Tag Archives: Dallas Cowboys

local news, Sports news

Dallas Stadium? For real … ?

A mild bit of grumbling can be heard in some North Texas communities over the temporary renaming of AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

The place — known colloquially as Jerry World — was named over the weekend as a semifinal site for the 2026 World Cup soccer tournament. The locals had hoped the place would become a site for the finals. But … no dice.

FIFA, the World Cup governing body, doesn’t like to have corporate names on its venues, so it demanded they take down the name of the telecommunications giant. The new name?

Dallas Stadium!

The name has rankled some folks. I tend to agree with their hurt feelings.

The place is 30-some miles from Dallas. It’s closer to Fort Worth than to Big D. I can think of several non-corporate names one could have put on the place other than Dallas Stadium.

North Texas Stadium. D/FW Stadium. Arlington Stadium. They all come to mind. I’d even settle for Cowboys Stadium.

It just ain’t in Dallas. I get that FIFA wanted to have a name associated with the largest city in the region. That would be Dallas, with its towering skyline full of gleaming office buildings. Then again, Fort Worth has its share of cowboy glitz and glamor, too.

I should point out as well that the Dallas Cowboys, the pro football team that calls the place home, hasn’t played in Dallas since the team’s founding in 1960, when they played their home games in the Cotton Bowl. They have since moved to Irving and then to Arlington … where team owner Jerry Jones built the place now known temporarily as Dallas Stadium.

As for the grumblers, well, I’m with ’em.

local news, Sports news

Try someone new … Jerry

Jerry Jones, the egomaniacal owner of the Dallas Cowboys, won’t accept any advice from someone who in truth doesn’t really give a crap about the organization he calls “America’s Team.”

But I’m going to offer it anyway.

A Dallas man submitted a letter to the editor of the Dallas Morning News, which published it in this morning’s paper. The fan writes that the team has gone “28 long years” since it last played for an NFL championship; the team has burned through 1,484 players, six head coaches and one general manager. “Can you guess the common denominator for all these … failures?” he writes.

Sure. That’s Jones, who doubles as GM as well as the guy who signs the ample paychecks.

Jones’s ego compels him to pretend he knows something about pro football. He won’t give up the GM post to a real football pro. But he damn sure should.

The Cowboys choked this past weekend against a team described as “upstart.” The Green Bay Packers came to play tackle football. The Cowboys didn’t. There likely should be a coaching change in the Cowboys’ immediate future.

As for the GM matter, that’s up to the owner … who must decide whether to “fire” himself and then hire someone who knows how to build and maintain a professional football team.

That won’t happen. It certainly should, if only the owner’s ego would allow it.

Uncategorized

Dak offers real apology

Dak Prescott came under intense fire for a comment he made after the Dallas Cowboys blundered their way into a first-round professional football playoff loss.

He seemed to endorse the notion that it was all right for unhappy fans at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, to throw debris at officials who, in their eyes, gave the game to the San Francisco 49ers.

Then came what I believe was a first-rate apology from the Cowboys’ quarterback. He said he is sorry for his remark. He didn’t offer one of those phony “if I offended anyone” non-apologies. Oh, no. Prescott stepped up and said he blew it.

He said this, via Twitter: “That was a mistake on my behalf, and I am sorry.”

I am willing, therefore, to offer a bit of grace to the young man.

I don’t really care about whether the Cowboys will ever win another Super Bowl. Sure, I live in the Metroplex and I am bombarded with Cowboys news all the time by local media. I get that.

However, I do care when young, highly paid professional athletes are able to act like grownups after they blurt out regrettable statements. Dak Prescott demonstrated to me that he is a grownup and I hope that this tempest blows over quickly.

I believe it will, largely because the man at the center of it offered a sincere apology.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Uncategorized

Fire the GM, Mr. GM

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!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Sports news

Hall of Fame awaits Coach Johnson … how about Ring of Honor?

I cannot believe I am going to write these next few sentences, but here goes.

Former Dallas Cowboys head football coach Jimmy Johnson should be inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor … now that he is heading for enshrinement into the Pro Football of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

Johnson’s stint as Cowboys’ coach was brief, but it was, um, highly productive. He coached the team to two Super Bowl victories in the 1990s. Then he mouthed off to his boss, owner/general manager Jerry Jones, who fired him.

The men once were friends, teammates at the University of Arkansas. Jones hired Johnson — a native of Port Arthur, Texas and a high school classmate of (get ready for this!) Janis Joplin — after purchasing the Cowboys and firing legendary coach Tom Landry. It was thought to be a marriage made in football heaven.

Hah! It didn’t last.

So now Johnson is going to be honored with a plaque and a statue, and he will get to wear a mustard-colored blazer at the televised induction ceremony in Canton.

He doesn’t yet have his name inscribed on the Ring of Honor at AT&T Stadium. He deserves the honor.

C’mon, Jerry Jones. Do the right thing, just as you did when you agreed to put Tom Landry’s name up there.

There. That wasn’t so painful after all, even for someone — such as me — who is no fan of the Cowboys or certainly of the team’s egomaniac owner.

Sports news

Cowboys find a winner to replace Garrett

First, I’ll declare this: I didn’t always hate the Dallas Cowboys.

Those of us of a certain age remember when the then-upstart Cowboys sought to knock off the Vince Lombardi-coached Green Bay Packers while fighting for the NFL championship. The Ice Bowl of 1967? I remember it well. My home boy Mel Renfro, the Hall of Fame Cowboys safety, suffered frostbite in that classic contest at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

So, then the Cowboys started to win and got too big for their britches.

But they had that history with the Packers … which brings me to my point. The Cowboys have hired a good guy to coach them in the wake of the demise of the Jason Garrett era. Mike McCarthy has won a Super Bowl — which coaching the Packers.

Do I want them to win it all? Am I now going to cheer myself hoarse rooting for the Cowboys? Hah! Not even!

I just want to declare that the Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones has made a good hire.

Now the owner ought to take the next step. He ought to just sit up there in the owner’s box during the games and not get involved in football matters. He should hire a real GM, someone with actual football knowledge and let the GM deal with the nuts and bolts of whether Coach McCarthy is doing a credible job calling plays.

The rest of the scenario isn’t likely to occur, given the owner’s monumental ego, but I believe he has made a good call in hiring Mike McCarthy.

local news, Sports news

Cowboys’ coach is out … finally!

(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

That went well, yes? Well, no. It didn’t.

Jason Garrett has been booted as the Dallas Cowboys head football coach. The Cowboys have told Garrett his contract won’t be renewed. He’s out of a job.

However, all of this is coming from media reports. The Cowboys’ ownership hasn’t made a formal announcement just yet.

Jumpin’ jiminy. The owner of the NFL franchise, Jerry Jones, has made a mess of it. No surprise there. The owner operates on a clumsiness quotient that has virtually no rival in the National Football League.

I won’t get into the Xs and Os of the job Garrett did. I don’t know enough about football to speak intelligently about it. He won more games than he lost. He just didn’t win any Super Bowl games during his time as coach. That’s the benchmark for success in Jerry Jones’ world. To be fair, Jones isn’t the only pro sports franchise owner who cherishes league championships.

However, I just hate that Garrett had to be called the Cowboys’ head coach while the owner/general manager was interviewing prospective successors. He didn’t deserve to be disrespected in that manner.

As for whoever dons the coach’s headset next year and beyond, I hope he’s ready to deal with an owner who thinks he enough about pro football to act as a general manager, which to my way of thinking requires a skill set a zillionaire businessman just doesn’t possess.

Sports news

Owner/GM needs to fire himself, but he won’t

The owner/general manager of the Dallas Cowboys football team is making a spectacle of himself — no surprise there! — as the media ponder his next coaching move.

Jerry Jones is the owner of the NFL team. He is likely to fire head coach Jason Garrett, whose contract expired when time ran out at the end of Sunday’s game against the Washington Redskins. The Cowboys won the game but aren’t going to the league playoffs.

Garrett is going to leave the team he has coached. Jones will find someone else.

But the owner/GM is going to make it all about him as he postures, preens and pontificates about how he intends to make the Cowboys great again. Does that sound like someone else in the news? Well, sure it does.

Jones is entitled to own the team. I don’t begrudge him that. I just wish he would be a more “conventional” pro sports team owner: sit in the shadows, pay the salaries of your executives, let a real general manager make football decisions such as hiring a coach.

The owner need not get mixed up in the middle of running a pro football team. It’s way more complicated than making all that money to buy the team in the first place.

Hmm. Does that also sound like anyone we know, too?

Sports news

Let the football gurus rebuild the team, Mr. Franchise Owner

I am going to delve into a subject about which I know nothing … which is no surprise, I guess, to critics of High Plains Blogger.

Still, here goes my foray into what I think is best for a pro football franchise that is the talk of the region where my wife and I now reside.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones needs to give up his stint as the team’s general manager. He should hire a competent, knowledgeable football guru to make drafting decisions, make coaching staff hiring choices, run the day to day operations of arguably the most valuable pro sports franchise on Earth.

I get that it’s his team. He spent zillions to buy the Cowboys back in 1989. He fired the team’s only coach, the legendary Tom Landry. He said something at the time about getting involved with every aspect of the team, including “washing jock straps,” or some such nonsense.

The owner anointed himself the team’s GM.

To be fair, the Cowboys have won three Super Bowls since Jones bought the team. However, they’ve gone 25 years since playing in the last one. The team is struggling again this season. The coach, Jason Garrett, is likely to hit the road once the final game ends this weekend.

I happen to agree with WFAA-TV sports commentator Dale Hansen, who said this morning that the owner’s meddling in matters about which he knows not a thing is what is fundamentally wrong with the Cowboys.

Hey, he’s entitled to be the owner. It’s his money. However, he is feeding a bloated ego by being in the news constantly.

I prefer sports owners to be silent. Let them pay the salaries. Let them run the board meetings. They can make command decisions, but then have their flacks make the announcements.

https://highplainsblogger.com/2013/12/would-the-cowboys-owner-fire-himself-please/

I’ve seen and heard enough from the Cowboys’ owner and the guessing games about what he intends to do to fix the team. Just walk away from the GM job, Mr. Owner, and hire someone who knows how to run a pro football team.

Sports news

Coaching path from college to pros is strewn with casualties

(Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

The fascination in this part of the world with Urban Meyer and the thought that he might become the next Dallas Cowboys head football coach intrigues me terribly.

And not for reasons you might expect.

Jason Garrett is likely coaching his final season for the Cowboys, who have underperformed to the disappointment of the team’s fans. Let me stipulate that I am not one of those fans.

So, what about Meyer? He retired as head coach at Ohio State. Prior to that he coached the University of Florida to greatness. Prior to that he led the University of Utah to the status of being a very good football team. He won three national collegiate championships.

Does that college success translate automatically to the professional ranks? Hmm. Let’s ponder that.

Chip Kelly coached the University of Oregon and for a brief spell led the team to elite status among college football programs. He left Oregon to become head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles; he got fired. Then he became head coach of the San Francisco 49ers; he got fired again. He’s now back as a college coach at UCLA.

Bud Wilkinson led the University of Oklahoma to 47 straight wins in the early 1950s. He coached the St. Louis Cardinals of the NFL, where his success was, shall we say, less than sterling.

Dennis Erickson had a stellar college coaching career. His pro coaching career was decidedly less than stellar.

Steve Spurrier, too, had great success as a college coach. Not so much in the pros.

Nick Saban? Same thing.

To be sure, there are reverse examples. The Cowboys hired two successful college coaches, Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer, who managed to win Super Bowls coaching the Cowboys. The owner, Jerry Jones, fired ’em both; Johnson mouthed off to the owner and I can’t remember what got Switzer into trouble.

I would encourage my friends who are Cowboys’ fanatics to take great care in wishing Urban Meyer can be talked into donning the headphones yet again, this time for the Dallas Cowboys.

It’s one thing to throw your weight around with student-athletes. It’s quite another matter when the players you are coaching are multimillionaires who make more money each year than the guy who’s telling ’em to run wind sprints.