My boss is out of town for the next 2 days and has once again saddled me with an acting job in his absence; “Keep busy and, if you run out of things to do, look busy.” So, for my first audition of the day I will perform my interpretation of writing in a blog and I really hope it is believable…especially since this is what I am actually doing, so it’s a can’t miss performance (cue “I hope I get it”).
Shortly after arriving home last night and my four year old had settled his hugs and kisses debt, in the presence of my wife and I he announced, “I pooted,” followed by that adorable four year old boy giggle. His nostrils flared as he sniffed with his noise pointed to God and announced “I like my stink,” to which my wife and I responded with chuckles of appreciation. Exasperated by our laughter, he proceeded to educate us that we are no different. “Dad you like your stink and hate mom’s stink, she likes her stink but hates your stink, bubba likes his stink and hates my stink and,” he concluded following a deep inhale, “I hate bubba’s stink but love my stink!”
To this I responded, “That is quite the astute observation young man.” Then, turning to my wife, I announced “There’s hope for the booger-eater yet!”
If we were to take that reflection a step further, though, the same could be said of the figurative stinks we make in life. Take the variety of opinion’s we regurgitate here on a daily basis. Those little clever nuggets that are born of our own mind appear as genius to us, but to other’s much to our dismay; appear to be misguided and ignorant. But, it never fails that the moment a person changes their mind and somehow makes a belief their own, the fog lifts and anyone that would have the audacity to refute this new idea, just plain stinks. The key difference therein is perception.
Take for instance the national media, which comprises a mix of former players, coaches, scouts and a collection of guys who simply went to school for TV/Radio broadcasting or Journalism and spent their childhood being bullied by the former. Up until recently, the national media’s perception of Jerry Jones was a senile old man playing his own millionaire version of Fantasy Football while ignoring the pleas of the masses to hire a real GM to make decisions that are clearly outside of his expertise. After all, what does Jerry know about running a football team?
In the beginning, not a thing and it showed. Smartly, he hired people that did know football and the Cowboys subsequently won three Super Bowls. Unwittingly, once they had achieved 2 of those Super Bowl’s, he assumed he had it figured out and dismissed intelligence from the Front Office only to run the organization into the ground...and into the ground it stayed for over a decade, the flame kept barely flickering by the success the Cowboys had enjoyed up until 1995. To be fair, though, with the introduction of free agency and the salary cap, the struggles to a certain degree were unavoidable. The predominant issue, in my opinion, was Jerry’s loyalty to his aging players.
It seemed to me, outside looking in, Jerry dug himself into a rut by recurrently paying players for what they had done as opposed to paying them for what they were going to do. And with the wash, rinse, repeat cycle of every season the Cowboys found themselves with one of the highest team salaries in the league making Free Agency a dubious place to find talent. Sure, they would hit on one every now and then, which is why they were able to have the occasional winning season. But in the end, the Cowboys always found themselves digging and filling up new holes from one season to the next. Throw in several years of terrible drafting and the rest is history.
Imagine, if you will, a football team as a ship. The Cowboys front office would fix one hole, but with each mended leak, another sprung up elsewhere. Sometimes the leak was in personnel. Sometimes the leak was in the scouting department or coaches. And sometimes Jerry himself was the leak. Either way, by each season end that we have reached as a fanbase, we find ourselves walking away into the sunset with a capsized Cowboys organization in our wake.
Some will say the change in Jerry occurred the moment he ceded some control to Stephen Jones and re-prioritized the value of his son’s words. I say Jerry’s change began the moment he decided to hire Bill Parcells. The value in the Bill Parcells acquisition now is not about what he did then to the organization or his efforts that yielded some positive results. The traces of Bill have all but been erased, with Tony Romo, Jason Witten, and Ladouceur being the only players left from his regime.
No, I’m talking about the change that had to occur within Jerry for him to finally relinquish control of the team to another person who simply knew better than he what this organization needed to win again. To hire The Tuna, Jerry had to accept one simple caveat; he could no longer meddle. Parcels wanted the final word on player acquisition and player discipline. Jerry took a half-step back and Bill proceeded to prove to Jerry how wrong he had been in how he had managed the team to date.
Jerry wasn’t exactly completely changed at that point; I merely point to that time in history as a turning point for the franchise as a whole. In that moment Jerry had to acknowledge that maybe (just maybe) he didn’t know everything there was to know about being successful in life and, more importantly, in football.
Many saw the hiring of Wade as Jerry being Jerry again. I’m not so sure. The Cowboys had only recently switched from the 4-3 to the 3-4, so in Jerry’s mind the best thing he could do was go get the best 3-4 coordinator in the game, who also happened to be the son of Bum Phillips, a legend in NFL coaching. Wade as a head coach was a dumpster fire. But Wade as a defensive coordinator (current defensive coordinator of the Denver Broncos) is a God-send to a team that employs the 3-4 and gives him the ingredients he needs to succeed.
Many saw the hiring of Jason as offensive coordinator prior to Wade being hired as the Head Coach as Jerry’s Head Coach in waiting. On this, I agree. I believe from the moment that Jerry considered bring Jason on as the coordinator he saw his own version of Tom Landry whom he could groom into be the coach of the future. Accordingly, that is exactly how it panned out with admittedly mixed results. Like Jerry’s many years of learning on the job as GM, so too did Jason have to learn on the job. And to an extent the results have been favorable, though the final grade has yet to be given. But back to Jerry.
From Parcells, to Wade, to Garrett, Jerry was not the same Jerry that hired The Tuna to revamp his franchise. Like a responsible driver, he recognized he had had too much to drink over the years and smartly handed the keys to Stephen. Jerry is still in the car, but he is no longer driving. From time to time, he will reach over and take the wheel, but for the most part Jerry is merely along for the ride.
I’m not trying to sell anyone on the idea that the Jones family is solely responsible for the Cowboys recent success; but they do deserve a little credit. Someone had to hire Will McClay. Someone had to be patient with Jason Garrett. And someone was responsible for bringing in the likes of Linehan, Marinelli, Callahan, and Kiffin, all former Head Coaches who would help in Garrett’s transition from Coordinator to Head Coach. These were calculated moves that promised future improvement more than the immediate variety. And we are now finally reaping the rewards of those seeds sown so long ago.
Perhaps the most significant change in Jerry, though, was the team’s shift from attempting to buy Super Bowls to slowly but surely building a Super Bowl team through the draft and smart buy’s in Free Agency. From the moment the Cowboys started building what is now considered the best offensive line in football, this team has been on the mend. Granted, the Jones’ took the occasional risk (Dez & Hardy) because truth be told the occasional risk is an important ingredient in future success. But for the most part the FO has stuck to a plan, stuck to their draft board, and stuck to their guns in negotiations for both outside free agents and the homegrown variety. Substance over flash. Bargains over Bankrupt. RKG’s over RU Serious?.
Following what will likely go down as one of the greatest draft in team history (Dak/Zeke - carrying the team in Dez & Romo’s absence / Collins/Brown/Swaim – starting to significantly contributing, to say nothing of Smith/Tapper/Gathers/Frazier whose promise has yet to be told), it as though we are finally seeing Jerry emerge from a cocoon as a fully and completely changed man. Why now? Because the fruits of him sacrificing control and relinquishing his grip is coming to bear right before his very eyes. Jerry is stubborn, not stupid…leading me to believe there is hope for the booger-eater yet!
Thoughts?
