This is long. I really don't expect anyone to read much of it but this issue and all the BS about "doing business" bugs me, all the talk among fans and media about who really wants to win and who doesn't, who should want to win and who “doing business” is an ok excuse to not to.
Anyway…
I wish Jerry had kept his mouth shut, but the idea that Zeke’s feelings have been crushed by a two-word quote? Please. This whole pathetic thing reeks of an agent desperate to find leverage for a client he's given a bum steer. If Rocky and Zeke are feeling disrespected by Jerry joking about Zeke not being in camp, maybe they should think about the wisdom of their strategy.
Because I don’t know what Rocky expects. He fired the first shot when he counseled his client that the best way to get a deal done with Jerry Jones was to play hardball with two years left on his contract. I obviously don’t know the tenor of the talk that had taken place to that point but judging from pressers and interviews, the team was completely ambushed when Zeke didn’t show up in Oxnard.
But Rocky didn’t just have his client skip camp. He had him skip camp and go to fricking Cabo, rub Jerry’s nose in it a little bit. He knew what he was doing, and it was obvious that Jerry took it that way too. Rocky and Zeke didn’t seem so all about respect when they thought they had the team over a barrel, did they?
So camp cranks up and word starts to trickle out of Oxnard about the rookie RB’s excellent work, and I think anyone who’s honest will admit they thought this was just the Cowboys posturing. I did. Maybe it was. But then Saturday night happens, and it’s just one game against backup LA Rams, but there was no Tyron Smith, Zach Martin or Amari Cooper on the field either. And Pollard didn’t just have a good night. He tore those scrubs up to the tune of 8.4 yards a carry, one catch for nine yards and a 14-yard stomp through the Rams defense into the end zone.
Now everyone sees that maybe the kid really can play, and though we all know the Cowboys are better with 21 lining up behind Dak and Tony Pollard hasn’t won anything yet but a meaningless preseason exhibition in Honolulu, I bet a vast majority of us were also thinking the same thing, including Rocky and Zeke relaxing back in Frisco, that maybe the Cowboys can win some games with this kid.
But Jerry has to go and say something stupid and careless in the rush of the moment, like he always does. Two words get extracted from the interview, a bad joke about the electively absent Elliot, and blown out of proportion by his agent as he stares down the prospect of the Cowboys maybe being ok without the client he has steered to into this clusterflub. He can’t say or do anything else about the mess he’s made so he defaults to poor athlete mode and whines about disrespect. Masterful business Mister Arceneaux!
I don’t buy the “Zeke is just doing business” argument. I buy that that’s what he’s doing but I don’t buy the idea that he has no choice or that because he’s “just doing business” it’s cool, or even makes much sense. He’s not trying to pry more cash out of Jerry’s tight fist. He’s trying to claim a bigger chunk for himself from the pile of change from which all players are paid.
Every dime Zeke demands he knows will come straight out of the pockets of teammates who are making a hell of a lot less than he is. Every dollar spent to keep Elliot is a dollar the team doesn’t have to keep other players. And the more Zeke makes the weaker the team gets. I’m not saying Zeke should give a damn about anything but making as much money as he can. It’s his life. But the hypocrisy of fans who bash Jerry for doing the same thing is really annoying.
I think Jerry wants to win. Doesn’t cost him any more to put a good team together than it does a bad one, and the more the team wins the more money he makes. It just so happens that he also wants to be the guy in charge of building the team and he isn’t very good at it.
I don’t know what to think about player logic. I understand wanting to make as much money as you can, but this isn’t baseball. The pot isn’t unlimited. All teams have the same amount of money to spend retaining players and it seems to me that at some point either the spirit of competition has to take over or the reality that everyone makes more money when we win has to kick in, and the players become satisfied with a slightly smaller paycheck for the sake of dubs and the millions more they can make by winning in Dallas. I guess the prestige of a bigger contract or something else I’m missing is more attractive to players than the glory and piles of advocation and other money that come with high-level success on the field.
This all comes down to the CBA by which all players agree to live their professional lives. Yeah, it’s crappy that a guy can get dumped before he gets the money ownership agreed to pay him, but the NFLPA gave up the fight on the behalf of all players to have guaranteed contracts in exchange for stuff like fewer and easier practices.
The players deserve better, no doubt. They do make huge sacrifices to play football, but the truth is that no one is holding a gun to their heads and making them enter the world of the NFL. Their eyes are wide open. All they have to do if they prefer good health and long life to big money and the bright lights of pro football is go to class, get serious about the education their athletic ability is paying for and when their four years are up do something other than declare for the NFL draft, just like the rest of us. Guys are still choosing to play RB. I’m a selfish PoS too. I’m glad they still do it because I love watching football, but I don’t feel sorry for them.
