With training camp in full swing, we’re all pretty stoked about getting football back in high gear for yet another year. Normally, at this time of the year, I am extremely stoked about getting to watch the Cowboys play on Sundays (and eventually Wednesdays is Goodell keeps it up). I’ve gone into almost every season I’ve been a fan with this anticipation. It’s like wiping the slate clean every year; putting the past behind you, and having hope yet again. It’s easy to forget the heartache of 44-6. It’s easy to forget the disappointment of 13 straight years without a playoff win. It’s easy to forget that nothing substantial has changed from the year before. Because, it’s football time yet again, and everyone starts at 0-0.

This year, I don’t have this anticipation. I forgot to erase my mental blackboard this time. I remember 44-6, and it still hurts. I remember the disappointment, and it still bites. I remember it has been 13 years without a playoff win, and that fact still sucks ass. Most of all, I remember the one thing that HAS to change for this team to ever have a decent shot at any long term winning didn’t change. It sucks for me. It would be so much easier to be able to get caught up in the hopes for a new year, new chance at winning once again. It feels like something is amiss. Something should be there, and it’s not.

 Jerry Jones has taken the hope for winning completely away from me. I just wish I could wipe the memory of disappointment and anger from my mind. But, I just can’t seem to shake it this year. I will sit in front of the TV and yell and scream for my ‘Boys every single game, just like I have every year. But, that deep down hope for success has dulled, and may never come back so long as our Front Office stays status quo.

My hope now is for change. It may be an unrealistic hope, but friends, it’s the only hope we have.

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I caught up with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in his private suite after the George Strait concert Saturday night. He was celebrating a wildly successful opening night for the new Cowboys Stadium. At least until I told him about the absence of straws. Fans paid $6 for sodas in souvenir cups with lids but didn’t get any straws because someone forgot to order them.

But before thatJones talked about the rave reviews he got about the stadium from guests in his suite Saturday night, including Troy Aikman, Jason Witten and former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson.

Jones was so happy that he volunteered a little Cowboys news regarding his continued interest in cornerback Adam Pacman Jones. The Cowboys owner said nothing is imminent or even in the works toward bringing Pacman back to the Cowboys.

But he acknowledged that it is something he is considering, which rates as big news considering Pacman was cut in January after a nondescript season on the field in 2008 and more controversy off of it in the form of a six-game suspension for fighting his body guard at a Dallas Hotel.

Jones said that Pacman Jones graded out as the team’s best cornerback last season. But he says he likes second year cornerbacks Mike Jenkins and Orlando Scandrick and is worried about stopping their progress.

Regarding another NFL player with the last name Jones and off the field issues, Jerry Jones said the Cowboys have no interest in former Arkansas receiver Matt Jones. Matt Jones was released by the Jacksonville Jaguars after failing a drug test and violating the terms of his probation from a previous arrest for felony possession of a control substance.

Clarence E. Hill Jr.

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Let’s take a look back.   Let’s see what this team has done this decade.  Let’s take a peek at how bad this team has been.  It is staggering.

Regular season: 71-73, .493

Playoff wins/record: 0-3  Super Bowls won/appeared: 0  Playoff seasons: 3

Winning seasons: 5   Losing seasons: 4

Pretty stinking low ranking for America’s Team, huh? The team of the 1990s slips all the way to 20th this time around? Well, yeah, that can happen to the best of ‘em when you go 12 years between playoff wins. About the best thing you can say for Jerry’s team is that those 5-11 years in the Dave Campo era seem like a long time ago. But Dallas remains synonymous with underachievement for the time being.

- Tim MacMahon

You can read it here.

It’s a sad state we endure.

How much longer do we have to?

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Here’s a sobering thought:

Since the Jimmy Johnson – Jerry Jones split occured, now beginning to approach two decades ago, a Jones-led Cowboys team has managed to improve its record from the previous season just FOUR times.

Two of those occurences came with Jerry in a limited capacity when Bill Parcells was head coach. Another came with Bill Parcells’ roster and assembled talent and was mainly the result of a full year with Tony Romo as the starting QB.

The only other time? 1998, with Chan Gailey as a first year head coach, rebounding from the disastrous Switzer regime.

Every single other year (that’s 11 seasons, for those of you at home slightly intimidated by basic math), the Jerry Jones Dallas Cowboys have either gotten worse or failed to get better from their previous campaign. Here’s the full list:

1994 12-4
1995 12-4
1996 10-6
1997 6-10
1998 10-6 IMPROVED
1999 8-8
2000 5-11
2001 5-11
2002 5-11
2003 10-6 IMPROVED
2004 6-10
2005 9-7 IMPROVED
2006 9-7
2007 13-3 IMPROVED
2008 9-7

What does this data indicate, trend-wise?

Consistent backsliding at a fairly alarming pace, interrupted by brief periods of managerial competence that has a short term boosting effect, but in the long term is diluted and eventually the positive aspects of the new administration are eroded.

There’s only one constant through all this.

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Jimmy and his guys made the draft look easy. Jerry thought ‘Well, that’s not hard’. What he failed to understand was the importance of what happened in the 364 days and nights before the draft.

-Former scouting director Dick Mansperger

The Cowboys are Jerry’s team and he can do what he wants. But if you want to chart where things began to go wrong, look at the point when he started making the moves.

-Larry Brown

Man, the drafts under Jerry were terrible, just terrible. Jerry would draft a guy and he would come out to minicamp and I just couldn’t believe it. I’d say “This is our first round pick?’

-Darren Woodson

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Why are we calling for GM Jerry’s head?

In 1996, the FBI arrested the Unabomber.
In 1996, scientists introduce Dolly, the world’s first cloned sheep.
In 1996, Tupac Shakur was killed.
In 1996, Braveheart won Best Picture.
In 1996, “Macarena” was Billboard #1.
In 1996, Y2K was still a concern.

Do these events seem like ancient history? Well, in 1996, your Dallas Cowboys won its last playoff game.

Ask yourself this…do you have accomplishments from 12 years ago that allow others to forgive your pisspoor performance since?

So let’s break the perception. Jerry Jones is still basking in the glory of the early 90s. Question his ability and the early 90s are thrown in your face.

It doesn’t work for M.C. Hammer, why does it work for Jerry Jones?

History is history and, unless he’s sporting Zubaz pants, Jerry Jones can’t continue to ride off of the early 90’s.

Fact of the matter is that, since 1996, the Dallas Cowboys have:
- Suffered 5 losing seasons
- Gone 0-6 in the playoffs
- Only two division titles
- With the Top Pick, drafted Quincy Carter, Dwayne Goodrich, Ebenezer Ekuban, David LaFleur, Kavika Pittman.

Again, why are we calling for GM Jerry’s head? It’s because history is long gone and we need the present. Unfortunately, history is all Jerry Jones can claim.

-phildominator

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Life-long Dallas Cowboys fan here. I have never known anything else. My father left the U.S. Navy when I was two years old and we moved back to East Texas with my grandparents. Grandpa was an avid Cowboys fan and never missed a game. He would sit me on his lap and we would watch the games together. I was hooked.

I have missed one televised game, the day of my grandmother’s funeral — Dallas vs St. Louis, October 19th, 2008. The Cowboys lost that day, pathetically. They gave up thirty four points to one of the NFL’s worst teams. Inexcusable, even without Tony Romo. It’s the Dallas Cowboys, the worlds most famous sports team, and they laid down. I didn’t see it, but I listened to the radio the entire trip home and could visualize the beating we were taking and it cut deep. I was embarrassed, ashamed and let down. It got worse.

The Cowboys fell for the second time in three weeks as the New York Giants thumped us. A bit expected, though, as the Giants were a good team and we weren’t full strength.

Romo’s return seemed as if life eternal sprung into the hearts of fans and his teammates. Dallas would go on to win out in November, beating Washington, San Francisco, and Seattle… (more…)

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Phillips doesn’t look like he’ll survive in Big D

By Albert Breer
updated 1:56 p.m. CT, Thurs., March. 26, 2009

DANA POINT, Calif. – At one point during Wednesday’s NFC coaches breakfast, a Buffalo writer asked Wade Phillips if Terrell Owens is sometimes judged unfairly because of his reputation.

“Yup,” Phillips sniffed. “Kind of like being the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.”

Two years into the job, it’s hard to say Phillips has embraced all that his role entails.

Yes, Phillips is a native Texan who, like his father Bum, is getting a chance to coach an NFL team in his home state. Yes, he’s a defensive mastermind who couldn’t be more perfect a tactician for the Cowboys’ best player, DeMarcus Ware. And yes, he’s got every resource imaginable at his disposal.

But if you believe he really wants to swallow all his job takes, you’re probably swallowing something else that’s causing you to see things that way.

The Cowboys’ job isn’t like the coaching position he held in Denver, nor is it similar to the one he had in Buffalo.

You want a 22-10 record with an 0-1 playoff mark to be acceptable? Looking for breathing room in your press conferences or a media corps without a thirst for blood? (more…)

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Well, I may have jumped the gun a bit with that last post.   Apparently, Jerry isn’t the one that decided to let Wade talk.  It seems it’s a league rule that all NFC head coaches that attend the owners’ meeting speak to the media on Wednesday.  It’s really hard to fathom what goes through Jerry’s mind.  He is, as has been posted here before, essentially the head coach of this team, and Wade is nothing but a defensive coordinating lackey.   Below is a blog post from Todd Archer.  I have highlighted what I am referring to.

Checking in from NFL Owners’ Meetings
10:43 AM Mon, Mar 23, 2009
Todd Archer

And, yes, Wade Phillips will speak but it has nothing to do with Jerry Jones lifting the gag order. It is a league rule that coaches attending the meetings talk with the media. Phillips – and the rest of the NFC coaches – will speak Wednesday morning. AFC coaches talk Tuesday.

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Well, it seems head coach Jerry is allowing his assistants to speak.  For a day, at least, and then the muzzle will be re-applied to the assistants since only head coach Jones has the whole picture.   It’s sad that your actual head coach gets neutered like this, but it’s right on par with how Jerry operates “his” team.  Below is a report by Mike Florio.

WADE GETS TO TALK
Posted by Mike Florio on March 23, 2009, 12:00 a.m. EDT
The muzzle has been removed from Cowboys coach Wade Phillips.

Our guess is that the gag order was imposed for one reason only — to ensure that there would be no disclosure of the internal deliberations that culminated in Terrell Owens’ release on March 4.

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