Tom Landry, Don Meredith, and Tex Schramm are all spinning in their graves. (Roger Staubach is still alive, but if he was dead, he’d be spinning like a dreidel, too.) America’s Team has hit rock bottom.
Jerry Jones purchased the Dallas Cowboys in 1989 and assumed the title of general manager. (Nobody realized it at the time, but apparently, it was a lifelong title.) The first head coach he hired — Jimmy Johnson — worked out extremely well. The early-to-mid-'90s Cowboys were disciplined, talented, and very successful. But Johnson only lasted five seasons. (He was fired after not drinking shots of liquor when Jones offered a toast to the Cowboys’ success. Seriously.)
Then there was head coach Barry Switzer (bad!) in 1994. And Chan Gailey (bad!) in 1998. And Dave Campo (bad!) in 2000.
Dave Campo only won 15 games in his three(!) years as head coach and was replaced by Bill Parcells (good!) in 2003. This was probably the high point of the Dallas Cowboys after all the superstars Jimmy Johnson developed had finally aged out. Optimism was everywhere. With Parcells’ success, the Cowboys fans rewarded Jones with a shiny new stadium.
The lure of a new stadium was why Jones hired Parcells in the first place. There’s video of a (likely inebriated) Jones saying, “That’s the only reason I brought in Bill Parcells… Not worth a s**t, but I wanted — they were on my a** so bad. J’s gotta have a yes man. So to get this f**kin’ stadium, I need to bring his ass in.”
Bill Parcells was a miracle worker and took a 5-11 team to the playoffs in year one — with the abysmal Quincy Carter as quarterback! He also rebuilt the defense, groomed Tony Romo, and left the team with a loaded roster. They were as talented as anyone in the league.
So what did Jones do?
First, he alienated Parcells by forcing Terrell Owens on his hands. Then he replaced Parcells with another head coach, Wade Phillips (bad!) in 2007, followed by Jason Garrett (bad!) in 2010, and now Mike McCarthy (ugh!) in 2020.
This brings us to 2024, where the Detroit Lions just obliterated the Dallas Cowboys 47-9 on Sunday. It was the worst home loss in the history of their current stadium.
So naturally, the local Dallas media asked Jones about it on 105.3 The Fan. They had to; it would’ve been journalistic malpractice to ignore it.
Jerry Jones responded by threatening to fire all of ‘em!
“Your job isn’t to let me to [sic] go over all the reasons that I did something,” Jones seethed. “That’s not your job. I’ll get somebody else to ask these questions. I’m not kidding.”
And he’s not kidding: This is how Jerry Jones looks at the world. It’s HIS team. He owns it — as he liked to remind us over and over (and over) again.
But if it’s his team, then it’s no longer America’s Team.
Do you want stone-cold proof that Jerry Jones cares more about ego than winning? I’ll give it to you: The NFL is actively promoting minority advancement in the head coaching and general manager ranks. It’s known as the Rooney Rule. Teams that hire a minority head coach and/or general manager are rewarded with extra draft picks — as high as a third-rounder.
The Cowboys really could’ve used an extra draft pick this year, because Jerry Jones (stupidly) traded a fourth-rounder for a 49ers reject named Trey Lance… who’s now inactive on gamedays because he’s not good enough to be Dak Prescott’s backup. If the Cowboys still had that draft pick, they could’ve addressed their gaping hole at running back.
Out of the 32 teams in the NFL, the Cowboys currently rank 31st in rushing.
(It was widely speculated that Jones traded for Lance because Dak Prescott was in the last year of his contract. But if Jones hoped Lance would put pressure on Prescott to sign a team-friendly contract, it backfired spectacularly: Jones ultimately gave Prescott a $240 million contract — the richest contract in the history of professional football.)
The NFL isn’t very specific on how it defines a general manager's role. Usually, the general manager oversees player acquisition and helps manage the roster, but it’s not at all uncommon for a head coach, a team owner, or someone else in the organization to also green-light personnel decisions. On many NFL teams, the G.M. wouldn’t even think of making a bold move without running it by the owner and/or head coach. (And sometimes, the owner vetoes personnel decisions. It happens a lot.)
On the Dallas Cowboys staff right now is Will McClay. He’s been with the Cowboys Personnel Department for 21 years. McClay was promoted to VP of Player Personnel in 2017 and (according to the Cowboys’ website) he “continue(s) to oversee the club’s NFL draft process and play a key role in free agent and trade acquisitions.” He’s vastly respected across the league.
In other words, McClay already does the job of a general manager. All he lacks is the title.
McClay is also black.
Under the Rooney Rule, all Jones must do is name McClay as G.M. and the Dallas Cowboys would be rewarded with an early draft pick. Absolutely nothing else in the Cowboys organization would change. It would simply be a title. Nothing more than a cosmetic change.
Besides, Jerry Jones is 82 years old. The idea that a guy who’s even older than Joe Biden(!) is single-handedly making personnel decisions, scouting college players, watching game tape, tracking roster moves, and monitoring active talent is absurd. With or without the title, McClay is already the G.M.
But Jerry Jones has an ego. A Texas-sized ego. He — and he alone — must have the title of G.M.
Even if it’s hurting the team.
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