OK. I have shared this view privately with friends and family members, but I am going public now with this bit of, er, wisdom from the Peanut Gallery.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who doubles as the team general manager, needs to fire the GM. He needs to find a competent, experienced and knowledgeable individual to serve as general manager. Then the owner needs to step back into the shadows — as much as his ego will allow it — and let the football brainiac assemble a championship team that can take the team back to the very tippy-top of the professional football ranks.
The Cowboys’ loss on Sunday to the San Francisco 49ers was an exercise in bumbling and bumbling followed by grumbling from fans, coaches, players and, yes, the owner himself about how the Cowboys couldn’t deliver the goods when it mattered the most. They fell out of the first round of the NFL playoffs … again!
Back to Jones.
He bought the team in 1989 and pledged to become involved in every aspect of its operation. I can’t recall the precise quote, but he said something about being involved with “washing jocks and making executive decisions.” He decided he would become the team’s general manager.
I do not know all there is to know about professional football, but I know enough to assess Jones’s performance as GM. Jerry Jones ain’t cuttin’ it.
The man made his fortune in business. He parlayed his millions into purchasing a professional football team. Jones transformed the team into his own image. He immediately fired the only coach the Cowboys ever had, the late gridiron legend from South Texas Tom Landry. The Cowboys struggled early in the Jones era.
Yes, they have won some Super Bowls since Jones bought the team. They won them in 1993, 1994 and 1996 with great coaching and great players. Who hired the coaches? Jones did. Then he would fire them.
Jerry Jones does not possess a brilliant football mind. He is brilliant businessman. A story in this past Sunday’s Dallas Morning News examined how much of his fortune he has given back to the community. I appreciate his generosity and his philanthropy.
But the man wants to build a championship football team. I do not believe he will get there if he continues to pretend to be a general manager who knows how to make sound football decisions.
Building a championship team is complicated in a way that Jones doesn’t understand. I certainly don’t. There are plenty of great minds out there who have what it takes.
Hire them, Jerry. Then get the hell out of the way!