Several years ago, Jimmy Johnson was pressed on a given Sunday to explain why the Cowboys always seem to underachieve despite having some talent. His answer as I recall was something to the effect that the players did not fear the coaches or any repercussions for failure. He also (as I remember) said the environment was “too country club”. May not be exact, but I think that was generally what he said.
IMO, the biggest culture cancer of the last 22 years of failure boils down to this: Our leaders accept excuses. When the people who lead your organization not only have zero consequences for their own failure, and they also make “sugar daddy” excuses for their players and coaches for any year that has ended without much being accomplished, your organization is infected.
Tony Romo famously once stated that the NFL is a “meritocracy”- your value, playing time and accolades depend on your bottom line performance. Well that “meritocracy” may apply to the rest of the NFL, but it doesn’t apparently apply much in Dallas if you are in the FO or coaching staff.
Pick a year. Any year in the last 22. You can easily find Jerry making local or sports headlines by laying out a beautiful soft bed of excuses as to why his team either did not make the playoffs or exited early in the playoffs. For the sake of brevity, I can’t or won’t list all of the excuses laid out by Jerry to soft pedal his team’s failure, but here’s some of the excuse “greatest hits”- in no particular order:
1. If Zeke hadn’t been suspended those 6 games, 2017 would have been different.
2. If Aaron Rodgers doesn’t make that 3rd and 30 completion we would have won that 2016 playoff game.
3. If Tyron Smith hadn’t been hurt most of 2017, we would have won that Atlanta game.
4. Our defense was great until Sean Lee got hurt. If we have him all season...
5. If Greg Hardy had stayed focused and played like he did in his first game against NE, we would have...
6. If Tony Romo doesn’t hurt his back, break his collarbone, need surgery......etc.
7. It takes a while for a rookie head coach to develop. (Implying it was ok to throw seasons away in the “learning process”)
8. Wade Phillips after the disastrous 2007 loss in first round to giants: “We still had a great season”. (If I was GM, that might have been a firing offense, but this org loves excuses)
9. Jerry- “Zeke’s been through a lot lately”. (Jerry telling coaches they shouldn’t discipline him after he quit on a play in Denver after an interception)
10. Jerry- “I don’t want to give up on the development of Jason Garrett too soon and let another team benefit from it”. (After 3 straight non-winning, non-playoff seasons)
The excuse list of the last two decades could fill a 500 page book. Excuse making is the opposite of accountability. Good leaders own their mistakes and impose consequences for failure, regardless of what coulda, woulda, shoulda been. What makes this team’s culture so problematic is that as long as Jerry and the top brass keep making and accepting excuses, it will continue to dog this team.
I’m sick of the excuses. As fans we should stop repeating some of Jerry’s excuses on these boards. If this team again fails to make the playoffs, or loses early in the playoffs, there should be ZERO excuses. This team has enough talent to make some noise this year.
Injuries happen- every year. Bad calls, and bad luck happen every year. The true contenders always find a way to win anyway and the pretenders always find a good set of excuses.
it seems like you didn't watch AoN and think that what fans say is what happens at the Star. Just going down your list:
1) They were telling the players that Zeke's suspension was an opportunity to succeed.
2) Never heard one player or coach make that claim.
3) That was never said by any coach or player. At the coaches meeting, Garrett accepted responsibility and said he had to do better than the Atlanta game.
4) Never heard Sean Lee, Eberflus, Hitchens, Smith, Marinelli, Garrett, etc say that.
5) Never heard anyone say anything about Hardy along those lines at VR or the Star.
6) Did what Dak Prescott accomplish when Romo broke his back completely escape you?
7) That is media spin.
8) That is not an excuse.
9) They didn't tell Zeke that.
10) That is not an excuse either.
What you really seem to fail to understand is the difference between leading the rank and file and leadership. When it comes to the actual production at the ground level in a competitive environment you cannot allow them leeway to do anything less than full effort. That is the reason for "no excuses" because you want them to maximize.
And while leadership needs to hold their personal self to the same standard, they OTOH cannot just ignore the fact that Lee is our best defender and when he gets injured it negatively impacts production. Cause and effect is an inescapable reality. The team drafted and signed LB in response to that reality and its a good thing. Saying no excuses isn't going to make Wilson go above his maximum.
The defense did perform better when Hardy was playing at a high level. Pass rush remains important. They drafted Taco.
When Zeke went down the coaches made it all about the other guys stepping up. The execs were proactive and kept 4 on the roster. Smith stepped up.
I get the frustration of not winning but just saying "no excuses" like that is some magic wand --particularly from this forum-- that is going to change anything is delusional. If you want to get better, you need to look for what was causing you to lose or the other team to win and adjust. A lot of those things you care complaining about, that is precisely what the club did.
And if you think you are in a position to hold anyone in the Cowboys organization accountable by a CZ post then that too is delusional. Jerry Jones et al is not your audience.