Is Cowboys' circus simply too over the top?
Owner in no hurry to tone things down despite lack of playoff success
OPINION
By Tom Curran
NBCSports.com
updated
12:52 p.m. CT, Tues., Aug. 12, 2008
Tom Curran
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OXNARD, Calif. -
It’s Monday afternoon, the next-to-last day of training camp for the Dallas Cowboys.
Tuesday, they leave for Denver where they will practice with the Broncos for the rest of the week. There is packing to be done.
Yet since practice ended, Jerry Jones has spoken to the mayor of Oxnard, Calif. for 10 minutes, huddled with reporters for another 10, signed autographs as he walked and smiled, and spoken in conspiratorial tones with Cowboy turned sports anchor Babe Laufenberg for what seemed an eternity.
Now, my turn. Jones is hotfooting it toward the townhouses at the Residence Inn Oxnard where the Cowboys have been housed for the past three weeks. We're walking side-by-side on the narrow cement and my tape recorder's under his chin, but he keeps glad-handing. Hey, there's Greg Ellis, Cowboys linebacker! Who would have thought we'd see him here at training camp (eye roll). Another minute of yuk, yuks.
I’m screwed. He’s talked out. Go for the throat.
"What if I were to say this is all too much – too many personalities, too much hoopla, too much TV around – if you want a team to be single-minded as they approach the season and attack it?"
Jones slows, backs off the cement walk and squares his shoulders to the question.
"A tradition of the Cowboys is for all this visibility to be here," he begins. "When we've had our greatest teams, when we've had our most successes, that was said in spades. 'We were too visible, there were too many characters, too much attention.' I know first hand, it doesn't impact the play of the players in a negative way. I would almost go as far as to say that it's a positive thing."
Go big or go home. That's Jones' approach to things. Unfortunately, his Cowboys have tweaked that to "go big and go home."
Arguably, the most talented team in the NFC, they've blown their first playoff game each of the past two seasons. Dallas hasn't won a playoff game since Dec. 28, 1996.
Those details haven't cowed Jones into toning it down. The Cowboys already had the bombastic and flamboyant wide receiver and the celebrity quarterback. This offseason, they added the recidivist cornerback, Adam "Pacman" Jones and the stalwart veteran linebacker, Zach Thomas. Jones then agreed to let HBO come in and film its NFL reality show, "Hard Knocks, Training Camp With the Dallas Cowboys."
Highlights of the first episode: Terrell Owens introducing his line of self-reverent clothing; head coach Wade Phillips agog at how many footballs Pacman can hold while catching punts; Pacman dousing a teammate with a bucket of water from his balcony and Pacman saying of T.O.: "That boy crazy."
Hello, pot? It's kettle.
It all begs the question of whether the Cowboys are performers or football players. Jones seems to believe they aren't mutually exclusive.
"I know when I was in college, we would have drills and there would be – two or three feet away – a few hundred people watching those drills. And there's no question I did mine with more intensity because those people were sitting there watching," he recalls.
"Bill Parcells. When he came in to interview with me for the head coaching job. I asked him why he wanted to coach the Dallas Cowboys and he said, quote, 'Picture going to Las Vegas. Over there is the lounge. That's where the people coming up to be stars and the people going down that were stars (are playing). That's not where I want to be. The big showroom is where the Sinatras and Elvis Presleys play. That’s the Dallas Cowboys. That’s why I’m here.'"
It's worth noting at this point that the Cowboys are very good. They went 13-3 last year. Romo is an outstanding player. No running back in the league runs with as much fury as Marion Barber. Owens isn't the league's best pass-catcher but he is its most terrifying receiver because of his combination of size, speed and power. Tight end Jason Witten is excellent. The offensive line is very good and the defense has the requisite superstar in DeMarcus Ware and 10 good to very good players.
Mentally? That's where the problems lie. Last season, after Thanksgiving, the Cowboys started to backslide. In their final six games (including the playoff loss to the Giants), they went 3-3 and one of the wins was a 28-27 edging of the moribund Lions.
Phillips, oblivious to his team's need for a kick in the can, gamely maintained an "All is well, we won 13 games," mantra right until the end. It's worth noting at this point, Phillips' regular season record as a head coach is 61-42. His postseason record is 0-4.
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Because there is much more than simple Xs and Os to being the Cowboys head coach, there are times when this job and this team seem too big for the ambling, rambling Phillips.
The roster has a combustible mix of talent and ego.
"We have a lot of names. We have a lot of egos," admits linebacker Bradie James. "One thing that we have done is (try) to put those things aside. When you have a lot of names on the defensive side of the ball or the offensive side of the ball – everywhere, really – the only name that matters is the Dallas Cowboys. If we can get all that pride and ego out the door and come together as one, we can be a force. There are so many things are going on, there is so much potential for distractions, in order for us to be where we want to be, we have to set aside those things."
The Cowboys, James says, will not pretend to be something they are not.
"We can’t be the Patriots," he allows. "The Patriots, they epitomize the whole team concept. Those guys are all about team and that's it. We're not them. We are a team that has a bunch of names, a bunch of personalities and a bunch of youth. We are learning what it takes to win at the right time."
Jones, whose eyes have been locked on mine during our conversation, looks down when I mention James' comment about the Patriots.
"You can have different personalities and have a team," he says after a moment's thought. "You do have to have the team concept and a common purpose. But to think it's going to be done with the same makeup and the same people, that’s not even realistic. That team will recognize that it’s different people and different backgrounds and different motivations involved.
"Unlike the traditional way to build an army or whatever, I don't believe you have to break people down to their soul and then build them back up," Jones concludes. "I have a strong belief that the spirit and the will that is there gets better if it's (not broken down)."
This is a privilege Jones gives his players. Despite inroads made by the Patriots and Giants, the Cowboys remain "America's Team." There is a cache to that for players and they are allowed to cash in on it. What Jones expects in return is a Super Bowl.
Give Adam Jones the last word:
"We're America's Team. [We're] expected to win. Just like the boss man. He don't want no less than that and we don't expect no less as a team. We got to do what we got to do man."
