Gag order just latest misstep from Cowboys
by Alex Marvez

The gag order imposed on the Dallas coaching staff is like Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ other recent decisions.

A sound idea in theory gone horribly awry when actually executed.

Surrounding cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones with bodyguards to keep him on the straight and narrow was embarrassingly ineffective. Showing a long-term commitment to Terrell Owens with a contract extension last offseason emboldened the wide receiver to re-embrace his selfish ways rather than become a team player. Making a midseason mega-trade for wide receiver Roy Williams disrupted the offensive chemistry in 2008 far more than it helped.

And now this latest example: Nobody but Jones himself is to speak with the media.

Jones told Cowboys beat writers this was being done to thwart the kind of “misinformation” he claims was reported about the team earlier this offseason. While those stories quoted anonymous sources rather than coaches who might not even be involved, what Jones is doing makes sense on other levels.

Jones should be trying to plug the Titanic number of media leaks that have revealed the team’s inner workings. He also should be irked that offensive coordinator Jason Garrett took a veiled poke at Owens last month. That added fuel to a fire the Cowboys are desperately trying to keep contained.

For the NFL’s most high-profile team, becoming more low-key while sorting through offseason issues is wise.

Yet any good this new policy will produce has already been overshadowed by the damage it has caused: The further emasculation of Wade Phillips.

To say Phillips has an image problem is stating the obvious, like saying Dallas was the league’s biggest underachiever in 2008. He comes across publicly as soft and overmatched as a head coach — especially compared to predecessor Bill Parcells. That perception trickles down to his roster.

From what I understand, Phillips is willing to speak with the media but won’t do so without Jones’ permission.

Silly me. I always thought Bum Phillips was Wade’s daddy.

By muzzling his entire coaching staff, Jones has undermined what should be the highest position of authority on any football team. Phillips already had the unenviable task of trying to keep a locker room filled with Texas-sized egos in check. That chore has now become even tougher. Why should players respect Phillips when there’s the ongoing belief — whether true or not — Jones himself is the one calling the shots on almost every level besides Xs and Os?

At the rate we’re going, play-calling will be next as Jones keeps morphing into a younger version of Al Davis.

Jones already did Phillips no favors with some of his previous choices. After the disappointing end to the 2007 season, Jones made Phillips look like a short-timer by retaining Garrett with the biggest contract ($3 million a season) ever given an assistant coach. Phillips had recently pushed for the addition of Dan Reeves as a consultant — a move that would have given him more front-office juice — but a contract disagreement with Jones scuttled the hiring.

Jones personally is the root of other trouble, especially on game day. Whenever he heads to the sideline and exhorts Cowboys players, Jones makes Phillips seem like an inferior motivator. By holding court in the locker room, most media members skip Phillips’ Pollyanna postgame news conferences because what Jones has to say is always more interesting.

Jerry Jones also gave Phillips another headache by stubbornly keeping Adam Jones throughout the 2008 campaign rather than cutting him at the first sniff of off-field trouble.

If coaching alone under these circumstances wasn’t difficult enough, Jones has made it even more challenging by turning the Cowboys into a reality show — literally. Undeterred by the commotion caused by last summer’s filming of Hard Knocks, Jones has committed to awarding a training-camp roster spot to the winner of a made-for-television tryout competition hosted by former Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin.

Coming next on FOX: So You Think You Can Sing with Jessica and Tony.

I’m not going to tell you that Phillips is the second coming of Tom Landry. But he is a defensive wizard who has experienced modest success during three full-time head coaching stints.

His biggest weakness is what should endear Phillips to his players. Phillips depends upon strong leadership to emanate from veterans who want to take ownership of their team a la Ray Lewis in Baltimore (which may be one reason he is reportedly on Dallas’ free-agent radar). This hasn’t happened in Dallas the past two seasons, with the lack of fire from quarterback Tony Romo particularly disappointing. The silence was deafening last year when the Cowboys were crumbling amidst Owens’ me-first tirades.

If this team is ever going to fulfill its potential under Phillips, voices must emerge from within. That’s something Jones can’t decree to make happen.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/9…p-from-Cowboys

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