1. Well, with the guys who can't stand my passion for the Cowboys anyway.
2. make it clearer how talent evaluation works.
3. Jerry Jones is and always has been the "Final Say" on all things personnel for the Dallas Cowboys since he took over the team in 1989.
4. Do you honestly think the owners did not ratify those moves?
There are some aspects of this thesis I might agree with. Other parts are more of an emotional slant which paints your belief in the things you say. I do that. It is not a shot. But mingling fact with emotion muddies the waters about fact.
1. You put a great deal of work in this, and it is to be commended. But once again you lead with
(1.) your victimhood at the hands of others. I see no point in this posturing. It does not lend any credence to your POV. The sweating over a keyboard while trying to bring wisdom as I suffer the slings and arrows at the hands of others might be significant in a Shakespearean play...but on a football board...
It Doth Not.
2. Not certain whom you are speaking about when you suggest this will be more clear. Very few of the people who post here don't understand how the hierarchy works.
3. This is at the crux of your commentary. Jerry has been in charge since day one. You repeat this posit over and over in your work here. But your definition of in charge is linked to the word
ratify, as in
(4.) Ratify is an interesting word used in this piece. it means authorize - assume or affirm.
I suggest all owners ratify the plans by their GM's in one area only. They ratify the machinations in regard to
cost. The GM comes, hat in hand, and says this is what it will cost to be a winner this year. There may be several options on the table. "We can get this free agent who we consider a 1 type for X amount. Or we can get this other free agent for X amount, but he is a 2 in our eyes." Ultimately it comes down to the owner making a decision on the price tag and not the individual players as if he is part of the talent evaluation.
For the owner is the one who runs the BUSINESS end and makes certain the team's books stay in the black and not red. That is the sum total of the ratification by the owner in most franchises.
Then came Jones.
He sees himself as one of the talent evaluators. While he sometimes is out voted - Manziel - he also has made (questionably) positive decisions - Haley (positive) and T.O. (not so much) - that fly in the face of the people who actually have a work history of talent evaluation.
Forgive me, but close to twenty plus years hanging out with the Beatles didn't cause Mal Evans to write hit songs.
Jerry sits aloft like Solomon, passing his brand of judgment on all football decisions. His love of camera and microphone make it evident, especially when he uses the
We phrase in what normally falls under the coach's purview.
So while technically correct that all owners have a say, there is a difference in what Jerry does, and even Snyder to a lesser degree, than all the other owners. To say Jerry is doing the same thing as all the other owners, or more precisely that they are doing what Jerry does, is a very broad brush definition. Especially when Jerry is at the spearhead of interviews and draft day war rooms, entrenching himself in all things related to the day-to-day football decisions - note I did not say financial here, because while he surely has a hand in that, his power leaks into areas other owners do not..
Jerry is an ago-centric individual who wants credit in a realm he has always admired. I forget the exact quote, but he made a comment near the beginning of his time as the owner here that he always wanted to own a team. Not the Cowboys, but an NFL team. I think he went on further to suggest he'd give up all his success to do so.
This is about the Jerry legacy and him getting credit he thought he was due when the team won championships. No one really thought Jerry had an inkling to do with those seasons until Jimmy left. And what most sticks in his craw is the fact most people believe it was Jimmy's team that won in 1995 after Jimmy left.
And here is the lynchpin of that thinking.
Why would Jerry storm off in a huff and make the comment to a reporter after being snubbed by Jimmy and his staff that "any one of five-hundred coaches could win with that team." He was probably somewhat right.
But if Jerry actually had a hand as you suggest, that phrase would have been -
Any one of five-hundred coaches could have won with the team WE built. - - Or
"I built."
Yet he didn't say that. In a moment of fury he was trying to diminish the actions of Jimmy Johnson. The developer, the mastermind, the builder...
The Arhictect. However
, as his anger bubbled over, he never gave himself credit for anything in that statement. He merely lashed out at the guy who deserved all the credit
because of Jerry's jealousy at not being included in the post success toast with Cool and the Gang.
At that moment when the coaching staff snubbed him, he was the ultimate outsider, and it became clear he would never be taken seriously by real football people, or included in the accolades as a modeler of this franchise.
While this is conjecture, one might make the argument Jerry purposely said the five-hundred coaches comment to run Jimmy off.
One more point here. Do you remember what Jerry did when the Switzer led team won it all? Standing on the stage, Barry held the trophy and screamed in his incoherent, maniacal way, "We did it baby. We did it our way."
What did Jerry do then?
He reached over and took the trophy from Barry Switzer and handed it to the players That said volumes about
"No coach will ever be first in this franchise or the glory days as long as I have air in my lungs." The psychology behind his five-hundred coaches and his taking the trophy from Switzer set the table for all coaches after. Including Parcells.
While conjecture, one might make the leap Jerry got T.O. to tweak Parcells nose enough to run him off after Parcells came and reorganized the team into something at the level of the NFL.
Since the day he left, Jerry has been chasing the ghost of Jimmy Johnson. He postured himself as the titular head of this franchise and goes to any length to get the credit. His
"We taught Garret how to be a head coach," says so very much about the mental aspects of Jones and this team. And is the third piece of the puzzle into the mind of Jerry and how he now connects with his head coach.
There will never be a day the head coach, or any coach or scout or front office personnel will stand between him and the credit.
Jones cannot coach a team. Period. So any teaching he did is in his mind alone. But this statement is of the same stripe as the five-hundred coaches comment. It puts the focus back on Jerry.
There are a group of people who do evaluations with this team. They all assemble their contributions for the sanctioning of the people above them.
Ultimately, and in most cases I would assume, Jerry chooses which way they will go.
Like an entire special teams draft.
But the psychology of those three comments/action - five hundred coaches, taking the trophy from Switzer, we taught Garret how to be a head coach - reveal the ego of Jerry, and his real intent by his being involved more than other owners.
Most of what you said above is true. But if you leave out the aspects which paint Jerry as a self-centered narcissist, bent on being the focal point of this franchise over all others, then the truth about this team is obscured.
