Dunne - Inside Jerry's World

[boozeman]

Inside Jerry's World: An introduction
It's been 25 years since Jerry Jones and his Dallas Cowboys have won a Super Bowl. How is that possible? And how are things really run around here? We talk to those in the know for this series.

What could’ve been.

That’s all they could’ve been thinking in Canton, Ohio one month ago.

Oh, they wore their gold jackets. They smiled and laughed for the cameras. They slapped each other on the shoulders like old pals who’ve buried their hatchets forever. Two weeks after an emotional mea culpa that the divorce was his fault — that he “f----- it up” with Jimmy Johnson — there was owner Jerry Jones extending the olive branch to Johnson on national television. It only took a generation but the owner said he’d add the coach to the Cowboys’ “Ring of Honor.”

To which Johnson quipped: “While I’m alive?!”

More laughs. More fun. More smiles for the camera that won’t erase the fact that these legends had their collective boots atop the skulls of the entire NFL in the early 90s. These Hall-of-Famers — Jerry and Jimmy and Aikman and Emmitt and Irvin — won back-to-back Super Bowls in ’92 and ’93, the owner drove away the head coach in ’94 and after one more title in ’95? Poof, over. No way did any of these Cowboys celebrating in Canton that weekend imagine in a million years that their team, “America’s Team,” would go the next 25 years without a Super Bowl.

Yet here we are.

Twenty other teams have made the Super Bowl.

Jerry Jones’ franchise hasn’t even made it back to the conference championship once.

Expectations soar — annually — and expectations are promptly gunned down by reality.

This is, hands down, one of the most baffling mysteries in all of sports.

Over the same three decades, the business that is The Dallas Cowboys has exploded beyond belief. Worth $5.7 billion, per Forbes, this is the most profitable sports franchise in the world. And it’s been the most profitable since 2016. The logo itself? Iconic. The navy blue star is right there with Nike’s swoop and McDonalds’ golden arches. The team’s owner did not merely build a mecca of a stadium, no, with one wave of the magic wand, Jones also brought “The Star at Frisco” to Texas. A 91-acre Utopia that includes luxury hotels, a shopping center, a 12,000-seat stadium for practice and, hey, there’s locals doing yoga on an outdoor turf field. The universe Jones has created for his team makes the other 31 NFL franchises feel like they’re practicing on mud-slopped high school fields next to a cow pasture.

No man in the league is more powerful than Jerry Jones. He is the Don Corleone pulling the strings behind the scenes.

Money is no concern. He’ll throw money at any problem that could ever arise on the roster.

Both Hall-of-Fame players and coaches have worn that star.

So… how? How does “America’s Team” go a quarter-century without a ring?

And equally important: Will anything change anytime soon?

Go Long spent time this offseason talking to several sources in the know to get answers. One theme emerges repeatedly, too. It’s just “not normal” in Jerry’s World, as one former personnel man states. Here, everything just feels “twisted,” as one longtime Cowboy adds. There’s strange DNA to the makeup of these Cowboys. Jerry’s World is a marvelous place but those who do get out? Those who can compare this organization to others? They describe the Cowboys as a funhouse where bizarre decisions are constantly made behind that curtain.

Everyone has a “Not Normal” moment, too.

Players point to the media mob in the locker room, that inevitable moment when all cameras and all reporters descend upon the man in the middle, the man in the suit: Jones. “Why are they talking to him?” wide receiver Brice Butler remembers asking. Win or lose, the owner here simply relishes the opportunity to blast some headlines into the atmosphere. Eventually, players get used to this awkward sight. But one habit that Butler, and many others, did not appreciate? Jones butting into his head coach’s talks to the entire team.

Butler remembers Jones cutting Jason Garrett off with variations of, “Let me say something real quick” again… and again.

“Honestly, I never liked that,” Butler says. “You’re the owner, yes. Love you. You’re the man. But you’re not my coach. I know I work for you, but it’s football.
“Jerry made the franchise to what it is now and he likes to be hands-on — to a fault.”

Coaches, who we’ll get to in this series, face a pressure unlike anything they’ve ever experienced. Even the coordinators felt it.

Scott Linehan spent five seasons as the OC in Detroit before his five seasons as the OC in Dallas. And whereas he could go a month without the Lions being in the news locally, let alone nationally, he describes an “hourly pressure” in Dallas. It felt like Skip Bayless and all AM talking heads were ripping the team constantly and, the wild thing? His boss loved it. If the Cowboys were in the news, that was most important.

Other teams obsess and overanalyze PR. Not here.

Good headline. Bad headline. Didn’t matter.

“Nobody markets a brand to somehow, some way make the Dallas Cowboys relevant on a daily basis more than Mr. Jones,” Linehan says. “I think that works tremendously well. Every year when they show the franchises that are worth the most, the Cowboys double every year. … They haven’t won a Super Bowl in 25 years, but they’re still the most talked about pro football team there is. Which is amazing.”

Scouts remember some wild draft meetings. The key is to get to Jones alone. With one persuasive argument — away from the group — you can get him to tweak the board behind everyone’s back. That player you love can easily jump up a round because Jones’ opinion, one ex-personnel man assures, is “malleable.”

Legends know the man can still party, too. Jones turns 79 in October, but one longtime Cowboy jokes that he still has that “Michael Irvin blood” in him. He’s still having a good time and you bet it pays to join him for those drinks. This player says the Cowboys are an organization rooted in “friendships” more than straight “business.”
Just about everyone has their own “What could’ve been” counterfactual, too.

Jerry should’ve kept Jimmy.
The Cowboys should’ve drafted Randy Moss.
Jerry should’ve given Bill Parcells full reign.
The Cowboys sabotaged Dez Bryant’s career.

And yet, through it all, this is an offense capable of winning a title in 2021.

This may be the best collection of pure talent this offense has possessed since it defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers to win the Super Bowl in ’95. The defense is another story, of course. The defense was an unmitigated disaster in 2020, but Dallas is thinking Super Bowl again with Jones more desperate than ever. The Don said himself at the top of the summer that he’d “do anything known to man to get to a Super Bowl.”

Nobody entertains the concept of rebuilding around here. Such patience never exists.

With Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott, Amari Cooper, CeeDee Lamb and (clears throat), uh, Mike McCarthy, he’s all-in.

This raw desire to win is relatable, too.

Hell, imagine if we became multi-billionaires and purchased an NFL team. The fantasy owner inside us all would be giddy beyond belief and feel a strong urge to be extremely involved. Maybe you’d be smart enough to hire a smart football man to be your GM. But unless you owned the team strictly to make money — and, yes, such apathetic duds do exist — part of you absolutely would want to draft players, sign players, give speeches and declare yourself the general manager as Jones has.
Jones has granted himself the freedom to do whatever he wants.

This was his purchase.

What are we to say?

“If he owns this house,” Butler says, “he can do whatever he wants. If you want to run it into the ground, you can run it into the ground. If you want it to look shiny and nice, make it look shiny and nice. You can do whatever you want to do. It’s your house.”

It is “not normal” here.

You realize it’s no coincidence this team has gone 25 years without a Super Bowl title and the pressure around this organization — into 2021 — has never been higher.

 

[bbgun]

So… how? How does “America’s Team” go a quarter-century without a ring?

Because it's a family-run business that hates hates hates outsiders.

 

[Smitty]

This sounds like a fun series.

 

[Genghis Khan]

You don't have to be Perry Mason to solve this mystery.



Campo
Phillips
Garrett


These 3 constitute 16 years of head coaching in Dallas.

Jerry hasn't valued coaching nearly enough.

 

[Genghis Khan]

Yes Parcells was here for 4 years but the franchise was rebuilding and he didn't have a QB until the last 10 games of his final year.

I have no doubt if Parcells stayed another couple years we'd have won or at least made a super bowl.

That 07 team was really good and with proper coaching we'd have been right there with anybody.

 

[Texas Ace]

Yes Parcells was here for 4 years but the franchise was rebuilding and he didn't have a QB until the last 10 games of his final year.

I have no doubt if Parcells stayed another couple years we'd have won or at least made a super bowl.

That 07 team was really good and with proper coaching we'd have been right there with anybody.

I've always wished that he had stayed just the one more year.

I would have loved to have seen what he would have done with that 2007 team.

 

[Sheik]

25 years of the Jones family living off of Jimmy’s work.

Jimmy Johnson was so good at what he did, the Southern Kardashians have gotten a mostly free pass from fans and sports media to run this organization like it’s their fantasy football team. For 25 fucking years.

 

[boozeman]

Inside Jerry's World, Part I: A twisted system
How are the Dallas Cowboys really run behind the scenes? We talked to people in the know... and it is not pretty. From a skewed draft board to partying nights, it's "not normal" in Big D.

Tyler Dunne

Sep 8

That’s not necessarily a knock. That’s the genius of Jerry Jones.

We see and hear the Cowboys all the time. Somehow. All of the wild personalities that swoop through these doors keep the ratings soaring.

There is, however, one scene that never made its way to the screen for everyone’s consumption, one (common) scene people should see to fully understand how Jerry’s World operates.

For 9 1/2 of these last 25 years, the head coach was Jason Garrett.

And through those 9 1/2 years, of course, Garrett was the public’s whipping boy.

The clapping. The steadfast optimism. The perception was that he was nothing more than a puppet, which made Garrett the character you loved to hate. Unfortunately, the truth never met reality. As multiple sources explain, Garrett knew that being the head coach of the Cowboys demanded the ultimate tightrope act. You cannot effectively tell the Joneses to buzz off and stay away from your roster or you won’t be the coach for long. Like Bill Parcells. Nor can you be a total “yes man” and give into Jones at every turn or mistakes will compound, you’ll be blamed and you’ll be fired. Like Wade Phillips.

Garrett was no puppet. Garrett is described as “a fixer” who spent endless hours speaking to Jerry Jones to try to steer the owner to the right decision — all in a way that made Jones feel like it was his decision.

The scene people should see is Garrett, at The Star, after a marathon phone call with Jones.

One source remembers Garrett being “completely worn out” from the conversations. A look of total exhaustion was written across his face. Of course, Garrett and Jones knew each other for 20 years before the former QB even became the head man. His Dad was a Cowboys scout. Thus, Garrett developed a knack for ever-so delicately… ever-so resiliently… nudging Jones to a decision he knew was best for the Cowboys.

“He was the guy who was keeping everything together,” one ex-personnel man in Dallas says. “He kept it from going off the rails. I don’t think he has the personality of Parcells just to tell Jerry and Stephen, ‘Get over there. You’re not saying anything.’ And it wouldn’t have lasted long if he tried to be that way. On the other hand, he didn’t let Jerry walk all over him. But he wasn’t going to get into big confrontations.”

If Mike McCarthy can strike this balance, he’s got a shot.

But that won’t be easy because of this warped organizational structure.

How things are run around here — everything that goes into those laboring phone calls — is the focus of Part I.

Everyone in Dallas knows that Jerry and his son, Stephen, run the show. And on most teams, the people in charge of the football operation are in the office. Often. Their hands are dirty. They’re involved. Yet, as one former personnel man in Dallas notes, both are so busy with their other business dealings — flying in and out of town on one of their two helicopters — that it is downright impossible for them to stay on top of the roster like typical GMs.

Intelligence is not an issue. Jones is smart. He inherited a team losing $1 million per month and built an empire.

Fired employees even repeat how much they sincerely love Jones as a person. He treats people well.

Yet as one ex-personnel man says, two questions are central to Jerry’s World: “Are they running the Dallas Cowboys or are they running all of their other business interests? And what is the role of the Dallas Cowboys: Is it to win a Super Bowl or is it to generate income?” Because it’s always clear internally, 24/7, that Jones absolutely does not want to be the stereotypical owner up in a luxury box waving a pennant.

This source assures: “He wants to have his hands on what’s going on.”

That would be perfectly fine if Jones was all-in on the work, if Jones was willing to roll up his sleeves and put in the necessary 60 to 70 hours per week it takes to command such organizational control.

On one hand, he delegates. On the other, he still assumes responsibility.

A rough combination.

“I don’t think Jerry Jones is a bad guy,” this ex-personnel man says. “I don’t think Jerry Jones is a dumb guy. I just think his approach, the way he’s running the team, isn’t necessarily what’s best for winning.”

What results is a major schism between coaches and scouts.

Most NFL GMs will, bare minimum, watch tape of the top 150 players in a given draft. Maybe they’ll even study every potential draftable player. “The Joneses,” one source says, “don’t do that.” Their first exposure to players — other than the speed dates at the NFL Combine — are the team’s draft meetings that spring. And instead of actually pouring through full games, one source says Jerry and Stephen Jones rely on “profile tapes” in draft meetings which are, in essence, highlight reels of players. It’ll have that prospect’s Combine workout, Pro Day workout with about 25 plays from college.

Twenty of those plays will be positive. Five will be negative.

And, sure, it’s a neat little synopsis of the prospect. A “refresher,” one source calls it. By no means, however, is this tape enough to base an entire decision on. Jerry may form an opinion on a player off this profile tape alone and, then, that opinion is described as “malleable.”

He’ll listen to the scouts’ presentation on a prospect, then the coaches’ presentation.

“And there becomes a rivalry between the two sides of the organization,” said one source thrust into this rivalry. “Because you never feel like it’s Jerry pure decision. He’s sort of just siding with somebody. Where in other organizations, if you’re a coach and I’m a scout and the GM comes in and says, ‘I like this guy,’ and it happens to be the guy you wanted to pick in the first round that I thought was a third-round pick, he’s not necessarily siding with you. He watched the six games or eight games and he made his decision and you guys just happened to agree. Whereas, with Jerry, it’s ‘He’s siding with the coaches here’ or ‘He’s siding with the scouts there.’”

Thus, the key is getting to Jones.

One other scene is also common in this 25-year drama. While setting the draft board, everyone may break an hour for lunch only to return and see a prospect had moved up. A prospect everyone agrees was a third-rounder is now, magically, a second-rounder. Ask Jones what in the heck happened and he’d simply say he decided to make a change. At which point everyone in the room can only laugh because they knew what happened.

Someone got to Jerry. Someone circumvented this rickety system.

“The process becomes compromised,” one source says. “Whoever was an advocate for this guy pulled Jerry aside and made their case without someone rebutting the case.”

One other factor also warped the Cowboys’ draft board through the leaner years of the 25-year drought. While they didn’t draft for need per se, the team’s specific needs in past offseasons have directly shaped how the team stacked its board. Maybe it was conscious. Maybe it was subconscious. Either way, the board was often skewed so, in the end, Dallas was drafting for need.

Which, of course, is bad practice long term. You miss out on the best players.

The same bad habit poisoned free agency. Players at positions of need tended to get higher grades from scouts. A running back who might’ve been tearing up the preseason for another team, for example, would get a “reject” grade if that particular area scout believed the Cowboys were stacked at that position.

Which, of course, is also bad practice. The Cowboys could easily see their top two backs go down with injury in Week 1, suddenly need an RB, and see nothing but rejects on the open market.

All roads lead to one problem: The lack of a clear decision-maker who’s watching film of prospects until his eyes are bloodshot. A decision-maker who is not sliding into a helicopter to tend to other matters. The perennial winners are led by one strong voice who’ll listen to everyone’s input but isn’t influenced by such input to this extreme. Ted Thompson didn’t say much of anything as the Packers’ GM but he always made it clear the buck stopped with him. He put in the work, too. If anything, Thompson was too married to the job.

The best bosses in recent history like Thompson, Ozzie Newsome, Chris Ballard and Bill Belichick set the tone in every room. They bring the informed opinion and more so challenge you to change their mind.

Chances are, their minds won’t be changed on a lunch break, either.

Since The Star at Frisco opened in 2016, Jerry Jones has been around the team more often but, overall, his attendance is described by one person as “very sporadic.” This former personnel man isn’t complaining about it because everyone eventually gets used to the spotty attendance. Still, he also knows this is a reason Dallas hasn’t been to a Super Bowl in 25 years.

Scouts could go weeks at a time without even seeing Jones up to a draft.

“It’s not like he’s showing up at 7 a.m. and grinding through it to 7 p.m. six days a week the way most general managers do it,” he adds.

Like this source, ex-Cowboys receiver Brice Butler makes it clear he liked Jones a lot. He even wishes he was able to talk business with the owner, to pick his brain on all things life after football. Yet, Butler also wonders how effective Jones can be as an NFL GM with so much on his plate.

If he owned a team himself, he knows he’d employ a true GM to oversee everything.

It’s impossible for any human to take on this much — from Legends Hospitality to real estate dealings to attracting corporate sponsors, etc. — and expect to be a successful president and general manager of an NFL team.

“When you’re Jerry, there’s a lot of things that need your attention,” Butler says. “You always think: How much time can you really put into football if you have to do all this stuff? And he’s still doing a lot of it. … The family, they’re building them up. They sit in meetings, too. They’re trying to groom the family to keep it. How much can you really do? How much of your undivided attention can you really put on getting the right players for the organization? Getting the right coaches for the organization? Making sure your team is in the right spot? When you’re doing all of the things that you’re doing?”

Granted, there are people in Jerry’s World who view all of this through a completely different prism.

Others in this “house” Jones built don’t view him as a reckless, off-the-cuff GM anymore.

OC Scott Linehan got whacked after his team made the playoffs for the third time in five years. He has every reason to be bitter and could lob a series of grenades at the organization if he so chose. He does not. He calls Jones one of the best owners “in any sport” and points to those three Super Bowls in his name. It’s true, too, that Dallas has at least stayed in the hunt for stretches of the last quarter-century.

From Linehan’s vantage point, Jones has sincerely delegated to Will McClay.

McClay, the VP of player personnel, is a smart football mind and often cited as the Cowboys’ de facto GM. You’ll only hear sterling reviews when it comes to him.

“Behind the scenes, people don’t realize that Jerry and Stephen let Will run that draft room,” Linehan says. “He makes a lot of, well, all of the suggestions and calls on the roster. Will McClay. Maybe it’s more perception than reality (that it’s all Jerry). I was so grateful that Jerry hired me and I have five years that I’m really proud of when I was there with Jason. We didn’t get to the Super Bowl. But we were a relevant team in professional football.

“Stephen and Will work really well together. I think Jerry has delegated a lot to them. I think he leans on them a lot. I thought Jason ran a great coaching side. We put a lot of time into player evaluation. I always felt it was not an accurate thing that Jerry was too involved. I thought he was really smart about how he delegated responsibility. He leaned heavily on his son Stephen and Will. People may not know that but that’s true.”

Former Cowboys safety Darren Woodson — the team’s all-time leading tackler who remains very connected with this franchise — disputes the notion that Jones waltzes into a draft meeting, watches a highlight reel and makes big decisions. He asserts that McClay has “a lot of punch” in this front office and credits him as the voice of reason in the ’14 draft room when Jones badly wanted Johnny Manziel. (More on that — with more examples — in Part II.)

McClay also had a strong hand in reconstructing the greatest strength on those Dallas teams: The offensive line.

“I’ve been around Will long enough to see how he operates,” Woodson says, “and how he and Stephen operate and they’re not just making changes in the wind. It’s a really, really thought-out process with how they’re doing things.”

They both see hope in Stephen Jones, too, since he’s never been afraid to take his Dad on behind the scenes, all the way back to throwing Jerry against a wall because he thought signing Deion Sanders was a bad idea.

And the brand that Jones created — the aura of “America’s Team” — isn’t completely for show. It can resonate with players. Cornerback Duke Thomas may be a player you’ve never heard of but his perspective is rare given he played for nine different teams between 2016 and 2020. Thomas can compare Jerry’s World to just about every other type of organization imaginable and, frankly, he enjoyed the Cowboys’ militaristic vibe.

Thomas’ father served in the military so he appreciated the feeling of upholding a standard.

He’ll never forget Day 1 at The Star, when he made the grave mistake of wearing a red hoodie.

“Being the only one in the building wearing red,” Thomas says, “I felt like the odd man out. Just the colors, down to the colors you wear in the building, it’s that profound. You can’t be seen wearing red in there. I can distinctly remember that day — ‘Wow, I’m the only one wearing red and everyone is looking at me funny wearing red.

“You just feel that presence, being in a place like Dallas. The culture is completely different.”

It didn’t last long obviously, but he loved his time around Garrett, too. The coach’s wife even hit it off with his future wife.

And when Dallas decided to stash Thomas on injured reserve with an ankle sprain in ’17, it wasn’t some intern with a towel over his shoulder who delivered the news. It was the head coach himself. The head coach juggling so much in Jerry’s World. Garrett told Thomas that he absolutely would’ve made the 53-man roster if he didn’t get hurt in the final preseason game.

Thomas liked this head coach — a lot.

“He always shot it straight with me and was an honest guy,” Thomas says. “That’s the only thing you can ask for in the NFL. To have that honesty is big. … It shined a new light on him. Honestly. Being a defensive back, you don’t really talk to and mingle with the head coach very often. But having a one-on-one conversation with him — and him be honest and shoot me straight — spoke volumes to me what kind of guy he was.”

And yet… Garrett’s time ran out. And yet… that aura hasn’t produced any rings since 1995. The Lions, WFT and Vikings are the only other teams in the NFC that have failed to reach the Super Bowl since then and nobody’s trumpeting the virtues of the “Lions Way,” no. Any Cowboy Way grandeur pumped through those AC units at The Star is based off people from a long-ago era, as if Jerry Jones and those closest to him are living in the past.

So opinions are all over the place.

Where one person sees Jones overseeing a free-for-all operation, another sees an open forum.

Where one person sees an ill-informed, ill-equipped owner still throwing his weight around, another sees McClay as this team’s savior.

Where you can take a look at that 2021 draft in which Dallas drafted six straight defensive players and think it’s brilliant given how terrible the defense was in 2020, you also wonder if that draft board was cockeyed to make it happen. Maybe that really was how the team’s draft board fell, as McClay said himself, but there’s a decent chance the board was spiked, too, and such blinders prevented the Cowboys from drafting a stud on the other side of the ball.

The fact that how this team is run is so wide open to interpretation is the problem itself.

It’s not like the chain of command is changing any time soon. Right there, in all caps, Jerry Jones is still the owner and president and general manager. Jones still has the authority to do whatever he pleases whenever he pleases.

So, don’t overthink it: This is still his house. He paid for it.

Ask one Cowboys legend familiar with the team’s inner-workings what is wrong in Jerry’s World and he asks to remain anonymous before revealing a totally different answer.

One that has nothing to do with X’s and O’s and draft boards.

To him, it’s simple: “Friendships” run this franchise. Not in a good way, either.

“Here’s the dynamic with this organization,” this player says. “I’ll just flat-out tell you. There’s a lot of friendships. There are more friendships than it is business. Jason Garrett is probably another son to the Joneses. Tony Romo is another son to the Joneses. Troy (Aikman) was that guy until he got into the booth and was like, ‘Hell no. You guys are twisted there.’ If you agree with the Joneses, you’re in. You’ve got to agree with them. If you don’t agree with them, there’s conflict. And you will find your ass out.”

Coach. Scout. Former player.

Everyone knows that it pays to be on Jerry’s good side.

“It’s almost mafia-like,” this longtime Cowboy says. “They hang together. They run together. There’s a lot of people within that organization that do some crazy shit together. It’s a little backwards.”

This player then brings up Jerry Jones’ most embarrassing moment from these past 25 years, when scandalous pictures of the owner with strippers surfaced. Jones called the shots a misrepresentation but this player says nobody in the know was shocked. That’s Jones, he says, and he believes one reason many people in the front office last as long as they do is that they party with the owner.

“You wonder, ‘Why in the hell are they still…?’ Yeah. Well, they’re running with them Joneses.”

And when you’re in, “you’re in.”

This Cowboy believes everything went off the rails in the mid-90s and a complete rehaul has been a must since. He sees far too many “yes men” around the owner. “Yes boys,” he says, correcting himself. While he was never drawn to the party lifestyle himself — one captured poignantly by Jeff Pearlman in the book, “Boys will be Boys” — he says that everyone knows Jones can still get after it.

“He’s different, man,” this player says. “He has that Michael Irvin in him. Irvin could party until 3 or 4 in the morning and he’s up at 5, 6 balling. And he’d go the whole day. That’s Jerry.”

Hang out in Indianapolis during the week of the NFL Combine and you’ll see a massive Cowboys bus parked downtown. The running joke, of course, is that whatever happens on that bus stays on that bus.

Nobody atop this organization hides their partying ways.

And while it’d be easy to laugh this off as nothing, again, the Cowboys are a $5.7 billion enterprise. Year to year, countless livelihoods are on the line. Elsewhere, NFL head coaches freak out over a reporter’s tweet and here’s an organization with a very loose hierarchy, an organization this longtime Cowboy declares “morally corrupt.” He sees egos exploding in all of the wrong directions and believes that — more than any massaging of a draft board — is why Dallas hasn’t won a ring since ’95.

The world was given a sanitized front-row seat to this franchise on Hard Knocks this summer. No, this drama didn’t come close to living up to reality. When it wasn’t putting you to sleep with the same shot of a player drinking water and spitting it out mid-practice, Episode 3 served mostly as a Jerry, Inc. infomercial with a dramatic shot of Jones exiting one of his helicopters. It should be noted that NFL teams sign off on the editorial content, episode to episode, so we can only assume Jones wanted the world to see that slow-motion shot of him in his shades.

Metallica’s “Wherever I May Roam” blared as he entered the stadium.

The entire sequence was vintage Jerry, oozing with desperation. He likely didn’t give a damn if you loved it or hated it.

But watching this, you cannot help but wonder what has really changed over 25 years.

On the field? The Cowboys actually have been closer to getting to that elusive Super Bowl than you think.

The issues laid out here all absolutely apply to wins and losses.

 

[boozeman]

Inside Jerry's World, Part II: Moss, Parcells, Dez and 25 years of maddening 'What ifs'

Upstairs, the system has been broken for years. So how has that affected everything on the field through the Super Bowl drought? Insiders relive the painstaking "What ifs" from 1995 to today.

Tyler Dunne
Sep 8


The pain in Jerry Jones’ eyes sure seemed real one month ago when the owner added a new, wild scene to this 25-year drama.

When Jones told the story of hiring Barry Switzer in 1994.

He brought the longtime Oklahoma coach into town, Switzer asked, “Where’s Jimmy?” and Jones informed the new coach that Jimmy Johnson was out and he was in. Switzer’s reaction wasn’t what Jones expected. Jones couldn’t understand why Switzer was so, so anxious to talk to Johnson. And that’s when Switzer told him, “I just want to get both you little a--holes on this couch and ask you both how could you f--- this up.” In time, Jones admits he realized that famous divorce was his fault.

“Jimmy’s a great coach,” Jones says. “It was my job to keep it together. It was my job. I should have had deference to something that was working good.”

And just like that, an emotional Jones nearly burst into tears.

“I’ve never been able to know why I f----- it up.”

It was a shocking admission.

Right then, Jones himself acknowledged that ego — his ego — killed something special. Switzer won a title with Johnson’s players in ’95 but it was clear to all that he wasn’t a fraction of the pro coach Johnson was — he was merely putting Band-Aids over what he inherited. If Johnson stays? This dynasty could’ve lasted all decade with the Cowboys winning it all in ’94, ’95, ’96, heck, maybe even ’97. The core on offense was intact and this was an all-time defense, too. As several sources note, the titles shouldn’t have stopped there, either.

The lack of normalcy upstairs, which we covered in Part I, directly affects everything downstairs.

Which is the focus of Part II.

How does “America’s Team” go 25 years without a ring? Jones is too often influenced by the wrong people. Contracts with star players go haywire. And it’s nearly impossible for any type of head coach to thrive in Jerry’s World.

In an alternate universe, Jones cedes power to Johnson, keeps winning Super Bowls and — into the 1998 draft — selects a player who single-handedly extends the careers of his aging stars: Randy Moss. Most know by now that Moss desperately wanted Dallas to draft him No. 8 overall, and the Hall of Fame wideout has even said that Jones promised to take him if he was on the board. Instead, the Cowboys selected defensive end Greg Ellis.

A fine selection. Ellis enjoyed an 11-year career in Dallas.

But he was not Moss. He was not a living, breathing nightmare, not the second-best receiver of all time who’d make an EKG machine explode.

The problem? The wrong influencers got to that malleable owner/GM/judge/juror/executioner.

If only Jerry Jones listened to poor Mike Zimmer.

We took a critical look at Zimmer’s own “world” in Minnesota upon launching Go Long. He’s not perfect. But know this: Zimmer could’ve saved those Cowboys. Zimmer — the DBs coach on that team promoted to DC two seasons later — was the loudest voice in Dallas banging the table for Moss. Even though he was a defensive guy through ‘n through, Zimmer desperately wanted his boss to select this offensive player because he knew from Day 1 Moss was a transcendent talent.

Each year, the coach would bring in his DBs to watch some film of a prospect he loved.

It was always a full game or two. Never a cheap highlight reel. And it was always a defensive player.

That is, until Moss entered the NFL Draft.

Former Cowboys safety Darren Woodson can still remember Zimmer bringing him into his office — the coach was beaming. Zimmer told him this kid from Marshall was “f------ phenomenal” and “ridiculous” and, sure he was skinny, but wait ‘til Woodson saw what he did after the catch. “He’s different,” Zimmer said, hitting play on a full game. Woodson watched every snap and Woodson… was not sold. The five-time Pro Bowler couldn’t get past the fact that this receiver’s 55 touchdowns came against schools like Army and Kent State and he assured Zimmer this stuff would never fly in the NFL.

“And he said, ‘You’re out of your f------ mind. This guy is going to transition,’” Woodson says. “That was how the coaches approached things and he was pushing heavy for Moss. Heavy.”

To no avail.

Zimmer knew Ellis would be a solid player but also told informed people that the Cowboys made the “biggest f-----g mistake ever” passing on Moss.

“He was not happy,” Woodson says. “Not happy.”

The person pushing hardest against the Moss pick? New head coach Chan Gailey. He took a look at Moss’ rap sheet, a look at Irvin’s rap sheet and saw nothing but trouble. To rewind, Moss signed with Notre Dame out of high school but never attended the school after spending three days in jail for his role in a fight. He then went to Florida State but was booted after testing positive for marijuana. Thus, Gailey feared what kind of mentor Irvin would be for Moss. Woodson says Gailey viewed this as a recipe for disaster, adding that the head coach — who he liked a lot as a person — was also trying like heck to dump Irvin that ’98 offseason.

Those Cowboys teams in the ‘90s were obviously riddled with character concerns. Arrests and fights and insanity were the norm. His goal was to clean this all up and Jones was on board.

Noble? Sure. But as Woodson notes, the Cowboys “paid the freaking price five months later.” Moss dominated the league — instantly — and, sans mooning, the iconic moment of his whole career came against these Cowboys that rookie season. On Thanksgiving Day, right in Cowboys Stadium, he posted one of the most ridiculous stat lines in NFL history: Three catches, 163 yards, three touchdowns.

The cameras even captured a lost Gailey staring down at his playsheet after Moss’ second touchdown.

This was the moment the entire franchise took a turn for the worst.

Let the counterfactuals run rampant in your mind. Moss’ presence alone could’ve extended Troy Aikman’s career. Woodson knows Aikman, like Randall Cunningham, could’ve chucked the ball as far down the field as he could. Jones later admitted that he begged for Moss’ forgiveness. And Moss? He was never shy in saying the owner’s slight fueled him throughout his career. He never stopped making him pay. In seven games against Dallas, Moss caught 35 passes for 662 yards with 10 touchdowns.

Gailey was fired after two seasons.

Dave Campo was hired. Campo was fired after three straight 5-11 seasons.

And as if delivered from the football gods, from Tom Landry himself, in came the snarling Bill Parcells. With a Canton-bound resume of 11 playoff wins, two Super Bowl titles and one more AFC title to his name, Parcells arrived in 2003, took a sledgehammer to Jones’ broken system and led a Quincy Carter-quarterbacked squad to 10 wins and a playoff berth in Year 1. Forget the rings. This might actually go down as Parcells’ finest coaching accomplishment ever.

He wasn’t interested in any of the owner’s parties.

He wanted to win. That’s all.

“He changed everything,” one source in the organization then recalls. “He was like, ‘Keep the f------ scouts away. I’m not going to be running around with you guys.’ He wasn’t running around with them. At all. He was not a Jones guy. He brought some discipline to that organization. And the scouts? He would ream their asses. Ream ‘em. All the time.”


And, hey, there’s an evidently drunk Jones blasting Parcells on camera.

A bad mix from the start, indeed. Parcells tried to box out Jerry and Stephen Jones, one source explains, and grasp more authority than anyone since Johnson. Of course, this is the same coach who famously said on his way out of New England that if you cook the dinner, you should shop for the groceries.

By 2006, Parcells retired. You may recall that Jones didn’t do much to change his mind.

And the personality pendulum swung — hard — to someone completely different. To Wade Phillips. Like most owners, Jones hired someone who wasn’t anything like his successor. Unlike most owners, Jones didn’t retreat to the owner’s box and kick back, no, his stranglehold on the roster only tightened. Any semblance of checks and balances mostly disappeared and Jones, one ex-personnel man says, “ran rampant.”

Re-embracing the idea of a character risk, in signing Terrell Owens to a mega deal, helped. Dallas did win some games with the same player who famously mocked the owner’s beloved star. But those teams never punched through, thanks to some bizarre personnel decisions. Most notably, Jones traded first-, third- and sixth-round picks to Detroit in 2008 for wide receiver Roy Williams and inked him to a five-year, $45 million deal. Only Jones’ trade of two firsts for Joey Galloway in 2000 rivaled this disaster.

“There was really nobody else in the organization that wanted him,” one source in the front office then said. “And there was no one there who was going to push back against him. Wade didn’t. So, Jerry did his own deal and things went off the rails.”

Into the 2010 draft, a good 12 years removed from his Moss mistake, no way was Jones passing on another ultra-talented wideout with red flags. Dez Bryant was a coup of a selection at No. 24 overall.

That same year, however, the wheels fell off the Phillips Era. He was fired after a 45-7 shellacking in Green Bay dropped Dallas to 1-7. Jason Garrett was promoted. Garrett was the coach for a decade.

As a backup quarterback on those Super Bowl teams, yes, Garrett was well-versed in Jerry’s World.

He tried striking a balance between Parcells and Phillips.

“He was able to navigate keeping Jerry at bay,” one ex-personnel man says, “while also allowing Jerry to feel like he was not only integrated into the process, but like he was making the decisions even though you’re sort of directing the decision for him to make. And that’s the way you have to play it with Jerry. Because he doesn’t want to be pushed out on an island like Parcells did to him. But I don’t think it’s good for the organization to just let Jerry shoot from the hip and make all these decisions. So, you have to be able to navigate the two and I think Jason did a fairly good job of that.”

Further, ex-OC Scott Linehan adds that he thought Garrett worked “great” with ownership and had a strong relationship with Will McClay.

Garrett wasn’t going to ball up a fist, hit the podium and declare this whole organization corrupt, but he did have a knack for steering the Cowboys in the right direction. Brice Butler remembers his coach gently leading the owner to the right place, too, to make it seem “like it was his decision.” And he echoes many others in saying he loved playing for Garrett.

The wideout hated when anyone ripped the coach because outsiders didn’t know the half of it.

“I’m like, ‘Bro. You all do not understand what goes on in that organization,’” Butler says. “You get guys that are benched and it has nothing to do with the coaches. If Jerry wants somebody to play, he’s playing.”

Butler first points to Ronald Leary getting benched, at guard, for rookie tackle La’el Collins in 2015. He vividly remembers Leary telling him that the coaches were adamant it wasn’t their call, that this decision came from “upstairs.”

“That’s why Ron was so adamant about leaving,” says Butler. “He’s like, ‘This is bull crap. How do I get benched when I am a PFF Top 15 guard?’ And La’el is not a guard. He’s a tackle. I’m not dogging La’el. He turned out to be a good player — once they got him to the right position. But you don’t do something like that.

“And if you’re the head coach, you’ve got to deal with all of that — ‘I’ve got to try to win games with guys I don’t want out there at this moment.’”

Then, Butler points to his own career. He received the same reasoning for his reduced role.

Whenever Bryant was out, he was vaulted into the No. 1 spot. Otherwise, he was a No. 4 which — to him — didn’t make a hell of a lot of sense. Especially when Stephen Jones was telling him he’d get to compete for the No. 2 spot. Especially when he had such dynamite training camps and coaches were assuring him the competition was open. He believes this strange hierarchy cost him, too.

Says Butler: “My coach told me, after my last full season there in ’17, I should’ve been starting but he didn’t have the power to make the change. I’m sitting there, like, ‘I appreciate you telling me the truth. I can respect that.’ Obviously, I knew that. You don’t have to tell me that because I know what’s going on.”

Butler ended up injuring his foot but believes this odd usage at this juncture of his career is why his career ended.

His point? He’s not alone. The owner telling the coaches who to play is normal in Dallas and players realize it over time.


As noted in our intro, Garrett tried his hardest. Garrett helped the team move toward stacking its draft board more purely, away from perceived needs. McClay might’ve organized all draft meetings, but sources recall the head coach speaking up more than anybody in those meetings, too. Garrett was determined to drive discussion on a prospect to the right place for Jones.

Nevertheless, different voices were always trying to get Jones’ ear which led to that friction between the scouts and coaches.

In 2014, Jones nearly careened the franchise over a cliff, too.

The legend is true. That spring, Jones desperately wanted Johnny Manziel when nobody else in the building did. All along, Dallas planned on drafting Anthony Barr, Aaron Donald or Ryan Shazier at No. 16 overall. Everyone knew Jones was infatuated with Manziel but they assumed (hoped?) Manziel would be gone by then. All three defensive players flew off the board, their pick arrived and — as Stephen Jones tells the story — all scouts and coaches buried their faces down.

Nobody wanted Johnny Football.

This time, coaches and scouts banded together.

McClay told Jones that the QB had issues. To which, Jones asked why Manziel was so high on their draft board. (Hunch: That board was skewed to the owner’s preference.)

Garrett spoke up, too. He told Jones that this quarterback was a poor leader.

So, with extreme reluctance, Jones signed off on Dallas selecting Notre Dame guard Zack Martin. Seconds later, Stephen Jones said his Dad slapped him on the leg and bristled, “How do you think I had this type of success? It damn sure wasn’t making middle-of-the-road decisions like taking an offensive guard. All you’re ever going to be is average.” No, Jones was not happy. Probably because, as Linehan adds, Manziel would’ve also set the record for most rookie jerseys sold ever.

Jerry saw massive marketing potential.

Jerry was also ready to move on from Tony Romo.

Of course, we all know what happened next. Manziel self-destructed and Martin, a four-time All Pro, has now started 104 games. He may join those 90s Cowboys in Canton one day, too.

That same 2014 season, the Cowboys also went 12-4.


If officials rule Dez Bryant’s apparent touchdown a catch, there’s a good chance they travel to Seattle the next week for the NFC Championship. And, who knows? That team had the requisite back-alley temperament to take on the Legion of Boom. Linehan recalls this as his best Cowboys team, a “destined” team that struck the perfect winning formula. With a defense fresh off a horrible season, he knew running the ball effectively would be crucial. The result? A 1,845-yard season from DeMarco Murray and the best season of Romo’s career.

Bryant, rocking the famed No. 88, was ascending into superstardom, too. He was brash. He threw up the “X.” He was the heart, the spirit, the face of this franchise clearly on the rise with 88 receptions for 1,320 yards and 16 touchdowns that final year of his rookie deal.

So, what did the Cowboys do? Play hard ball.

Yet another front office gaffe, right then, doomed Dallas.

Some sources in the front office then believe the Cowboys effectively sabotaged Bryant’s career. Instead of rewarding the eccentric wideout after that ’14 season with a contract extension, they punished him with the franchise tag on March 3. This dreaded provision that only pisses players off angered Bryant, thus triggering a chain of events that effectively extended the Super Bowl drought to where it is today.

This was the classic case of failing to know how your star players are wired.

Bryant is described as one the toughest and most competitive individuals to ever enter Jerry’s World, yet also someone who isn’t very self-disciplined. Tag certain players and they’ll continue to train like maniacs.

“You tag Dez Bryant?” one former personnel man in Dallas says. “He’s going to shut it down for six months.”

When the Cowboys finally got around to giving him a five-year, $70 million deal in July, Dez wasn’t Dez. Out of shape, he pulled his hamstring and missed camp.

His first game back, he broke his foot.

The entire 2015 season was a wash, especially with Romo going down with a broken collarbone.

The next offseason, in 2016, Bryant was in rehab mode instead of training mode. By the time he got through the season and back into the Cowboys’ regular offseason program for the first time in what felt like forever, Dez still wasn’t Dez. Through all of the team’s conditioning tests that offseason, his “explosive” and “quickness” and “speed” numbers, one source says, were all way, way, wayyy down from his peak in ’14.

“Because he hadn’t had a legitimate offseason to train and develop for two years,” that ex-personnel man says. “And it all had to do with the fact that we tagged him as leverage. We might’ve saved a few dollars in that contract but we lost a player. They’ll look back at it and say, ‘Well, the Dez Bryant contract shows you shouldn’t pay a receiver this type of money at age 27.’ My point would be, well, if Dez was locked away when he should’ve been — and he went through a full offseason both of those seasons — his numbers and production would’ve been way higher. And he would’ve played longer for us and produced more for us, and even if we would’ve spent more money, we would’ve gotten much more production to make it worthwhile.”

If Bryant gets paid, stays hungry and the Cowboys are back in that ‘16 divisional playoff game? No way are they losing again to the Packers at home. In Dak-Zeke-Dez, the Cowboys would’ve boasted their best trio since Aikman-Emmitt-Irvin. Instead, of course, Mike McCarthy’s Packers eliminated Dallas again on Aaron Rodgers’ heroics.

Jerry Jones’ instincts in other industries may be impeccable. He may know exactly where to explore, drill and complete an oil and gas well.

When it comes to negotiating contracts with his star football players, not so much.

One source indicates Garrett — and others — were more so asked what their opinion of Bryant was and not if Dallas should tag him or not. The twisted power structure burnt Dallas again.

“Sometimes,” one ex-personnel man in Dallas says, “I think the Joneses get too enamored with their negotiating and deal-making ability which is probably very, very good when working in the oil and gas company or when finding ways to monetize AT&T Stadium and doing all those types of deals. But sometimes, some of the negotiations with some of the players haven’t been as good as they should’ve been.”

Dallas did get to the playoffs once more, in 2018, with an overachieving team. As defenses loaded the box to stop Ezekiel Elliott, this Dez-less offense was in dire need of a wideout who could beat 1-on-1 coverage. This time, Jones’ bold trade for a receiver in the middle of the season paid off, too. After acquiring Amari Cooper, the Cowboys won seven of eight games to make the playoffs.

They even knocked off Seattle in the Wild Card to reach the divisional round for the third time in five years.

“And then,” Linehan chuckles, “I was let go.”

As Linehan correctly states, it’s worse to go to the playoffs and lose in today’s NFL than it is go 8-8 with dazzling passing numbers. He knew he couldn’t leave his defense out to dry so he tried to pound away with Elliott. This was an offense still full of Pro Bowlers, one with clear direction.

Says Linehan: “If I said, ‘Don’t worry about running it. Don’t worry about protecting the defense. And just chucked it like they do now?’ — they’re throwing 45 times a game because Dak Prescott’s pretty damn good — and we were 8-8? I’d probably still be there.”

Such is life in the NFL… especially in Dallas. He’s now an offensive analyst in Missouri.

One year later, Jason Garrett was fired. He’s now the OC with the rival Giants.

Mike McCarthy was hired and his first season in Dallas was total disaster.

The pressure will run higher than ever into 2021.

Jerry Jones is desperate for a ring, after all.

 

[boozeman]

Inside Jerry's World, Part III: Where do the Cowboys go from here?

Dak Prescott is special. Mike McCarthy, in 2020, certainly was not. Can Dallas' franchise quarterback overcome all of the zaniness? We're about to find out. Here is our final installment.

Tyler Dunne
Sep 9
The campaign accelerated at 100 MPH right through the offseason. From the top of the mountains, story to story, Mike McCarthy essentially screamed, “Hire me! Please!”


If there was a PR guru behind this, here’s hoping that person received a good chunk of McCarthy’s salary to become the new head coach of the Dallas Cowboys on Jan. 7, 2020. Around the league, there was a good amount of eye-rolling from other scouts and coaches as this comeback tour raged. The apex, of course, was “The Mike McCarthy Project” on the league’s own television network. Right there, the fired head coach detailed how he was still studying film and breaking the game down with a mini coaching staff in-waiting to stay sharp for his next opportunity.

At the top, McCarthy is bold: “I’m not trying to just go win one… I’m trying to win them all.”

By the end, he’s in tears.

He begs. He pleads: “Our family needs this. We need football right now. We won’t need it in the future but we need it right now.”

Like the white knight he is, in came Jerry Jones to wipe those tears away.

The interest is understandable. McCarthy won a Super Bowl right in Jones’ 80,000-seat palace with the 11,520-square foot screen. After that, McCarthy’s Packers were the thorn in his side, knocking Dallas out of the ’14 and ’16 divisional round. Yet, this hire also deserved every ounce of criticism it received. And then some. By the end of his run in Green Bay, several sources detailed just how checked out the head coach had become and how his relationship with Aaron Rodgers soured beyond repair.

The hire was neither imaginative, nor inspiring.

Then again, McCarthy did say in all those interviews with all those national outlets that he used his one-year sabbatical to truly change as a coach. The same guy who loved declaring that “statistics are for losers” was, suddenly, Mr. Analytics. McCarthy told the world he was basically living 24/7 inside that film bunker at home studying tape and trends and X’s and O’s. Clearly, everything he did through his 2019 pause was a major reason Jones hired him, too.

Then, came the introductory press conference when McCarthy admitted he lied in his interview. Turns out, he did not watch every snap of the 2019 season as he told Jones.

“You do what you have to do, right?” said McCarthy, with Stephen Jones cackling to his right and Jerry smiling to his left.

No doubt, the question facing Mike McCarthy is the same one facing his boss: Has he changed? McCarthy convinced Jones that his year off — that “project” — changed him as a coach. On the field, modern football seemed to pass McCarthy by in Green Bay. There was no motion, no misdirection, no creativity. Any droplets of respect that complicated fella of a quarterback had for the coach completely evaporated by ’18 when Rodgers freelanced at will. Off the field, in trying to take a “CEO”-like approach, McCarthy came across as distant to many players. (Those massages didn’t go over well with Rodgers and others.) And when McCarthy showed up in Big D, his first order of business was to retain Kellen Moore as the offensive coordinator and playcaller, which made sense but also reeked of Cosmo Kramer in that business suit — what would McCarthy even do around here?

The Cowboys, it’d appear, are doomed.

But maybe not.

It’s not like Jerry Jones is lining up on the O-Line as a 182-pound guard (like he did on Arkansas’ 1964 national title team). Nor is a mustached McCarthy playing tight end (like he did at Baker University in 1986). Nor is Moore slingshottin’ at quarterback (like he did back at Boise State). We’ve spent plenty of time dissecting Jerry’s World but even if he and McCarthy have not changed, the game is still played on the field. And the Cowboys’ offensive personnel is undeniably loaded. This is arguably the best unit Dallas has fielded since the early 90’s and the best McCarthy has had since all of his firepower graced the cover of SI midway through a 15-1 season in 2011.

More specifically, this franchise possesses a national treasure: Dak Prescott.

You could travel the globe and fail to find anyone who’ll say a negative word about this team’s quarterback.

He is one of the best leaders in the sport and he, alone, gives this embattled franchise hope in unlimited supply.

Tonight’s season opener against Tampa Bay will be a daunting challenge. Prescott hasn’t played a down of live football since his leg snapped in half on Oct. 11, 2020. A shoulder injury sidelined him this entire preseason. Now, all he has to do is stare down the most bloodthirsty pass rush in the sport in front of the entire country on Thursday night. We all saw what the Cowboys are without him, too. If he goes down at any point, the season dies.

Such circumstances would destroy most quarterbacks, but not Prescott. Not a player who just may be singularly equipped to break the wheel.

It’s on the talent — specifically, the quarterback — to, once and for all, end 25 years of madness. Again, Jones said he’d “do anything known to man” to win a ring. Jobs are on the line everywhere and BetOnline has McCarthy 6/1 as the first coach to be fired, right behind Vic Fangio in Denver.

The pressure’s high even by Dallas standards.

And while this quarterback will need to overcome quite a bit — ownership, coaching, a bad defense — it’s possible.

Up to this offseason, it hasn’t even seemed like the Dallas Cowboys want the one player who can save them.

Five years ago, Dak Prescott was Plan C.

First, Jones tried like hell to trade back into the first round for one, Paxton Lynch. He failed. He was distraught. He said afterward: “When I look back on my life, I overpaid for my big successes every time. And I probably should have overpaid here.” Into the fourth round, he tried to trade up for Connor Cook. That failed, too, and the two apples of Jerry’s eye went on to combine for 149 pass attempts and one win.

Both, of course, are out of football.

Prescott was the pick in the fourth. Some in the building did not even view the Mississippi State QB as a draftable player but Garrett, again, was a force of good in selling Prescott to Jones.

Then, the Cowboys waited forever to lock him up. As one ex-personnel man notes, the franchise never undergoes an “honest reassessment” of its mistakes. Hence, the constant butchering of contracts with star players. For whatever reason, Jones let Prescott play out the entirety of his four-year rookie contract and then franchise-tagged him — even though it was fairly obvious, from Day 1, Prescott was The Guy. All along, the QB market only skyrocketed. As expected. For whatever reason, Jones waited until after Patrick Mahomes’ meteoric 10-year, $503 million deal to pay Prescott.

He did the right thing. He locked up his QB. But with more conviction, more vision, Jones could’ve paid much less than $40 million per year.

Honestly, you can see why it took Jones so long to appreciate his quarterback. He has forever been the mosquito attracted to the street light. Manziel’s magic. Lynch’s size.

What makes Prescott special doesn’t pop off the screen but it’s now the Cowboys’ best hope at winning a championship: His leadership. The quarterback’s first coordinator, Scott Linehan, saw this in-action from Day 1 in 2016. “His leadership, his drive, how people followed him,” Linehan says, was remarkable. He recalls Prescott bringing a “Tom Brady”-like magnetism to the building. Instantly. Prescott could connect with everyone from his coaches to the equipment staff.

It didn’t matter that veteran Tony Romo was still around. Dak was being Dak.

“When Dak was in the building, you knew he was the face of the franchise,” Linehan says. “And he was drafted in the late fourth round. There was no expectation for that. That’s all on him. He’s special that way.”

That’s how a rookie improbably leads his team to a 13-3 record and the No. 1 seed.

Nothing was forced. Teammates appreciated his real, raw leadership style.

“I hear young coaches say, ‘You need to chew those receivers out! You need to get on the O-Linemen for not blocking!’” Linehan says. “That only works if they respect you. Right? If they think you’re some dumbass who doesn’t read the coverage right, that’s going to fall on deaf ears. Dak expects things of himself. People see it. And it’s genuine. So, he pulls it off because it’s 24/7. He lives it.”

Case in point: Every Friday.

Typically, players couldn’t wait to get out of dodge the second the morning practice wrapped up — right around 1 p.m. — yet Prescott found something to do. Always. Linehan would see the rookie sitting in the cold tub, studying the gameplan,with vet linebacker Sean Lee around 5:30 p.m. Little things like this go a long, long way in rewiring the mentality of a perennial underachiever.

“You see the reason this guy’s so good.” Linehan says. “He’s working his ass off.”

Other QBs are far more gifted. Everyone in Prescott’s world insists he truly worked at it, that he developed under Dan Mullen to will those Bulldogs to a No. 1 ranking. On to Dallas, he diligently improved his accuracy and learned how to play from the pocket. Linehan calls him a great off-schedule player because he doesn’t hurry the play. He’s in command. Even though Matthew Stafford is the most talented quarterback he’s ever coached, Linehan makes it clear Prescott “has that quality you can’t coach” and this quality, this state of being in total control, is something the Cowboys have sorely lacked since 1995.

Those closest to Prescott have seen this. Back in ’17, for this story at B/R, here’s how they described him.

Childhood best friend, Marlon Seets: "This is not a flash in the pan. What you got last year is what you're going to get."

His uncle, Phil Ebarb: "The people who say 'He's going to bomb don't know shit."

His college receiver, Jameon Lewis: "He's built like a champion. He makes everyone go to another level."

His college QB coach, Brian Johnson: "People rally around him. People like him. That's stuff that you can't put on a sheet of paper."

High school OC, Kyle Wilkerson: "The sky's the limit, and he knows that."

Psychology professor in college, Dr. Tom Carskadon: “I’ve seen media-manufactured heroes, and it's kind of sad sometimes because they don't stand up to it. But Dak's the real deal.”

Darren Woodson, the former Cowboys great, knows Prescott won everyone over that rookie season and supplies the best context. Romo threw a better ball, he says. Romo was a “pure passer.” Put Romo next to Prescott on a practice field, ask the two to make the same throws, and your naked eye will choose Romo 10/10 times.

“But,” Woodson adds, “he’s not a better winner. This kid’s a freakin’ winner.

“Dak gave that team real leadership. Everybody was looking at Romo. He was not a leader. If you ask anybody — from Zack Martin to Tyron Smith — when Dak Prescott came into that locker room, he was the dude. The Guy. And they all followed him. They felt like he brought the energy. He worked his ass off. What he said was what he said. He was the guy.”

“Look at the last season. I love Andy (Dalton). I know Andy and I love the dude. But the drop-off was tremendous.”

Seeing Prescott break his leg hurt everyone watching but especially those teammates because, with them, it cut deeper. He isn’t just a talented player who’ll make them money. He’s a leader who does everything the right way. You don’t need to be Zeke to appreciate Prescott. You don’t need to be some A-list celebrity on vacation with him. You can be a guy like corner Duke Thomas, that undrafted pickup. Thomas remembers Prescott getting along with everyone in the entire locker room. He was “relatable” andhe put in the work.

Seeing that, from afar, stung.

The Cowboys’ season was already sinking fast. Without Prescott, the head coach was exposed. Again.

Similar to his 2013 and 2017 Packers, McCarthy’s entire team took a nosedive into irrelevance when the starting quarterback went down. Miraculously, the Cowboys’ backup plan in 2021 is even worse than Dalton or anything he had in Green Bay. If Prescott goes down, Cooper Rush is the QB of America’s Team.

If Prescott can stay healthy, the Cowboys can win the Super Bowl.

Arguably no single player means more to their team this season.

Former wide receiver Brice Butler remains one of Prescott’s closest friends and vows that if the Cowboys are playing in the Super Bowl this season, you’ll see him and Bryant sitting in the first row. He’s still tight with a slew of current players, too, from Ezekiel Elliott to Amari Cooper to Michael Gallup to Tyron Smith. Sure, he also played for Miami and Oakland. When he works out today, Butler still rocks that iconic star.

The Cowboys are his team.

Yet, Butler can’t sugarcoat the reality here. He sees how much is riding on Prescott, and he is not into pandering mythmaking like so many other ex-players. Not when he saw how this operation functions firsthand.

“I know what goes on,” Butler says. “I know why we’re not winning. I’m not going to be like some ex-players on TV talking us up — ‘We’re going to be the best! We’re going to be the best!’ — and not talk about the truth. I hope they win a championship but it’s going to be hard. It’s going to be hard. If they win a championship, in my opinion, it’s all because of the players. The players have to really take it and do it.”

He sees Washington and New York as both legit threats in the NFC East, too.

To him, Dallas needs to run the ball some more to help its flailing defense. That’s not something McCarthy was too interested in doing from 2006-2018 in Green Bay. Then again, as one ex-Packers QB notes, Rodgers was also changing/calling about 50 of the 70 offensive plays in any given game when he was in town.

He felt the need to hijack that offense.

Regardless of what he says publicly, no, Rodgers did not respect his coach’s intellect.

Which is sort of the issue with this hire. We don’t fully know what Mike McCarthy is as a head coach. Because of Rodgers, nobody truly knows how much say McCarthy had in his 125-77-2 run in Titletown. Without his quarterback, in 2020, he sure didn’t seem like much. Dallas was 1-3 before that leg snapped, too.

Butler is 100 percent right: The players will have to bring this title home.

The best way one longtime Dallas Cowboy can put the future of the franchise is this.

Someone must “disrupt” it.

Someone must explode through those front doors at The Star, carrying that sledgehammer.

He likes Will McClay. He thinks Stephen Jones could be a different type owner. He loves the current roster, too. He also doesn’t have a bad word to say about Jason Garrett, fully understanding why the coach tried toeing that company line. But for the current Cowboys to win — as constructed under Jones — he’s adamant that whoever is the head coach has to challenge an orthodoxy three decades in the making.

So, what did McCarthy do after he was hired?

Not that.

One person on staff through Year 1 of the McCarthy Era was as unimpressed as he possibly could’ve been. This source says, flatly, that McCarthy is not a leader and that players and coaches alike would walk out of practice or a meeting and say, “Dang, who is the coach?” Granted, he says that Covid-19 made it an odd year. Maybe that mask covering McCarthy’s face had something to do with it, he concedes. But, still, McCarthy did not command a presence at all.

Defensive line coach Jim Tomsula did most of the yelling at practice.

McCarthy was just sort of there.

“Every blue moon he’d yell something,” this source says, “and it was like, ‘Is that him, maybe?’ You had no idea who was really out there. You really didn’t know who was leading the ship: Who was the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys?

“With Mike McCarthy, it was super stale and dry the whole season long.”

Considering this is also someone who has been a head coach for 238 games, that’s not encouraging.

Such a sentiment was echoed in real time, too. Halfway through the season, NFL Network’s Jane Slater reported that players on the team believed this coaching staff was “totally unprepared” and “just not very good at their job.” Without Dak, McCarthy lost his team. The Cowboys bumbled ‘n stumbled to a 6-10 finish.

Above all, the defense was a humiliation. Dallas allowed the most points (473) and second-most rushing yards (2,541) in team history.

This source vividly remembers coordinator Mike Nolan losing respect from his players as early as August.

“It was clear,” he says. “You saw it. Man, there was stuff I had never seen. Ever. If you’re getting fired after one year, you have to be terrible. And that’s what the Dallas Cowboys looked like. There was no fight. There was no effort. Halftime, we wouldn’t be fighting. If it was going bad, nobody would speak up.”

Nolan and Tomsula were handpicked as the scapegoats. Both were fired. But we’ve also seen this script before with McCarthy-coached teams. This lack of a defense, lack of toughness. McCarthy never spent much time around the defense in practice, which allowed a softness to seep in. Problems percolating beneath the surface all season would emerge like a gruesome lesion each January. Defensive collapses, soon, were almost expected.


Be it Eli Manning knocking out that 15-1 team at Lambeau Field. (The most talented team he’s ever had choked at home, allowing 37 points and a Hail Mary at the end of the first half.)

Or Colin Kaepernick resembling the future of the game itself. (The team was woefully unprepared for the read option.)

Or the Seahawks pulling off that surreal comeback in the 2014 NFC title game. (McCarthy’s team blew a 19-7 lead with four minutes left, and the coach’s passive decision to kick two chip-shot field goals earlier in the game did not help.)

Or the Falcons blasting his team in the 2016 NFC title game.

He sells a CEO approach. He says he wants to empower assistants. And while that may look neat ‘n tidy on a resume, the reality is that every NFL team directly adopts the personality of the head coach. That’s how a Quincy Carter-quarterbacked, Bill Parcells-coached team gets to 10 wins out of those Dark Ages in Dallas and how Mike Tomlin goes 14 years without a losing season. His team is always competitive, always violent, always is in contention.

His team doesn’t go into the tank when it loses its starting QB. The Steelers, instead, fight like crazy with “Duck” Hodges at the helm.

Ask anyone who ever played for Tomlin and they’ll rave on and on about authenticity. He’s both a hardass and a shoulder to cry on. He has led his team through injuries, tragedy, everything to stay in the playoff hunt. And there on HBO is McCarthy playing clips of Austin Powers because he wants his players to find their “Mojo Moment.” There’s McCarthy declaring, “Charlie F---around, he don’t work here. High School Harry, get his ass out the f------ door.” As the camera panned to the 90 players listening on, you half-expected a few to chuckle. This felt like a forced remake of Varsity Blues you’d never hear from a coach like Tomlin.

No, the Hard Knocks spotlight didn’t do McCarthy any favors.

Once the cameras left, he admitted to reporters that now he could be “more genuine.” As if those speeches were an act.

Maybe so. Winning cures a lot.

Reached via text, however, one ex-Packer admitted he was having flashbacks. This was the coach he saw every day.

It’s no secret what these Cowboys need: Real toughness.

Everywhere.

No doubt about it, too. You can talk yourself into the Cowboys discovering that toughness with new defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, a coach capable of giving an entire unit swagger. With his undivided attention back on that side of the ball — after his own rocky six years as the head man in Atlanta — Quinn will try to recreate what he helped build in Seattle as DC. First-round pick Micah Parsons may be the belligerent enforcer Dallas needs in the middle of its defense. His energy is off the charts. Keanu Neal, when healthy, is one of the hardest hitters in the sport. Now, he’s a linebacker. He’ll make receivers think twice about that crossing route. And also on staff is a new secondary/defensive passing game coordinator in Joe Whitt, who’s been one of the sharpest assistants in the NFL for a decade.

Last year, Nolan implemented his scheme over a computer.

A normal offseason surely benefited Quinn.

We’re going to learn an awful lot about Dallas’ remade defense tonight against Tom Brady’s Bucs.

A slight tweak to the offense would help, too. Linehan offers some free advice.

When the ex-OC arrived in ’14, he knew that Dallas’ defense was fresh off its own historically atrocious season. That ’13 defense might’ve been even worse than the ’20 Cowboys in surrendering the seventh-most yards in NFL history. So, Linehan talked to new DC Ron Marinelli about working together to compensate for deficiencies on that side of the ball. The plan was to run, and run, and run, and a beautiful balance was struck.

Tony Romo and DeMarco Murray both received two MVP votes.

Jason Witten’s “Y Option” mastery was squarely in its prime.

And if that bomb to Dez Bryant is ruled a catch, there’s a good chance we’re not commemorating the 25-year anniversary like this.

Linehan knows a return to some semblance of smashmouth cannot hurt. Elliott showed up to camp in much better shape, too. He’s equipped to handle 392 carries like Murray. And once he gets rolling, Amari Cooper and CeeDee Lamb and Michael Gallup could really start cooking in the pass game. Looking at all these names, Linehan doesn’t believe there’s a more talented offense in the league. Unlike many others, he also believes Jerry Jones is taking a very real step back.

“There’s no reason,” Linehan says, “those guys can’t have a dominant year.”

Butler agrees a return to more physicality would go a long way.

Yet, he’s not sure Dallas will suddenly start punching teams in the mouth, either. He’s seen McCarthy-coached teams in the past and calls his style of football “softer.”

Then, Butler says what he knows many others wish they could: This is still Jerry’s World.

No signs suggest McCarthy will be playing the role of “disruptor.” The temperature of his seat will rise with each loss, each of Jerry’s pow wows in the middle of the locker room and each time he internally pushes back on the way things are run. Such is the needle to thread as the man trying to bring a championship to Dallas. It’s not easy. It’s a miracle that Garrett lasted 10 years and came close to ending the drought twice.

There’s hope in Prescott, in the talent, in the unlimited resources always at this team’s disposal.

Yet, here, it’s always about the owner.

For better or worse, the Cowboys will go as far as Jerry Jones takes them.

It’s his “house” and he can do whatever he wants with it.

 

[boozeman]

This sounds like a fun series.

Posted the rest...pretty damn good if you ask me.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

How much did Garrett's agent contribute to that? Poor Jason, he was so great, he was the only thing holding the organization together!

And edit, on reading the next part... McCarthy is terrible! The guy whose resume is miles better than Garrett's? He's clueless!

So obvious.

 

[boozeman]

How much did Garrett's agent contribute to that? Poor Jason, he was so great, he was the only thing holding the organization together!

And edit, on reading the next part... McCarthy is terrible! The guy whose resume is miles better than Garrett's? He's clueless!

So obvious.

Hey! Garrett was the fixer!

 

[jsmith6919]

How much did Garrett's agent contribute to that? Poor Jason, he was so great, he was the only thing holding the organization together!

And edit, on reading the next part... McCarthy is terrible! The guy whose resume is miles better than Garrett's? He's clueless!

So obvious.

No shit, the author definitely does not like McCarthy

 

[Genghis Khan]

such blinders prevented the Cowboys from drafting a stud on the other side of the ball.

Like?

I'm not seeing who this stud offensive player that passed up would be.

The person pushing hardest against the Moss pick? New head coach Chan Gailey.

was also trying like heck to dump Irvin that ’98 offseason.

Parcells arrived in 2003, took a sledgehammer to Jones’ broken system and led a Quincy Carter-quarterbacked squad to 10 wins and a playoff berth in Year 1. Forget the rings. This might actually go down as Parcells’ finest coaching accomplishment ever.

I've been saying that for years. Anyone who says players are more important than coaches should go back and look at the 2003 Cowboys.

How do I get benched when I am a PFF Top 15 guard?’

Because PFF isn't worth a shit and shouldn't be relied on to evaluate how good a player is?

“And if you’re the head coach, you’ve got to deal with all of that — ‘I’ve got to try to win games with guys I don’t want out there at this moment.’”

Whenever Bryant was out, he was vaulted into the No. 1 spot. Otherwise, he was a No. 4 which — to him — didn’t make a hell of a lot of sense. Especially when Stephen Jones was telling him he’d get to compete for the No. 2 spot. Especially when he had such dynamite training camps and coaches were assuring him the competition was open.

Says Butler: “My coach told me, after my last full season there in ’17, I should’ve been starting but he didn’t have the power to make the change. I’m sitting there, like, ‘I appreciate you telling me the truth. I can respect that.’ Obviously, I knew that. You don’t have to tell me that because I know what’s going on.”

Butler ended up injuring his foot but believes this odd usage at this juncture of his career is why his career ended.

So in other words, Butler is bitter and we should take all of his quotes here with a grain of salt.

In 2014, Jones nearly careened the franchise over a cliff, too.

The legend is true. That spring, Jones desperately wanted Johnny Manziel when nobody else in the building did.

It's not a legend, dipshit. They've admitted it.

Jerry was also ready to move on from Tony Romo.

At the end of the 2013 season?

Surprising...but I'm honestly doubting this pretty heavily.

If officials rule Dez Bryant’s apparent touchdown a catch, there’s a good chance they travel to Seattle the next week for the NFC Championship. And, who knows? That team had the requisite back-alley temperament to take on the Legion of Boom

Correct. So maybe they actually aren't the Washington Generals with zero chance of winning as half this article suggests?

Some sources in the front office then believe the Cowboys effectively sabotaged Bryant’s career. Instead of rewarding the eccentric wideout after that ’14 season with a contract extension, they punished him with the franchise tag on March 3. This dreaded provision that only pisses players off angered Bryant, thus triggering a chain of events that effectively extended the Super Bowl drought to where it is today.

If Bryant gets paid, stays hungry and the Cowboys are back in that ‘16 divisional playoff game? No way are they losing again to the Packers at home.

Uhhhh, that's silly. Bryant being in his prime or not was not the difference.

Dallas did get to the playoffs once more, in 2018, with an overachieving team.

That was absolutely not an overachieving team.

As Linehan correctly states, it’s worse to go to the playoffs and lose in today’s NFL than it is go 8-8 with dazzling passing numbers.

No, that's not correct. That's absurd.

Says Linehan: “If I said, ‘Don’t worry about running it. Don’t worry about protecting the defense. And just chucked it like they do now?’ — they’re throwing 45 times a game because Dak Prescott’s pretty damn good — and we were 8-8? I’d probably still be there.”

Also absurd.

One year later, Jason Garrett was fired. He’s now the OC with the rival Giants.

Oh no!

Anyway...

Mike McCarthy was hired and his first season in Dallas was total disaster.

Uhhhh, you're not going to mention the massive extenuating circumstances?

 

[Genghis Khan]

How much did Garrett's agent contribute to that? Poor Jason, he was so great, he was the only thing holding the organization together!

And edit, on reading the next part... McCarthy is terrible! The guy whose resume is miles better than Garrett's? He's clueless!

So obvious.

Seriously.

It makes me question the entire thing.

 

[bbgun]

Jerry, a GM in name only, is too old to put in the kind of hours needed in this day and age. And "someone got to Jerry" sounds just like Trump, who was always influenced by the last person he talked to.

 

[p1_]

Speed reading helps

 

[Genghis Khan]

No doubt, the question facing Mike McCarthy is the same one facing his boss: Has he changed?

Has a massively successful, multiple championship game appearance, super bowl winning coach 'changed'?

What kind of ridiculous douche pile is this writer?

If there was a PR guru behind this, here’s hoping that person received a good chunk of McCarthy’s salary to become the new head coach of the Dallas Cowboys on Jan. 7, 2020. Around the league, there was a good amount of eye-rolling from other scouts and coaches as this comeback tour raged. The apex, of course, was “The Mike McCarthy Project” on the league’s own television network. Right there, the fired head coach detailed how he was still studying film and breaking the game down with a mini coaching staff in-waiting to stay sharp for his next opportunity.

By the end of his run in Green Bay, several sources detailed just how checked out the head coach had become and how his relationship with Aaron Rodgers soured beyond repair.

Funny how the writer points out McCarthy's PR campaign to get hired, but conveniently takes the narrative surrounding the end of his time at GB at face value.

Does he really think McCarthy could have had all the success he had if that stuff was accurate?

Also, is he blind to the bullshit Rodgers has going on this season even after McCarthy is gone?

 

[Genghis Khan]

And when McCarthy showed up in Big D, his first order of business was to retain Kellen Moore as the offensive coordinator and playcaller, which made sense but also reeked of Cosmo Kramer in that business suit — what would McCarthy even do around here?

Ummmmm, be the head coach and not a glorified coordinator? You know, like Bill Parcells and Jimmy Johnson and Tom Landry?

I don't care for head coaches that try to be coordinators at the same time. Very few can pull it off.

And I hate, hate, hate the moronic narrative that a HC who isn't also the team's coordinator isn't doing anything.

The Cowboys, it’d appear, are doomed.

But maybe not.

Ummmmm, why would they be doomed? All you told us is that they hired a super bowl winning coach.

Seriously. Is this writer retarded?