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The Cowboys' owner and general manager reminds us all of the golden rule: He who has the gold makes the rules.
I almost could hear the groans coming out of my Twitter feed as Jerry Jones shared his intentions with the world.
But Jones believes his time as GM is far from ever, saying that he plans to remain the owner and GM for the next 15-20 years.
"Of course, I said it, and I really meant that and just think about that a minute: Why wouldn't you?" said Jones.
OK. For just a moment, I want you to put aside any personal frustration you feel about the performance of the Dallas Cowboys for the past couple of decades. Forget your anger about Jason Garrett being more or less promised his job in 2014 by the boss Cowboy. Imagine you are in Jerry's place. You own the most glamorous professional sports franchise in the country, one of the top operations on the face of the globe, sitting in what is the best venue on the planet. You are responsible for the financial success of the organization, and deserve a great deal of credit for making the Cowboys brand the marketing juggernaut it is. And, with all due apologies to your lovely wife, the one true passion in your life is football, and you are never happier than when you are hip deep in things, having an impact as the general manager, who, it might be mentioned, never gets into an argument with the owner over spending money.
Give up being general manager? Folks, if it was me, you could forget the thing about prying it from my cold, dead fingers. You could expect to see my freeze-dried carcass propped up in the owner's box in AT&T Stadium until they tear the thing down to make room for something bigger and better.
In order to give up the title, Jerry would have to be convinced that he is not doing a good job - and as he states, he feels exactly the opposite.
"The facts are that I really do think the way things have rolled out, that I'm getting to do some of the best work that I've done, relatively speaking in my career of these last several years," said Jones.
So what if he is 71? He feels good about what he is doing. And as for the whole idea of going out and hiring a general manager for the team, that is not going to happen.
For the 800th and last time, when Jerry Jones steps down as G.M., his son Stephen will replace him. This is not opinion, it's fact.
— Jeff Sullivan (@SullyBaldHead) November 22, 2013
To be a bit more subtle about things, there are signs that Stephen is taking on some of the duties and responsibilities of the general manager's job. It is not going to be a sudden handover as much as an easing of the job from one generation to the next. And I would not be surprised to see Jerry hanging on to the title past his 90th birthday, whether or not he is doing much more than serving as a figurehead. He can afford the best medicine in the world.
Not too many are going to be happy about this, but I'll add my two cents:
You go, Jerry.
That's right. I officially support him, and encourage him. Part of it is because, despite the whole damned if he does and damned if he doesn't nature of things, I like what has happened since he installed Jason Garrett as head coach. Yes, I do get a bit anxious worrying that the process is taking too long to show results, but I also believe that Jerry, Jason and Stephen are trying to build something long-term, and that it may take a bit longer for those results to show. I strongly believe that continuity is a good thing. If changes are needed, I actually like the idea of making the changes at the coordinator level, while keeping the head coach to set the overall tone and establish the culture. I think the team is headed in the right direction, and want to see things play out a bit longer before I will have enough information to know if that is valid or not.
Then there is always the fact that it is Jerry Jones' team and he has every right to do as he pleases. If it makes him happy to be the general manager and he is satisfied about things, then all contrary opinions are irrelevant. Jerry does not answer to a board of directors. No one is his boss. The only thing that would matter would be if people stopped tuning in, buying tickets for the game, and purchasing merchandise. After all, the Cowboys may not have made the playoffs the past two years, but they played in the last meaningful game of the regular season both times. Dallas still generates a ton of interest.
People claim to love a rebel, and you cannot tell me there is not some rebel in Jerry Jones. He has been an innovator and an agent for change in the league. He thinks outside the box, and drives people who want a homogenized, parity driven product, like New York Giants owner John Mara, crazy. I can't help but have a little admiration for someone like that.
Besides, I always take anyone who says they know how to do it better with a grain of salt. I figure there is at least a 50/50 chance that they would actually make it worse if their ideas were used. There is no way to know that any decision other than what the team has made would actually have worked out better.
Mainly, though, it comes back to it being Jerry's team to do with as he pleases, so I approve of this statement:
"To some degree - this is going to sound bad - I can be doing anything I want to do," said Jones. "Where I want to be is with that team."
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