I posted in one of these threads that I cannot worry about a video that is rumored. I can't worry about the content of the video until it is proven to be real and the facts on the video are made public. And that I cannot worry about something I cannot control.
Surely SAS left the implication, however benign, that one possibility is this is a ploy to get Dez' impending contract reduced by questioning his character, maturity, and decision making. Now he did not frame it that way precisely, but he certainly alluded to that as one possibility as he stated several times the timing of this appeared odd to him.
(And SAS' comment about this happening to a man - "who looks like Dez" - was another layer of muck he carefully applied to this situation. I have no issues with SAS. Sometimes I like his thoughts and other times I see them as filibustering and puffery, and somewhat of an act. But how Dez looks has nothing to do with this issue whatsoever. I think his comment truly was a contrived position and a calculated shot at skin color. But that is my opinion.)
Then I see comments by some of the posters here which offer the indication there is a possibility, however slight, this angle about the franchise leading this fiasco could be the truth.
My position is this. If Jerry Jones used his influence to get a journalist - however sketchy that label journalist is for the individuals who pursued this video theory - and Jones made a deal with those people to create a firestorm to lower the number of teams interested in Dez because of a string of incidents at his home and this mythical stunt in a Walmart parking lot, therefore rein in the price Jones would have to pay him has a Grand Canyon sized flaw in this conspiracy theory.
No one but a complete moron would ever suggest this to not one, but two individuals in the press, and then carry through with this. Because it would come out, as all things do now. And this would be a firestorm as big, if not bigger than Donald Sterling's racist behavior.
Jones would be hauled off in front of the Commish and perhaps be force to forfeit (sell) his franchise. At the very least fined so many draft picks it would make SMU's death penalty look like they won the BCS championship.
Jones would be sued by Dez and his representatives for so much money, Dez would never need to catch a football again.
And although I am not an attorney, nor do I play one on TV, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn last night, I believe there could be criminal violations.
Long way around the barn to say I think anyone suggesting this is a Jones inspired gambit to lessen the sting of a Dez contract has to be the leader of the lunatic parade and one of the funnier things I have read here in a while. Even if Jerry has a component in his personality that makes you think he might have coordinated a Faustian type deal for those first three Super Bowls.
One of the things I respect about SAS is that he doesn't hide his disdain for the Cowboys. I prefer that to someone who acts like they respect the team and never shows an ounce of it as proof. I'm goofy that way. My issue with him is that he, like so many others, has no concept of the symbolism of the nickname America's Team.
Like so many others, he thinks that nickname is transferable and is about winning. So if Dallas loses, he thinks someone else gets the nickname. Yet no other nickname has that? Not even the similarly "arrogant" Titletown?"
I challenged him to a debate over who America's Team is and he was going to do it and chickened out. I had an employee at ESPN helping me and everything. It tells me he does that stuff to muck rake. That I do not like, and that is exactly what he is decrying in this piece from his show. He talks about how so little facts shaped the story. You mean like so little facts on why Dallas is America's Team, and it isn't about winning? Hell, the Dez story is a perfect example of why Dallas is America's Team.
Then he got all noble and talked about how until Dez speaks up for himself, that he, people who look like him (Dez), people that may come from his background, and others who feel voiceless, no matter what their ethnicity is, what your culture is, what your environment is, what your classification is, as in rich, poor, affluent, whatever, and thought you were voiceless...you were wrong. You have me.
That lost me. His entire positive spiel about how he was defending Dez went away and I realized all he did was say he's the good guy. He didn't even defend Dez. He said, if something comes out, deal with him. He didn't like the rush to judgment. I get that. I don't either. I don't know anyone else talking about this trying to be the hero.
I will say one thing. He did say in this piece that he is not insinuating that these rumors came from the Cowboys...because he said that would be irresponsible. That I agree with. It isn't as irresponsible as what happened with this story. Dez got convicted in the court of public opinion, stirred by reporters who in year's past were taught to report the news, not manufacture it. I don't know about you TD, but I personally can't see Sham, Luksa, or Sherrod being a party to this kind of yellow journalism. I was personally thrilled to see noted Cowboys critic Dale Hansen, not be a party to this. He may be caustic, but he's professional. I didn't look to see if some of the other old school guys jumped on or not. I believe for the most part our DFW guys questioned the national media guys who were pushing this. I didn't see Tim McMahon for instance, a noted idiot in my book, pushing this as hard as Rappaport. I didn't see our guys at the driver's seats or in the pit crews.
Now, I do think a few of them reported on the growing story, but for the most part they showed the kind of restraint SAS is preaching here. The one flaw I find is that no matter how many times the Cowboys brass said they do not know of any video, and that nothing was swaying their opinion of Dez, it seemed to be a sidebar to the made up story. I find that wrong.
Let me be real succinct here. I am no fan of Jerry really. I don't think he's the awful human being some do. I don't think he's a saint either. He's got flaws. Crooked like this idea is not one of them. I will categorically say, the Dallas Cowboys did NOT float this story to try and keep interest in him down (They can franchise him for crying out loud. That keeps interest down), and he is going to end up with a huge deal. Nothing about that conspiracy theory makes sense to me.
But what do I know TD? I'm a guy, who despite thinking of myself as pretty intelligent, sat on the edge of my seat waiting for this video to show the light of day. I'm as gullible as anyone.
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