whirling dervish, disrupting plays, harassing passers, corralling runners, and complementing Ware so well that no one misses Greg Ellis for a minute. Spencer had 50 tackles, 17 assists, six sacks, two forced fumbles, and an interception during the 2009 regular season.

But numbers only tell part of the story. Anyone watching the Cowboys this year saw how Spencer influenced plays on almost every series.

Number Six: Keith Brooking

Brooking did not crack the Pro Bowl lineup in 2009, but he became the heart and soul of the Dallas Cowboys defense. He was the spiritual leader. His on-field play was as effective and impressive as the leadership he provided. Without Brooking, the Cowboys defense is a very different unit altogether.

Number Five: Miles Austin

Roy Williams was supposed to be the guy here. He got the fat contract. He cost the team all those draft picks. He was going to pick up the slack for the departed Terrell Owens. Right?

Wrong.

Miles Austin began the season as the number three receiver. But in Kansas City, with Williams hurt, he asserted himself, had one of the best days ever for a Cowboys receiver and began his dash to the Pro Bowl. He has been the big-time receiver, making the big plays at crunch time, torching defenses, snatching balls from the grasp of defensive backs, shaking off would-be tacklers, running past people, running over people.

Austin has done everything Owens did and managed to remain a team player. Imagine that.

Number Four: Jason Garrett

Granted, third down or fourth down and a yard to go has been a bit of a sticky wicket. Sure, the point production (ranked 14th in the league)  isn’t on par with the yardage this team racks up (second most in the NFL). But have you not seen steady—and marked—improvement in this offense over the course of the year?

No longer saddled with the burden of getting the ball to T.O., whether it makes sense to do so or not, Garrett has devised a sophisticated offense that features a dynamite running game and a lethal passing attack. If he could just make those catches for Roy Williams and Martellus Bennett, he would be the genius he was touted to be a couple years ago.

Number Three: Wade Phillips

Yes. You read that right. I said Wade Phillips. I know I have been a rather vocal critic of the man. I dislike plenty of things about his leadership style. But you cannot argue with the results. The man has won 68% of the games he has coached in Dallas (record: 33-15). He has now won two division titles in three years. He has put together a defense that is on the best roll of any team going into the postseason.

And his players believe in him. They genuinely like him. They want to win for him. (Of course, if they really like him and want to keep him around, they might try winning at least one more game, just to be safe.)

Number Two: Tony Romo

From the first time he stepped on the field as the team’s starter, Romo has shown flashes of utter brilliance. He has made plays few others could have made. Unfortunately, he was also prone to making the worst possible mistakes at the worst possible times, costing his team scoring chances, giving up points to opposing defenses, and contributing to the team’s failure to achieve postseason success.

But Tony has turned a corner. He has gotten his gun-slinger propensity under control, and he has done so without diminishing his play-making prowess. Consider that in 2009, he threw for more yards—4,483—than ever before. He threw just nine interceptions, after having thrown 13, 19, and 14 the previous three seasons.  He threw 26 touchdown passes this year and finished with a quarterback rating of 97.6, his highest ever.

More importantly, he has asserted himself as the undisputed leader of the offense.

Number one: Jerry and Stephen Jones

I picked Jerry Jones number one because this season’s success was predicated on his off-season moves. It was, far and away, Jerry’s best off-season for signing the right players and cutting the right ones loose.

I include Stephen because word has it that it was Stephen Jones who convinced daddy to cut ties with T.O. It was not an easy decision for Jerry Jones to make, not an easy thing to do. Not just because of his own ego, but because, I believe, he genuinely had a warm feeling for the receiver.

Jones did it. he pulled the trigger and Terrell Owens, PacMan Jones, and Tank Johnson were— *poof* —gone. Equally important, he let Greg  Ellis, the so-called team leader who had become a broken record for whining about his contract and generally sowing discord on the team, go.

Then, Jones set about signing key people. He got Igor Olshansky to replace Christ Canty, the departed defensive end overpaid by the Giants. He signed Gerald Sensabaugh to shore up the defensive backfield, which had long been vulnerable due to the diminishing skills of safety Roy Williams. Best of all, he signed Keith Brooking, the five-time Pro Bowler who still had plenty in his tank…and the kind of salt and savvy this team so desperately needed in a locker room leader.

Sure, there is the whole Roy Williams (the receiver) debacle. But wasn’t it Jones who first told us that Miles Austin would be the deep threat the team needed in Terrell Owens’ absence? Didn’t we giggle…or snicker…or roll our collective eyes?

Wasn’t he right?

He’s been right about a good many things lately. And that is a good thing for a team that has been all wrong for way too long.

Popularity: 6% [?]

love is in the air

My Dearest Wade,

I have noticed how giddy you have been during our alone time lately. It warms my heart to see you so happy…especially at Christmas.

I know you had hoped to find a contract extension in your stocking. Please don’t think I am a Grinch for not putting it there. Besides, everybody loves an Applebee’s gift card. Take your lovely family out to dinner there on me and have a nice fat, juicy steak for yourself. You deserve it.

I cannot express how much it means to me to have beaten the previously undefeated Saints. They were just way too full of themselves. It was especially sweet because that coach, whats-his-name, the one who used to languish anonymously on our staff when Purcells (I know it is PAR·cells, but I always said it pur·CELLS, just to tick off the overrated Tuna) was making me and everybody else around here miserable as heck.

Isn’t it just wonderful how that smug SOB has his team under .500 and set to miss the playoffs and that little Tuna Helper up there in the Big Easy—and it was easy, wasn’t it? Like taking candy from a baby—getting knocked off his “I’m a football genius” pedestal?

But, anyways. I digress. Back to your giddiness. I know you heard my interview with the Sunday Night Football bunch and got all excited. I know you think it means that an extension of your contract is inevitable. But did you really listen to what I said? Did you hear what I didn’t say?

Let me remind you of my words:

“When I look at our team and I look where our needs are and where our input needs to be, I like Wade Phillips’ skills there. I just want for him and for our Cowboys fans to culminate in a Super Bowl run.

“There’s nothing in me right now that wants to make a coaching change, that thinks we need to make a coaching change. I want that feeling ratified by some success and we’re at the cusp, maybe, of being able to have it.”

So, yes, my dear Wade, I did confess my love for you.

Of course I like having you for my coach. You don’t suck like Chan Gailey or Dave Campo. You aren’t disinterested like Barry Switzer. You know football, but you don’t insist on actually being the coach the way Jimmy Johnson and Bill Parcells did. You are perfect for me. You let me be the coach when I want to be, but never call attention to the fact I am doing it. You…complete me.

I love you, Wade. But even love has its limits.

You will note in my words that I said I wanted this thing to “culminate (get your mind out of the gutter) in a Super Bowl run,” and I mean it. I say it is for the fans, but you know it is really for me. My legacy is in danger. Those three Super Bowls in the nineties, and all the goodwill they bought me, are no longer enough currency to stave off a mutiny if we don’t win a playoff game soon. You hear me, Wade? A Playoff game, damn you!

No more of this “well, we finished in the top eight” crap, either. You make yourself look like a loser and an idiot and that hurts me, because it makes me look like a fool for loving you.

Am I a fool, Wade? I don’t think so. I want this feeling ratified. Justify my love, Wade. Gratify my ego, Wade. Satisfy our fans, Wade.

Or, we are through.

Happy New Year.

I remain…

Your Biggest (and sometimes only) Fan,

Jerry Jones

Popularity: 15% [?]

Head Cheerleader

Wade Phillips has his Dallas Cowboys sitting rather pretty: They are 8-3 after eleven games and leading the NFC East by one game over the Philadelphia Eagles. After a slow start, their defense has come on strong, proving themselves to be among the best in the league. The offense has sputtered here and there, but has found a spark with Miles Austin as the featured receiver and a stout three-headed running game.

All of that is good. It may not be good enough for Phillips to keep his job with the Cowboys come the 2010 season. His boss, owner and general manager of the Cowboys Jerry Jones, said when asked whether it was important for Phillips’ team to finally post a successful December campaign and finish well, answered:

“I don’t know that it’s any more so for Wade than it is for anybody else on this team. You’re in coaching and then there’s a lot of pressure to win, so that’s there. But what we do here and how we get into these playoffs and get in with an advantage, have a game here [Cowboys Stadium], get a bye, all of those are things that look good for Wade.”

Granted, Jones did not out-and-out admit that if the Cowboys fold like a cheap lawn chair Wade is canned. He did, however, seem to send a less-than-subtle message that goes something like this: “Hey, Wade. You like pretending to be the coach of the Dallas Cowboys? Win a playoff game or playtime is over for you.”

Confronted with Jones’ comments at his daily press conference, Phillips tried to laugh it off at first, but then, more than a little irritated, he gave this response, according to David Moore of the Dallas Morning News:

“If you want to go on records, I don’t know what the determining factor is, I’ve never known. I didn’t know when I was in Buffalo and we were 29-19 in three years that I was going to get fired. I thought I did a heck of a job.

“All I do is try to do the best I can as a coach. I work hard at that. I don’t think I get a lot of respect for that, but that’s the way it goes.”

I know. Sounds like a Rodney Dangerfield quote. “I tell you, I get no respect. My only friend is a dog. I told my wife a man needs at least two friends. She bought me another dog.”

Wade’s insistence on always defending himself – every move, every decision, every loss, every little controversy – gets annoying and sounds like nothing more than a good deal of whining. He feels he never got a fair shake anywhere.

Nobody loves me. Everybody hates me. I am going to eat worms.

People say Wade Phillips is a nice guy. I guess. Nice guys are a dime a dozen.

Great NFL head coaches are few and very far between. Wade does have a nice record as a head coach. He has a nice 30-13 record with the Cowboys. Obviously, he is as good a defensive tactician as there is in the game. But that step between great coordinator and greatness as the main man is a treacherous one. Just ask Cam Cameron, or Butch Johnson, or Charlie Weis, or…

Wade Phillips is good. He is not great. The reason he is not great is that he lacks the leadership skills to be great.

Bill Parcells defends himself at a press conference and the questioner looks and feels silly. Jimmy Johnson would deflect tough questions with a stare that seemed to ask, “Did your mother have any children that lived?”

Phillips, on the other hand, defends himself and it’s like he yanked his own arm off to fend off bloodthirsty sharks. It becomes a feeding frenzy.

It seems that everyone Wade Phillips meets has a stronger constitution than he does. That doesn’t bode well for a man who would lead a band of hardened warriors through treacherous battles, devastating setbacks, debilitating injuries, nay-saying critics, and on to glory.

I think Jerry’s message could be summed up as follows:

Stop whining. Start winning the games that matter most; i.e., late-season, deal-sealing and playoff games. Or…start packing.

Popularity: 11% [?]

two wild and crazy guys

One is eighty and the other pushing seventy. One looks like the skeletal remains of an aged 1930s Chicago-land gangster and the other like a Michael Jackson starter kit with his recent face work and new teeth.

One built the Raiduhhhhs into one of the NFL’s elite franchises and then systematically shredded it, piece by piece. The other resurrected America’s Team from its late ’80s shallow grave, restored it to its glorious place among the champions, and then, for the sake of his own fragile ego, ran the architect of the Cowboys’ resurgence out of town and started looking for hand puppets so he could coach the team without anyone really knowing it (though most everyone suspects it).

Between them, Al Davis and Jerry Jones have the ownership of eight Lombardi trophies, though Jones only actually participated in winning three of his franchise’s five. The Raiders have been to five Super Bowls under Davis, winning three of them. When he was sane (or at least crazy like a fox rather than just plain mad), the Raiders general managing partner built the team into an enviable organization.

He did it by emphasizing a down-and-dirty, take-no-prisoners defensive mindset; a hard-nosed, three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust running game; and a vertical, quick-strike passing game. He did it by signing players no one else would touch; mean suckers with a past, if not a rap sheet.

Jerry, conversely, made just the right hire for just the right time. He brought in a young, energetic, single-minded college football coach who would eat, drink, sleep football; divorce his wife; ignore his kids; and slave drive his staff until he got where he was going. And where Jimmy Johnson was going was just where Jerry dreamed it could be: to the very pinnacle of National Football League success. He was going – and dragging a giddy Jerry Jones along – to the place no team had been before. He was going to build a team that would win three Super Bowls in four years.

But Jimmy Johnson wouldn’t get that third ring.

Valley Ranch is an expansive football facility, but it could not house the enormously big heads of Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson…and Jones had the keys to the place. He paid the mortgage. In the divorce, Jimmy got hush money and Jerry got the Boys and the ranch. Jimmy got some gold, but Jerry owned the mine.

Meanwhile, fans of the Dallas Cowboys simply got the shaft.

Oakland Raiders’ and Dallas Cowboys’ fans know they owe a debt of gratitude to the men most responsible for making the right decisions, pulling the right triggers, and pushing the right buttons to get their teams to the status of storied franchise. Unfortunately, they also know that the line between genius and madness is razor thin and the cartoon-like leftovers of the teams’ owners/general managers are dancing like demented jesters all over that line.

Crazy like a fox is cool. Crazy as a mad hatter is sad.

One only needs to ask this question for perspective on the two teams’ current state of management: If either Jerry Jones or Al Davis were to fire himself as General Manager, would any other NFL team hire him as theirs?

I rest my case.

Dallas Cowboys. Oakland Raiders. Insanity in the owner’s box. Desperation on the field. Turkey and dressing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie on the table.

Happy Thanksgiving, America!

Popularity: 8% [?]

Jerry Jones and the Way We Were

Landry's Long Shadow

Can it already be twenty years? Is it really possible that it was two whole decades ago that Jerry Jones informed the disbelieving Dallas Cowboys nation that he would be involved in (and in charge of) everything regarding the team, right down to the “socks and jocks?”

It has not been easy for old school Cowboys fans to accept the brash, swashbuckling, micro-managing owner’s ways. This isn’t the way we were taught a successful team was built and managed.

Clint Murchison, The beloved and long-since passed original owner of the Cowboys, the man who gave the team life and then entrusted it to the tender loving care of Tex Schramm and Tom Landry, was the antithesis of Jerry Jones. Murchison loved football, obviously, but never fancied himself a football man. Instead, he identified a man with a personality as big as the state after which he was named and a reputation for knowing the game, hired him, and gave him the reins.

Schramm immediately went after the young defensive coordinator of the New York Giants, a man known for his steady ways and extraordinary football acumen, a man destined to become one of the NFL’s most recognized and recognizable figures, the Fedora-wearing, sharp-dressing, seldom-smiling, franchise cornerstone, Tom Landry.

Together, Murchison, Shcramm, and Landry carved out a legacy. They built what would become one of the NFL’s flagship franchises, a team that NFL films would one day dub “America’s Team.”

And then along came Jones. (Of course, there was the Bum Bright interlude, but it is hardly worth remembering, so we will just pretend it wasn’t there, for argument’s sake.)

Jerry Jones and His Coaching Carousel Versus Clint Murchison, Tex Schramm, and Tom Landry

Twenty years is long enough for Jones to have established a legacy. Since Murchison only owned the team four years longer than Jones has at this point, it is not too early or unreasonable to compare eras and try to answer the nagging question: which was better?

Old timers will answer without reading another word. “Of course the Murchison years were better! Jones is a total idiot. He couldn’t carry Murchison’s jock strap.”

The kids will say, “Who the heck is Murchison? When were the Cowboys great? They haven’t won a playoff game since I was like 5 or 6. They suck, man.”

The thirty-something crowd will say, “Three Super Bowl Rings, Holmes! Jones wins, hands down, even if he is an idiot.”

Inside the Numbers

But what do the facts say? If we compare the two eras side by side, how does one measure up against the other?

Glad you asked.

I have compiled some data for your consideration. We will look at winning percentages, playoff appearances, Conference championship appearances, Super Bowl appearances, and Super Bowl wins.

1. Winning Percentages. Each regime got off to a slow start. The Murchison era because it was an expansion franchise with little on-field talent, and the Jones era because it was an aging team in decline when he bought it and subsequently blew it up to essentially start from scratch.
   • The Murchison Record: 223-126-6. That is a winning percentage of 64%
   • The Jones Record: 179-149-0. Winning percentage of 55%
   • Edge: Murchison by a healthy nine percentage points.
2. Playoff Appearances.
   • Murchison, Schramm, and Landry: 17 playoff appearances in 25 years (68% of the time), including one streak of eight consecutive years (1966-1973) and another of nine straight years (1975-1983). Those streaks were only separated by one aberrant season, meaning they made the post-season 17 times in 18 years.
   • Jones and Company: Eleven playoff appearances in 21 seasons (53%), including a streak of six consecutive years (1991-1996), and eight times in nine years.
   • Edge: Murchison, Schramm and Landry (and not even close.)
3. Conference Championships.
   • Murchison (Old School): Landry’s teams appeared in a whopping twelve conference championship games in those first twenty-five years, winning five of them (42%).
   • Jones (Old Fool): Jones’ teams (most would correct this to Jimmy Johnson’s teams) made four consecutive conference title games, from 1992 to 1995. They won three of the four (75%).
   • Edge: Murchison for the sheer numbers, but Jones’ teams had an incredible success rate in the big games, so that narrows the gap some, but not enough to give Jones the nod.
4. Super Bowl appearances.
   • M-L-S: Five Super Bowl appearances in the 1970s.
   • JJ: Three Super Bowl trips in the 1990s.
   • Edge: Murchison, et al.
5. Super Bowl wins.
   • Murchison, Schramm, and Landry won three of their five Super Bowls (40%)
   • Jones, Johnson, and Switzer won all three of theirs. (That is 100%, if you are keeping score.)
   • Edge: Jones and Company.

So, out of five major categories, Murchison and the dream management team he assembled win four of them. Jones, many might argue, more than redeems himself with three Lombardi Trophies in four years, and that is a valid consideration. However, the current twelve year drought without a playoff victory would seem to dilute that argument just a little.

Outside the Numbers

When you consider intangibles, such as structure and stability, the scale tilts even more in favor of the Murchison team. For its first 28 years, the Dallas Cowboys had one coach, and that coach led them to 12 conference title games and five Super Bowl appearances. In Jones’ first 21 seasons, the team has plowed through five head coaches and is now on its sixth.

On the business side, Jones may be peerless in the NFL. He took one of the great sports brands and built it into a franchise which Forbes Magazine has valued at somewhere around 1.5 billion and rates the number one professional sports franchise in the world.

Confusion of Biblical Proportions

When I think of Jerry Jones and how confusing it can be to determine whether he is one of the best or one of the worst owners in the NFL, I am reminded of a story in the Old Testament, in the book of Ezra. Zerubbabel led a group to rebuild the temple, which had lain in ruins for many years. When it was done, there was a celebration.

Ezra 3:11-13 describes the scene. It tells us that the young men were shouting for joy while the old men, the ones who remembered the glory of Solomon’s temple, wept. The shouting and the weeping mingled together, so that you could not distinguish one from the other.

That is kind of how it feels to be a Cowboys’ fan. You shout for the joy of those unforgettable, magnificent teams of the nineties, but you weep for the glory of the past, a glory that may never be duplicated or restored.

Twenty years of Jerry Jones, and I still don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Popularity: 19% [?]

"Aw, Jerry. The kids are anxious."

Jones and Phillips, Inc. knows how to combat the annual Christmas collapse of America’s (former) Team.

Collapse early.

That’s right! Why give false hope to the silver and blue faithful? Why wait until December to collapse and either miss the playoffs or barely make the post-season and then take an early exit? No waiting. No anticipation. No wringing of the hands, wondering which present contains the white elephant.

With the lapses in concentration, misfires, penalties, and generally clueless execution that has become the hallmark of a Wade Phillips coached team, the Cowboys have stumbled out of the gate. The stellar coaching staff has successfully made the league’s best defender ineffective. They have taken the quarterback whose play-making ability can sometimes border on the miraculous and made him a happy-feet, timid, hesitant, misfiring shell of himself.

They have set new standards for mental lapses, penalties, and bonehead on-field decisions.

All of this because they love you.

They don’t want you to have to wait until Christmas or after to learn what is in that silver and blue package under the tree.

Go ahead. Open it. No surprise. No anticipation. Just a big, miserable white elephant taking a steaming dump on your HD TV.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

PS – If all of this finally results in the end of the Wade “Whiner Boy” Phillips era in Dallas, then it is, after all, a very merry Christmas.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Who's Your Daddy?

Jerry Jones included in his “state-of-the-team” address a defense of his decision to keep his coach. Without provocation, he launched into JoneSpeak about how Wade was the right man for the job and how he would bring things to the table that no one else could.

Jones’ feeling that he had to defend why he kept his coach is pretty telling. It almost seems as if he is trying to answer the voices in his own head. I don’t doubt that some of the reporters in the audience may well have hurled that fastball at his noggin had he not addressed it, but when a speaker feels the need to defend a decision before it is questioned, it certainly raises a red flag.

I am one who believes that Phillips is ill-suited to lead an NFL team as the head man. I believe that he is the kind of coach whose team would have to thrive in spite of his influence, rather than because of it.  I will get to a few reasons why I believe this in a moment.

First, I want to get to three reasons I believe Jerry believes Wade is the right man for this job:

1. Jimmy Johnson. Jerry’s experience with Jimmy informs his every decision regarding the position of Dallas Cowboys’ head coach. Jerry felt he and Jimmy had built the great team of the early nineties together…and he wanted to share the credit for that accomplishment. Jimmy, selfish bastard that he is, was sure it was all him and that he only needed Jerry to provide him the platform and the checkbook. Jimmy was a glory-hound. Jerry doesn’t want to walk the Jimmy Johnson road ever again.
2. Bill Parcells. Parcells was a desperation hire. Jones saw his prized franchise sinking into such a quagmire of mediocrity that something radical had to be done. So, he brought in the football savant, the man who turned around every franchise he ever touched. But Jones underestimated just how dour and surly Parcells could be. Jones is an optimist, a wildcatter, a risk-taker, while Parcells is a calculating, analytical, self-assured (and self-promoting) bona fide football genius. Word around Cowboys headquarters was that Jones was just plain miserable with Parcells. Parcells is more subtle about it, but like Jimmy, he is a glory-hound. He is also a control freak (remember his “buy the groceries” quote). Trouble with that is, Jerry likes to be in control.
3. Mike Shanahan, Bill Cowher, and Mike Holmgren. Jerry looks at the trio he ought to have interviewed and chosen from and thinks, “No thanks. Been there. Done that.” Here are three men with proven track records and Super Bowl hardware, but they are strong-willed men. They are leaders. Jerry cannot have that! He has to be the leader…even if it means he settles for a man who has never led a single team to a single playoff victory as a head coach. At least this man is happy to let Jones be THE MAN.

OK, so Jerry keeps Wade and that is that. Like it or lump it. We cannot do a thing to change it. Besides, is Wade really such a bad choice? Yes, he is! Here is why…

1. Wade Phillips is an excuse-maker. Listen to his news conferences after any random loss. He will offer this excuse or that. Maybe it was a hurt player. Maybe it was a ball taking a bad bounce. Maybe his wife didn’t starch his shorts just right and they chapped his butt. Who knows?
2. Wade Phillips is a stat-spouter. He will take solace in stats whenever his team loses. He will talk about how many yards his team gained or how stingy his defense was. It has forever been the case that winners point to the scoreboard while the losers scramble for the stat book.
3. Wade Phillips is too easily impressed. Remember a couple years ago when he made the statement about how his team made the final eight? Um, excuse us, Wade,but this is not the NCAA Tourney and you are not coaching George Mason University. This is the NFL, buddy. This is the Dallas Cowboys.

It is preseason – training camp time – and hope springs…well, maybe not eternal, but at least until late September, early October. I am hopeful that Jerry and Wade will prove me wrong. I would love that. I would love to see this Cowboys team have a breakout season. Most of all, I would love to see them end the thirteen-year playoff victory drought, which is unprecedented in franchise history.

I hope for it. I want it. I just don’t believe it is likely to happen. Not on Wade’s watch.

Popularity: 8% [?]