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This is pretty bad:
Take it from T-New: A 'coward' is tearing the Dallas Cowboys apart
By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGELjenfloyd@star-telegram.com
IRVING -- Walking around this Cowboys locker room Monday, after another season abruptly ended in fail, I was struck by how deeply divided this team actually is.
The lack of chemistry is glaringly obvious in how players talk about one another. A lack of respect seems to exist for many Cowboy coaches as well. Everybody is always blaming somebody.
And deep fissures remain amongst Dallas’ biggest names, personalities, and players with Wade Phillips basically intimating that he had to have a come-to-Jesus intervention with Jason Witten, T.O. and Tony Romo before Philly.
Cowboys cornerback Terence Newman encapsulated all of this angst, somewhat unintentionally Monday, when talking about lack of accountability in this locker room.
“It is like the problem when you had the anonymous player saying all that stuff,” he said. “They are a coward, you know, and that kind of stuff ruined this season.”
Let that sink in: A bigtime Cowboy called another bigtime Cowboy, and Witten specifically -- if locker room rumblings about the identity of “the snitch” are to be believed -- a coward.
Welcome to what happens when you have a Cupcake for a coach.
This Cowboys team lacks leaders, or enough of them. Too few guys hold themselves accountable. This group requires a coach willing to do both and what they got instead was Wade Phillips.
And what we have at Valley Ranch as a result is a mess.
Newman, of course, caused a ruckus a couple of weeks ago by going on national TV and saying just that -- how a lack of accountability from players and specifically coaches had crippled this Cowboys team. He was ripped for doing so.
He also was right, as evidenced by a 44-6 season-ending, playoff-snuffing loss in Philly. What that gutless performance underlined was just how lacking in leadership this team really is.
“Obviously, there were people who were wondering who I was talking about. I was talking about everybody,” Newman said. “Too many guys are not accountable in this organization. And when you sit there and make excuses and put the blame on other people, it erodes what you are trying to build.”
What has been built at Valley Ranch under Coach Cupcake is an unmitigated disaster. We have a mess far bigger than first imagined, and one not easily resolved either.
This is not solved by finding another QB, or dumping T.O., or drafting a safety. This is a cracked foundation, as evidenced by problems that obviously remain between T.O., Romo, Witten and Jason Garrett.
And how do you clean up that level of deeply fractured?
Coach Cupcake has a solution, or he claims to be scribbling down a rudimentary plan on Post-It notes as we speak. He’s going to become “more demanding, more whatever” next season.
OK, so the plan is a work in progress.
“It has to start with me,” Phillips explained. “If you’re not going to change the coach and you don’t get the results you want, then the coach needs to change some things. I have to look at myself.”
His central theme involved “change”, as a result he dropped that buzzword more than Barack Obama in his presser on Monday. He basically promised to be less Cupcake-y, from running a tougher training camp to cracking down in practices to demanding accountability from players.
He finally admitted Monday that he has an accountability problem with this team. Two years and everything that has happened and he just now realized this.
So he vows to “take over” and “pay more attention to detail”. Or in other words, what he should have been doing all along.
Of course, change does not include firing anybody. Coach Wade stays. So do both coordinators. Cap considerations and blind stupidity probably equals most big-name, big-time players returning for 2009.
So what exactly is changing?
Oh yeah, a 61-year-old coach going into his 33rd NFL season plans on totally reinventing himself from “the softie” to “Bill Parcells, Jr.” Which would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic, especially since he admitted his personality is not going to change.
Cowboys linebacker Bradie James actually giggled when asked if a meaner, tougher Coach Cupcake was what this team needed.
“If you know a person to be a certain way and then all of a sudden you have an extreme change, I don’t know how well that’s going to be taken,” he said. “I don’t know what he means by that. Like I said, he didn’t address us, so I don't know.”
Yes, Coach Cupcake began his attempt at being a butt-chewing disciplinarian by failing to address his players in a post-season meeting, a first in a long time at Valley Ranch.
Nor did Bradie seem particularly pleased with this lack of communication from Coach Cupcake.
“Of course. Who wouldn’t?” Bradie said, when asked if Cowboy players wanted to hear from Wade. “I don’t want to just end this thing and be in the dark. I’m finding out information from you guys. That’s not my decision either. That’s just how it is.”
And how it will continue to be.
The Cowboys are divided and I just do not have faith in Coach Cupcake to change into the kind of guy who can fix them
Take it from T-New: A 'coward' is tearing the Dallas Cowboys apart
By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGELjenfloyd@star-telegram.com
IRVING -- Walking around this Cowboys locker room Monday, after another season abruptly ended in fail, I was struck by how deeply divided this team actually is.
The lack of chemistry is glaringly obvious in how players talk about one another. A lack of respect seems to exist for many Cowboy coaches as well. Everybody is always blaming somebody.
And deep fissures remain amongst Dallas’ biggest names, personalities, and players with Wade Phillips basically intimating that he had to have a come-to-Jesus intervention with Jason Witten, T.O. and Tony Romo before Philly.
Cowboys cornerback Terence Newman encapsulated all of this angst, somewhat unintentionally Monday, when talking about lack of accountability in this locker room.
“It is like the problem when you had the anonymous player saying all that stuff,” he said. “They are a coward, you know, and that kind of stuff ruined this season.”
Let that sink in: A bigtime Cowboy called another bigtime Cowboy, and Witten specifically -- if locker room rumblings about the identity of “the snitch” are to be believed -- a coward.
Welcome to what happens when you have a Cupcake for a coach.
This Cowboys team lacks leaders, or enough of them. Too few guys hold themselves accountable. This group requires a coach willing to do both and what they got instead was Wade Phillips.
And what we have at Valley Ranch as a result is a mess.
Newman, of course, caused a ruckus a couple of weeks ago by going on national TV and saying just that -- how a lack of accountability from players and specifically coaches had crippled this Cowboys team. He was ripped for doing so.
He also was right, as evidenced by a 44-6 season-ending, playoff-snuffing loss in Philly. What that gutless performance underlined was just how lacking in leadership this team really is.
“Obviously, there were people who were wondering who I was talking about. I was talking about everybody,” Newman said. “Too many guys are not accountable in this organization. And when you sit there and make excuses and put the blame on other people, it erodes what you are trying to build.”
What has been built at Valley Ranch under Coach Cupcake is an unmitigated disaster. We have a mess far bigger than first imagined, and one not easily resolved either.
This is not solved by finding another QB, or dumping T.O., or drafting a safety. This is a cracked foundation, as evidenced by problems that obviously remain between T.O., Romo, Witten and Jason Garrett.
And how do you clean up that level of deeply fractured?
Coach Cupcake has a solution, or he claims to be scribbling down a rudimentary plan on Post-It notes as we speak. He’s going to become “more demanding, more whatever” next season.
OK, so the plan is a work in progress.
“It has to start with me,” Phillips explained. “If you’re not going to change the coach and you don’t get the results you want, then the coach needs to change some things. I have to look at myself.”
His central theme involved “change”, as a result he dropped that buzzword more than Barack Obama in his presser on Monday. He basically promised to be less Cupcake-y, from running a tougher training camp to cracking down in practices to demanding accountability from players.
He finally admitted Monday that he has an accountability problem with this team. Two years and everything that has happened and he just now realized this.
So he vows to “take over” and “pay more attention to detail”. Or in other words, what he should have been doing all along.
Of course, change does not include firing anybody. Coach Wade stays. So do both coordinators. Cap considerations and blind stupidity probably equals most big-name, big-time players returning for 2009.
So what exactly is changing?
Oh yeah, a 61-year-old coach going into his 33rd NFL season plans on totally reinventing himself from “the softie” to “Bill Parcells, Jr.” Which would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic, especially since he admitted his personality is not going to change.
Cowboys linebacker Bradie James actually giggled when asked if a meaner, tougher Coach Cupcake was what this team needed.
“If you know a person to be a certain way and then all of a sudden you have an extreme change, I don’t know how well that’s going to be taken,” he said. “I don’t know what he means by that. Like I said, he didn’t address us, so I don't know.”
Yes, Coach Cupcake began his attempt at being a butt-chewing disciplinarian by failing to address his players in a post-season meeting, a first in a long time at Valley Ranch.
Nor did Bradie seem particularly pleased with this lack of communication from Coach Cupcake.
“Of course. Who wouldn’t?” Bradie said, when asked if Cowboy players wanted to hear from Wade. “I don’t want to just end this thing and be in the dark. I’m finding out information from you guys. That’s not my decision either. That’s just how it is.”
And how it will continue to be.
The Cowboys are divided and I just do not have faith in Coach Cupcake to change into the kind of guy who can fix them
