The Athletic: From the GM’s Eye - Jerry Jones is blaming the coaching, but he should be blaming himself

Cowboysrock55

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
52,463
Know your shit and you'll be done in 15 minutes, if you dont know it, you may be there all night long or get cut.
Unfortunately the CBA would prevent this. They limit the amount of time you're allowed to have players practice. But back in the day I absolutely think great coaches would hold players feet to the fire in ways sort of like this.
 

boozeman

28 Years And Counting...
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
121,745
Coaches who start rookie QBs usually get a pass, but the scuttlebutt is that he could get canned if he loses every game left on the schedule.
I think it really depends.

Dump Shurmur for Red Pube? Doubtful.

Now if Ron Rivera gets dumped, which is getting more likely, he is all over that.

In fact, he might be an option for Dallas, all depending on the other choices. Jones did interview him before.

I would have mixed feelings on that one.
 

Chocolate Lab

Mere Commoner
Joined
Oct 2, 2014
Messages
19,848
I'd take Rivera. I think he's done a pretty good job over the years getting proper production out of his talent.
 

yimyammer

shitless classpainter
Joined
Sep 11, 2019
Messages
3,271
Unfortunately the CBA would prevent this. They limit the amount of time you're allowed to have players practice. But back in the day I absolutely think great coaches would hold players feet to the fire in ways sort of like this.
I'd still do it and get fired and/or into a fight with the PA arguing it was a 15 minute workout that the player couldn't finish because they didn't know the damn rules, play book, etc. Now get the fuck out of here with that bullshit (not you C55, the imaginary people I'm fighting in my mind :D )
 

Couchcoach

DCC 4Life
Joined
Dec 26, 2017
Messages
2,971
You know it!

Jessie Holley recently described his time with the Pats and mentioned being shocked because on the first day before he even knew the play book, he got thrown into the 1st teams line up and had to figure things out on the fly.

I love creative shit like this!

If I was a coach, I'd do a daily required conditioning drill that had to be completed before you could call it a day and it would require a player to for example run a 100 yard dash (under a reasonable time frame by body type---> Ex: linemen have more time, receivers have less time) and within 3 seconds of completing that task, you have to answer a question about the rules or play book, etc, etc. Get it wrong and you're stuck on that station until you get the right answer, then onto the next drill with a new question.

Know your shit and you'll be done in 15 minutes, if you dont know it, you may be there all night long or get cut.

This would motivate everyone to know the rules, etc cold and be forced to show competence while under duress of physical activity like players have to do in game.

This seems like an obvious thing to do (barring unions not allowing for some absurd reason) and I wonder if any coaches do something like this
Reminds me of Jimmy Johnson's approach. No one was safe (within reason) and he had every player prepared at all times. Everything went according to Jimmy, and for good reason. It worked and we won big
 

Cotton

One-armed Knife Sharpener
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
119,705
This is the most accurate, on point, damn right article I've ever read concerning the ongoing state of this team. And what's sad and frustrating is that it absolutely will not change as long as Jerry is alive. So here we are. And the turd in the bowl goes round and round.
He is saying the same things we have been saying for years right here on this board. It's just really good to read coming from somewhere else besides here. WE ARE VALIDATED!
 

Couchcoach

DCC 4Life
Joined
Dec 26, 2017
Messages
2,971
He is saying the same things we have been saying for years right here on this board. It's just really good to read coming from somewhere else besides here. WE ARE VALIDATED!
Absolutely! The plain simple truth we've seen for years is finally spelled out word for word for everyone to see.
 

Foobio

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 10, 2013
Messages
3,617
Also, I don’t think I’ve ever heard any player say, “Garrett made me better, he showed me how to play the game.”

Made me think of Darren Woodson and how much he respected Parcells when he got here. Or when Larry Allen tried to skip practices and Bill would call him out. Garrett doesn’t do any of that.
 

yimyammer

shitless classpainter
Joined
Sep 11, 2019
Messages
3,271
He is saying the same things we have been saying for years right here on this board. It's just really good to read coming from somewhere else besides here. WE ARE VALIDATED!
25 years for me, the minute I heard he fired Jimmy I was FLOORED and couldn't believe the egotistical, insecure, dumb mother fucker just ran off a back to back Super Bowl winner. And when I saw jeri show up to the practice field in full coaching regalia soon thereafter, my heart sunk to my ankles knowing we were likely forever fucked as fans.
 

L.T. Fan

I'm Easy If You Are
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
21,689
25 years for me, the minute I heard he fired Jimmy I was FLOORED and couldn't believe the egotistical, insecure, dumb mother fucker just ran off a back to back Super Bowl winner. And when I saw jeri show up to the practice field in full coaching regalia soon thereafter, my heart sunk to my ankles knowing we were likely forever fucked as fans.
There’s more to the story than Jerry fired Jimmy but I don’t want to rehash it.
 

yimyammer

shitless classpainter
Joined
Sep 11, 2019
Messages
3,271
There’s more to the story than Jerry fired Jimmy but I don’t want to rehash it.
Oh I know the story damn well and Jerry fired Jimmy, AINEC

People can equivocate all they want about how Jimmy was planning on leaving, Jimmy goaded jeri into firing him, Jimmy and jeri weren’t getting along, etc, etc, etc but the bottom line is jeri fired him and gave Jimmy 2 million to leave. The straw that broke Jeri’s back was the non-toast where jeri tried to toast a table of people jeri had fired (Bob Ackles, Brenda Bushnell, etc) that Jimmy was also at. Jeri being his typical tone deaf, self absorbed, insecure a-hole self got his panties in a bunch when they didn't smooch his ass and gave a tepid response to his drunken toast.

That was the final draw for jeri and he immediately starts talking to various people including reporters about firing Jimmy. He may have sobered up by the time he spoke to Jimmy face to face and offered some kind of bullshit untenable offer for Jimmy to remain coach, but that was bullshit because he had already called Switzer asking him if he wanted the job and to start considering it. Jeri wanted the satisfaction of firing Jimmy. Jeri was seething and wanted to wake Jimmy up in the middle of the night, jerk him out of bed and fire him on the spot. Jeri was bitter and wanted revenge.

I dont think Jimmy was going to hang around much longer but I believe he was definitely planning to return for an attempt at a 3-peat as evidenced by his comments to Deon during Super Bowl 28 and comments where he didn't think there was any way jeri would fire a 2 time Super Bowl winning QB:


No doubt Jimmy was on his last days in Dallas as he had grown sick and tired of Jeri's meddling and credit stealing:


jeri talking out of his ass here and couldn't abide by his own philosophy:


So what do I believe happened?

I believe there were growing tensions between the two and the end was drawing near since both were ready to be done with each other.

The "non-toast" was the spark that lit the fire that caused jeri to fire Jimmy (you can call it a nuanced firing with a caveat but it was still a firing imo)

I believe jeri was pissed and wanted the satisfaction of firing jimmy face to face and did in fact do so (I'm admittedly speculating since I wasn't in there). Jeri may have made Jimmy an offer that he knew Jimmy would never accept to try to soften the blow and give Jimmy a measure of face saving in the public eye. But in reality, jeri only did this to save his own face, not Jimmys, because jeri was so pissed he didn't give two shits about how Jimmy was perceived and realized he was the one that was going to take the PR hit.

So he paid Jimmy 2 million to leave (Jimmy had a ten year contract and you don't get 2 million when you break your contract and quit). Jimmy went along with it publicly in exchange for the 2 mill but also because I think Jimmy was hurt by the firing and it was a blow to his ego so it not being called a firing is more palatable even if deep down he knew he had just been fired.

Yes, he hadn't stayed long in all his venues but he was the one that got to make the choice to leave in all his previous stops. IIRC, he had never been fired so its a face saving measure to tell the world ex post facto he was going to quit anyway (I said something similar when my junior high girl friend broke up with me). Jimmy was hurt by it and I think it still stings him a little to this day.

So you can call it a "nuanced firing", a "firing with Asterisks" or just call it what it was: A firing triggered by a drunken owners feelings and pride being hurt over an employee who who didn't show him the respect he felt he deserved and because that employee would not also give him credit for things jeri didn't deserve.

That's my take based on living in Dallas while the shit went down, following it obsessively and reading several books on the issue with first hand accounts from different sources of the toast incident and subsequent statements by jeri saying he was going to fire Jimmy.

Book Sources:

#1: The Water Boy: From the Sidelines to the Owner's Box: Inside the CFL, the XFL, and the NFL by Bob Ackles

#2: King of The Cowboys: The Life & Times of Jerry Jones by Jim Dent

#3: Greatest Team Ever: The Dallas Cowboys Dynasty of the 1990’s by Ron St Angelo & Norm Hitzges


Screenshots from book #1:











Screenshots from Book #2





















and if all of the above wasn't enough, here it is from the horse's ass himself:

 

Cotton

One-armed Knife Sharpener
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
119,705
Wow, mucho props, Yim.
 

p1_

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 10, 2013
Messages
26,455
I think LT got schooled
 

boozeman

28 Years And Counting...
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
121,745
I think LT got schooled
He is one of those unfortunate souls who convinced himself that Johnson orchestrated his way out.

It was Jones 75% firing him, 25% Johnson pushing him to do it.
 

deadrise

DCC 4Life
Joined
Dec 27, 2017
Messages
934
How richly rewarding it was, how delicious, to watch the father and fucking son geniuses stand up to walk out of the owner's suite at the end of the game yesterday. Defeated, beaten, shoulders slumped, weighed down by 25 years of failure and humiliation.

Dumb and fucking dumber try their hand at running an NFL franchise. Long may they fail.
 

UncleMilti

This seemed like a good idea at the time.
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
17,981
How richly rewarding it was, how delicious, to watch the father and fucking son geniuses stand up to walk out of the owner's suite at the end of the game yesterday. Defeated, beaten, shoulders slumped, weighed down by 25 years of failure and humiliation.

Dumb and fucking dumber try their hand at running an NFL franchise. Long may they fail.
Yep...Garrett gets a shit ton of the blame, but Jones with his "I control the coaching choices, I control this, I control that" bullshit clearly is too ignorant to understand he is the one that is the abject failure, with goof son right behind.
 
Top Bottom