Category: Cowboys (Page 1 of 51)

The Gambler and His Cowboys

Almost two years to the day after Netflix announced they had paid the Dallas Cowboys $50-million to produce a multi-episode documentary on Jerry Jones and his historic “transformation” of the Cowboys, we’ve got a title, a release date, and a two-minute trailer. They’re calling it “America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys.” It will run for ten episodes. And it premiers on August 19. Here’s the trailer, which features Jimmy’s “asthma field” rant, Michael Irvin’s cocaine arrest, President George W. Bush’s explanation for the hole in the roof at Texas Stadium, and Jerry saying he likes to do things “our way.”

Netflix has continually promoted this documentary as the story of how Jerry “transformed” the Cowboys and how Jerry “established” the Cowboys legacy.

First, Jerry didn’t establish anything. The Cowboys had already played in a dozen NFC Championship Games and five Super Bowls when Jones bought the team. They had already been dubbed “America’s Team” by the NFL and were the most popular football team on the planet. That wasn’t Jerry.

Secondly, Jerry did transform the Cowboys, but not in the way his Netflix special is going to suggest. Jerry has successfully transformed the Cowboys from perennial contenders and Super Bowl champs to irrelevant also-rans. In the franchise’s first 29-years under the leadership of Clint-Tex-Tom, the Cowboys went to twelve conference title games and five Super Bowls, winning two. In the past 29 years under the leadership of Jones-Jones-Jones, the Cowboys have not won a single divisional playoff game and have the NFC’s longest championship game appearance drought by a whopping 14 years!

Thank you, Jerry. Great job. You’re right, there should be a documentary. True crime.

The thing that eats me the most is the documentary’s title: “The Gambler and HIS Cowboys.” That title perfectly captures the core of what’s wrong with the Cowboys and the heart of my hatred for the whole scene. Jerry Wayne sees the Cowboys as his, not ours. He never understood that the Cowboys belonged to all of us, collectively. They represented us, stood for us, embodied us. He only sees the Cowboys as his, to do with whatever he likes, to exploit for his own personal gain, to use as an “in” to whatever monetary windfall or celebrity access or boy’s club membership he desires. He shamefully betrayed a public trust. And he brazenly and unapologetically continues that betrayal every day.

It galls me that the very thing that has led to the Cowboys’ demise is being used as the celebratory centerpiece of this puff-doc. Yes, Jerry gambled and, yes, he won and he keeps on winning at the thing he cares about the most: his money, his status, his celebrity, his power. And Cowboys fans keep losing the thing they desire the most: a divisional playoff win, relevance, on the field respect, a championship.

I’m going to watch this show for a number of reasons–I won’t miss an episode. But I’m most curious as to how they’re going to trumpet Jerry’s accomplishments, his innovations, his successes, his genius, while acknowledging at the same time his team’s 29-year divisional playoff win drought.

They probably won’t. They won’t even mention it. Right? We know this. This will be a ten-episode flashback to the glory days of Jimmy and the Triplets and they’ll act like it happened five years ago. That’s another thing that so perfectly captures what Jerry’s Cowboys are all about: pretending like this historic drought isn’t really a thing.

Peace,

Allan

My Sports Heart

My intense hatred for the Cowboys did not happen in a flash. It wasn’t a switch that got flicked on the moment Jerry Wayne fired Jimmy and replaced him with Barry. Almost thirty years of devotion to the Cowboys wasn’t undone that quickly. But I do point to that moment as the cataclysmic event that led very quickly to my disdain for the whole organization and everything it stands for. Or refuses to stand for. It started there and it didn’t take long.

That’s what the Luka trade feels like. I don’t consider myself a Mavs hater. I haven’t thrown out any of my Mavs gear. But my heart is completely void of any feeling or concern for what happens now. I didn’t watch one dribble, pass, or shot of either of their two play-in games last week. I don’t care. The gut-punch that was the Luka trade is getting worse, not better.

Every time Nico opens his mouth, it gets worse. More and more of the hubris of the new carpet-bagging owners and the GM gets revealed every day. More of the arrogance. More of the reality that the financial bottom line is more important than a championship. More of the complete lack of concern for the Mavs’ fans. The more time goes on, the more it looks and feels like a betrayal of a public trust–very much like how Jerry runs my once-favorite-team. Say what you want about Mark Cuban, but he was a Dallas guy who wanted our Dallas team to win titles. Miriam Adelson and Patrick Dumont said they bought the team as an “in” to doing business in North Texas.

Give me the three-hour heart attack of last night’s thrilling come-from-behind overtime win for the Stars. Give me the hope of a team that’s close–so close–to winning it all, and doing whatever it takes to get there. Give me the loyalty of a GM like Jim Nill who understands the big-picture value of Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin and his commitment to the cause to trade for Miko Rantenan down the stretch. Give me Colin Blackwell scoring the overtime game-winner last night in his Stars playoff debut. That’s what I think about every day. That’s what I look forward to. That’s what fills my sports heart.

Peace,

Allan

All Hail the Jimster!

When I was the News and Sports Director at KHLB Radio in the ’90s, I made the 60-minute drive from Marble Falls to St. Edward’s University in Austin at least twice a week in the summers to cover the Dallas Cowboys training camps. The media parking lot was several hundred yards away from the main practice field, but as soon as I parked and opened the door to my truck, I could hear Jimmy.

Jimmy Johnson coached the Cowboys loudly. In your face. Hollering and yelling. Running back and forth between the offensive huddles and the defensive huddles during scrimmages. Exchanging forearm shivers with linemen and expletive-laced insults with the skill players. Banishing kickers to the “asthma field.” Getting down in the grass with running backs and DBs during quickness drills. Both encouraging and lambasting with equal opportunity and fervor. No nonsense. Active. Seemingly coaching every group all over two fields at the same time. Loudly. Standing on the sidelines at these practices, you always knew where Jimmy was and what he was saying. He was omnipresent.

There was never any doubt who was in charge of the Cowboys back then. And Jimmy Johnson was in charge of all of it. He took the Tom Landry – Tex Schramm Cowboys from a franchise-record six-year NFC Championship Game appearance drought to the first of back-to-back Super Bowl wins in just four seasons. They were Jimmy’s players, Jimmy’s coaches, Jimmy’s trades, Jimmy’s draft picks, and Jimmy’s rules.

Following his way-too-short Hall of Fame coaching career, Jimmy spent 31 football seasons on Fox’s NFL Pregame Show. It was obvious to everyone watching that the other Hall of Famers on the program like Bradshaw, Howie, and Strahan, admired and respected Jimmy for his football knowledge and achievements and also loved him for just being a good guy and a great friend. Jimmy has always been great fun to listen to, both from the sidelines at a Cowboys summer practice and from my living room couch on a Sunday afternoon.

The Jimster finally called it quits yesterday. He’s been hinting at retirement for a couple of years now and it became all but certain when Fox Sports rolled out that weird AI-generated video tribute to Johnson during the Super Bowl pre-game show last month. All NFL fans are going to miss him. We’re going to miss him a lot more than he’s going to miss us. Jimmy doesn’t need the spotlight or the schedule; he’s going to be just fine on his fishing boat in Florida. But Sundays  are going to be a little less fun now.

Everything changed for the Cowboys when Jerry Wayne forced Jimmy out after that second straight Super Bowl championship–I don’t need to document it here. Again. But I do recall how different it was on those practice fields at St. Ed’s. It was hard finding Barry Switzer. Where’s the head coach? Which group is he working with? Who is he coaching? Where is he? It would turn into a game sometimes on the sidelines at training camp. Someone would say, “Where’s Barry?” and it would take a good long time for any of us to locate him. Inevitably, someone would spot him, usually sitting in a golf cart signing autographs and taking pictures with young women. During practice.

All hail the Jimster. A wise and humorous, authoritative, and trust-worthy presence for more than 35-years. I wish him the very best.

Peace,

Allan

Delusional in Dallas

The Cowboys finally got around to officially introducing their new head coach yesterday and wound up, as usual, accomplishing the opposite of what they surely intended. Instead of announcing to the world that Brian Schottenheimer has what it takes to end the Cowboys 29-year streak of not winning a divisional playoff game, the longest current streak in the NFC by an astounding 14 years, the team brass declared that nothing’s really that wrong.

Most of what was said in the rambling 70-minute press conference served to highlight how Jerry Wayne gets in the way of any legitimate on-the-field success for the Cowboys. Among the many gems was Jerry doubling down on the debunked assertion that he alone is the “best man” to get the Cowboys to the Super Bowl promised land. He confessed again that he always wanted to be a head coach and hinted that he could be now if he wanted. Delusional.

With the new coach sitting right next to him, Jerry admitted that hiring Schottenheimer “is a less than glamorous choice.” He reminded everyone that Schotty has “no head coaching experience, not even high school!” And he strangely got defensive against the criticism that this is a safe hire, that he doesn’t like to take chances, by declaring that promoting Schottenheimer “is the biggest risk I’ve ever taken in my life.” Again, Schottenheimer was sitting at the same table!

Jerry also compared Schottenheimer to Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer, the last guys to win divisional playoff games with Dallas, as coaches who had never done it at the NFL level before Jerry gave them a chance. Yeah, but Jimmy and Switzer had won national championships at the elite college level. It’s not really apples to apples. It’s more like apples to hamsters. Delusional.

The most glaring thing to me during yesterday’s announcement was the answer Jerry gave to the very first question. The Cowboys owner was asked what qualities Schottenheimer possessed that led to his getting the job. Jerry said it was Brian’s ability to defer. He rambled for a couple of minutes about watching Schotty bite his lip to defer to Mike McCarthy, watching him hold back and do it McCarthy’s way when he disagreed and felt like a different way was better. That’s what Jerry admires about the new coach, his ability to defer. In other words, nothing is changing.

The thing that seems to have upset Cowboys fans the most and hilariously amused the media and Cowboy haters was when Stephen Jones was asked about evaluating the state of the Cowboys. He used his right hand to make air quotes when he referred to “this drought that people say we’re in, in terms of a championship game or a Super Bowl.” Air quotes?!? If 29-years without winning a single divisional playoff game isn’t a drought, then we have no idea what that word means. The Cowboys never went more than six years between NFC Championship Game appearances before Jerry bought the team. The Cowboys appeared in twelve NFL or NFC Championship Games under Tex Schramm and Tom Landry. Yes, twenty-nine years counts as a drought! It’s not something the media made up. It’s not a gray area that can be debated. It’s math. And time. It’s numbers and scores and calendars. It’s completely objective. It’s delusional for Stephen to question that or make light of that.

As an aside, Stephen was introduced by the Cowboys PR man yesterday as executive vice president and co-owner of the Cowboys; that’s the first time I’ve ever heard that. When did that happen? Again, more evidence that things are not going to change. With these Cowboys, “owner” means “GM.”

The bottom line is that Jerry hires coaches who have no other options. No other suitors. No other opportunities. Nobody else wants them. They’re thankful for the opportunity and they’re obligated to the man who gave it to them when nobody else would. All of them. Count them, every one of them, from Barry Switzer and Chan Gailey and Jason Garrett to Dave Campo and Bill Parcells and Wade Phillips and Mike McCarthy. And now Schotty. Nothing’s changed.

The only new development is that now a coach with no options has walked away. Mike McCarthy has no other options and he walked away from Jerry Jones and the Cowboys. He’d rather have no job than the one in Frisco. That’s a new development–rather shocking when you think about it. But now everything’s fixed. Jerry knows Schotty’s next-door-neighbor. He talked to Pete Carroll. Dak’s on board. Delusional.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Look what was waiting for me in the kitchen when I got home after the elders meeting last night: the brand new Blackberry Dr Pepper! And it is really, really good! The berry flavor is very strong, much stronger than what I remember with the old Berries n Cream DP. The smell hit my face as soon as I popped the top. And sweet. It’s very sweet. Delicious! I believe it runs a strong second to the coconut DP they gave us for like three weeks last May. I highly recommend the Blackberry Dr Pepper. Especially after an elders meeting.

Peace,

Allan

8 Down, 492 to Go

During the NFL meetings in March 1994, Jerry Wayne famously said, “Any of 500 coaches could win a Super Bowl with the Cowboys.” Then he parted ways with his back-to-back Super Bowl champion coach, Jimmy Johnson, and hired Barry Switzer off his couch in Norman. When Switzer won Super Bowl XXX with Jimmy’s roster and assistants two seasons later, the owner saw it as vindication of his hubris. But, 29 seasons later, the Cowboys still haven’t even won a single divisional playoff game.

Jerry has now hired his 8th coach since he made that memorable late night / early morning quote to reporters in that Orlando hotel bar. The king of optimizing maximum media attention allowed the news to become official at 9:00 on Friday night, giving us all a clue as to how he himself feels about the hire.

Brian Schottenheimer is a career assistant, spending 24 years in the NFL, mostly as an offensive coordinator. He was brought to Dallas as a consultant in 2022, but Mike McCarthy made him the offensive coordinator the following season when Kellen Moore left for Philly. He never called the plays–that was McCarthy’s job–but he reportedly was key to the team’s record-setting offensive numbers in 2023.

Still, nobody’s ever offered a head coaching job to Schottenheimer. He’s never even interviewed for one. My understanding is that he was only contacted one time in his whole career for a head coaching job, by the Bills in 2010, while he was assisting Rex Ryan with the Jets. Schottenheimer declined the request. That was 15 years ago. Nobody’s looked his way since. And, as we all know, that’s how Jerry works. He only hires head coaches nobody else wants. He’s never been in a bidding war for a head coach. Nobody’s ever lining up to interview the guys Jerry eventually hires. Jerry only hires assistants from within or former head coaches who are currently out of work.

Of course, I have lots of questions. If Schottenheimer is going to run the same offense for Dak’s sake, why didn’t Jerry just stay with McCarthy? Jerry only offered McCarthy a one-year extension, but Schottenheimer is reportedly signing a four-year contract. Is it about money? Jerry is certainly no fan of paying big money for coaches. Was McCarthy becoming a bit too popular in the locker room? Does Jerry believe Schottenheimer is better than McCarthy? Are Cowboys fans to believe that Schottenheimer is going to provide something new? Is he going to be better than McCarthy at game management and clock management in his first year ever as a head coach? Are we to suppose that Schottenheimer has had new and innovative schemes to get the Cowboys over the top, but McCarthy just refused to use them?

I have even more questions about the search process. Evidently Jerry went into the last week of the lost season with no plan. He completely missed the bye week window to interview the two hottest coaching commodities, Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson. And he wouldn’t wait three more days to interview them after the conference championship games tomorrow? He never talked to Mike Vrabel. He didn’t interview Kliff Kingsbury. Jerry and McCarthy parted ways four days after the owner refused to let the Bears interview him. It seems to me the whole search process was a sham. The Cowboys only talked to five candidates, while the other teams on the hunt spoke to nearly twenty each! Conor Orr has written an excellent piece for Sports Illustrated about what the Schottenheimer hire, and the interview process, says to Cowboys fans. I highly recommend it.

There’s chatter out there that Jason Witten might be joining Schottenheimer’s staff as an assistant coach. That also feels like a very Jerry thing to do, like hiring Jason Garrett to work under Wade Phillips, grooming him as the easy hire if things go south.

With the Washington Deadskins playing in tomorrow’s NFC Championship Game, the Cowboys now own the longest active drought of NFC title game appearances. It’s been 29 years since Dallas won a divisional playoff game. The Bears have the second-longest streak at 14 years–a huge 15 year gap between worst and next-to-worst.

Cowboys fans keep telling me that they’re in the same category as the 49ers and Packers and Eagles. Ha! Since the Cowboys last won a divisional playoff game, 29 years ago, the 49ers and the Packers have each been to eight championship games and three Super Bowls. The Eagles have played in nine championship games in the past 29 years and might be heading to their fourth Super Bowl. Shoot, even the Giants have been to three Super Bowls during this time frame and won two of them! In fact, since that ’95 season, every NFC team but Washington and Dallas has appeared in multiple championship games. Multiple! At least two! Even the Carolina Panthers have been twice! And by the looks of things, the Washington team is going to get there again before Dallas does.

Someone tweeted last night that finding out the Cowboys have hired Brian Schottenheimer is like getting socks for Christmas. Yeah, maybe. But I’d add that it’s like getting socks from the disconnected aunt who always gives you socks. Every time. Always a disappointment, but never a surprise.

Jerry famously said any of 500 coaches could win a Super Bowl with the Cowboys. The truth is that as long as Jerry is in charge, none of them can even win a divisional playoff game.

Peace,

Allan

Coincidence or Strategy?

Dan Snyder owned the Washington Redskins / Commanders for 25 seasons, from 1999-2023. And they were horrible. Washington recorded only six winning seasons during that quarter of a century and did not win a single divisional playoff game in that time. They changed owners this past offseason. The NFL basically forced Snyder to sell his team after a long track record of club mismanagement and personal misconduct. Josh Harris bought the team over the summer. In this first season of Harris’ ownership, Washington drastically improved from 4-13 to 12-5, plus two playoff wins and a spot in this Sunday’s NFC Championship Game.

They changed owners.

And, in one season, they are now playing in their first conference title game in 33 years.

Just sayin’.

Peace,

Allan

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