Idgit, I usually agree with you and I was just about to respond with the Jimmy Johnson view of the world that your nuts if you think you treat all players the same. I think there is some truth in that, I know I don't treat my star employees the same way I do the run of the mill average employees. You do treat them differently, but you also expect more of them and you generally don't let them do things that go against what you are preaching as your core values, things such as accountability to your team mates.
Do I think this is a huge issue that will severely hurt the team, no I don't and the lets trade Dez talk is crazy, but I don't think you just brush it off either with a simple fine. You can not hope to change behavior unless you try and make it hurt a little.
I don't know but it looks like our rookie QB was trying to make it hurt a little bit and if so kudos to him and if so wow!
Will this incident be forgotten in a week, probably.
But I don't think you can just accept it as Dez being Dez either.
Why did the organization feel like they had to cover for Dez?
There are plenty of ways to make Dez feel some pain for his actions to try and change his behavior.
But I think just blowing it off as Dez being Dez is a mistake and maybe they are not but it sure looks that way.
Well, I'm not saying they have to tolerate it. I think the fine was appropriate. And if the behavior continues, those would escalate and could, theoretically, affect his snaps. By all accounts Dez is not a stranger to fines from the Cowboys, anyway.
As far as covering for him goes, they were trying to keep the story in-house because there'd be a reaction to it, sure. This way, it came out a day later once they had the results. That's just a PR issue.
As far as the distraction goes, I guess it depends in part on Dez' motivation in missing on Tues. If he's spitting in the face of the coaches, it's one thing. But it don't think for a second it was that. If it's Dez just not getting himself somewhere offsite when he's supposed to or Dez not going because he'd made up his mind to play anyway and didn't want to hear otherwise (both of which I think are fairly likely possibilities), it's not really going to be a distraction or a negative with his teammates at all. In the first case it really is just Dez being Dez. In the second, it'd be more likely to be taken as a positive than a negative.
Either way, it's the kind of thing teams sweep under carpets with their star players routinely. Something less than stabbing with scissors and something more than forgetting to bring your playbook to a meeting.
