Jones sticks with the losers
Here’s a question that’s worth considering: Is Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones’ ego the reason for the team not winning a Conference Championship for the past 29 years? His love of mediocre head coaches? What?
Put another way, the Cowboys have been in a Conference playoff nine times since their last Superbowl win in January 1996 and lost all nine. Even with Tony Romo at the helm for approximately 14 seasons, from 2003 to 2016, the team couldn’t advance to the Superbowl, but with Jason Garrett serving as head coach for six of those seasons, what chance did Romo have?
Most NFL fans already know of the controversy surrounding Tampa Bay QB Baker Mayfield who showed his lack of brains by saying on a podcast last month that Tom Brady “created a high-strung environment that stressed out the players in the club’s locker room” when he played his last three seasons at Tampa, winning one Superbowl along the way.
So, Tampa now has a Soy Boy playing in the pocket who doesn’t like to get “stressed out?” Really? This is the NFL where people can get hurt if they’re not paying attention to detail.
Correction. It’s not right to even use the expression “Soy Boy” these days because it’s considered derogatory, used only to describe men who are perceived as lacking masculine characteristics. Meaning, they are overly sensitive, effeminate, or weak.
The term came about over the belief that soy products, which contain something called “phytoestrogens,” can lower testosterone levels in men.
Not that there is anything wrong with that. We would probably have had less wars with Soy Boys in charge because testosterone is usually the cause of so much bloodshed.
Meanwhile, the Tampa QB drew the ire of sports writers, most, who asked, how can this guy cast dispersions on a guy, Tom Brady, who won seven Super Bowls, more than any other player?
Baker Mayfield’s entire Brady quote on the podcast was:
“The building was a little bit different with Tom in there. Obviously, playing-wise, Tom is different. He had everybody dialed in, highstrung environment, so I think everybody was pretty stressed out. They wanted me to come in, be myself, bring the joy back to football for guys who weren’t having as much fun.”
Yeah, but the fun is really in winning, not losing.
Brady responded, “I thought stressful was not having Super Bowl rings. There was a mindset of a champion that I took to work every day. This wasn’t day care. If I wanted to have fun, I was gonna go to Disneyland with my kids. There’s a way to approach this game. ... There’s high expectations for us. We have to make sure we go out there and deliver.”
Dallas, MIA
Speaking of being able to “deliver,” that’s what has been missing on the Dallas Cowboys’ team since 1995, the last season they won the Super Bowl ring. Since then, mediocrity has ruled Dallas.
Why Jerry stuck with Jason Garrett for 10 loooong seasons, who knows.
Why Jones has stuck with Mike McCarthy now for five seasons, who knows.
This past January, Jerry Jones said that he would retain McCarthy as head coach because the team is “very close and capable of achieving our ultimate goals.”
Seriously? How many times have Dallas fans heard that since the club last fielded a champion team in 1995? “We’re this close…”
The only reason the team won Sunday, and yes, the fans will take any win, but the only reason Dallas won was that the clock ran out after the last Cowboys score.
Dak, the franchise QB, who will make $100 million this year, $86.25 million with Dallas and an estimated $14 million courtesy of marketing streams, gave away two interceptions before winning the game on the final drive.
For that much money, you wouldn’t expect the team to lose to New Orleans this season, 44-19, or Baltimore, 28-25, but it did.
The Cowboys have a terrific quarterback, but what he needs is a terrific coach, and that’s where Jerry Jones has failed team fans. After three seasons, if McCarthy can’t win the conference, adios, bring in another. Same rule should have applied to Jason Garrett, but he was a yes, man, never gave Jerry any lip, never spoke his own mind (just a guess), which is what Jerry most wants in a coach.
Guys like Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer, Bill Parcells, who will speak their mind and tell Jerry what he needs to hear, as opposed to what he wants to hear, those guys weren’t going to last as the Cowboys’ head coach.
Jerry’s ego can’t stand up to a challenge, apparently.
Meanwhile, the winningest coach in Superbowl history, Bill Belichick, is out of work.
If I were Jerry, I’d dump Mike McCarthy — sooner, rather than later — and hire Bill.
Dallas is now the richest sports franchise in the world (current worth, $11 billion), and since coaches aren’t included under the salary cap, pay Belichick what he wants, and get him to the Big D. If he wants $25 million, pay him that. Dallas fans deserve another championship team.
In the end, Brady is right -- the only thing that matters is winning the Superbowl, and Dallas hasn’t done it since January of 1996, after the Conference win in December 1995.
Since then, it’s been one season of mediocrity after another.
Consider, the team has won nine Division championships since 1995, but not one Conference championship.
This is the last year remaining on Mc-Carthy’s contract. With the idea being, after his five years are up, dump him because once again, the team will fail in the post-season. Jones should do it now, but he won’t.
Based on how they’re playing now, they won’t win the Conference Championship. You know it, and I know it.
Unfortunately, there are some sports writers, like Mike Florio, who think that Jerry Jones is simply too cheap to pay what Belichick earned his last year with the Patriots: $25 million. He may have a point.
McCarthy is reportedly earning only, ONLY, between $4 million and $7 million a season.