By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL
jenfloyd@star-telegram.com

A nickname change apparently is needed.

See ya, Coach Cupcake.

Please say hello to Assistant Coach Cupcake.

Thursday’s news from Indianapolis that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones officially had gagged all of his coaches via memo took away any and all pretense about what Wade Phillips is or how he stayed employed after that debacle in Philly.

He is a powerless puppet, with a sock in his mouth.

“Can’t,” he said Thursday when asked to provide answers on football topics. “Against the rules.”

Self-gagged, or Jerry-gagged? Doesn’t matter.

The fact is the lone voice of the Cowboys is the owner, and it is unprecedented in any league to have your coach silent on his team. Can you imagine Bill Parcells or Jimmy Johnson…deferring to Jerry to speak on all things football?

Even Chan Gailey and Dave Campo were given a mike from time to time.

What we have in Wade is the only coach in the league where he is either not allowed or does not feel comfortable being the authority on his team. Already perceived as a “yes” man, willing to say and do whatever to keep his job, this latest self- or Jerry-imposed gag only further fuels the perception of Coach Cupcake as a punch line.

And I’m not talking media perception.

Who cares what we think?

I’m talking what his players — whom he has not addressed as a group since before Philly — think. About the only thing players have heard from Wade was his pledge to get “more whatever,” and that was second-hand. What they have heard is Jerry, talking about The Good Roy Williams’ needing to become a No. 1 and about how locker room chemistry is overrated and about T.O.’s chances of being a Cowboy next season.

Who do you think they think is in charge?

Does anybody believe players think Coach Cupcake with his no-more-Mr.-Nice-Guy attitude is the final authority on anything anyway?

He is not even the voice of the Cowboys, instead relegated to “just-shut-up status” along with John Garrett and Wade Wilson because apparently leaks to ESPN’s Ed Werder, not a feuding locker room, were why Dallas went 9-7 and imploded in Philly. And this idea of an assistant as “the source” is comical.

Not that Jerry’s gag order is necessarily all bad, just slightly hypocritical. What we have, after all, is a demand for discretion from an owner giving a training-camp roster spot to a winner of a reality show.

Hypocritical or not, this Cowboys team needs a healthy dose of shut up.

Gagging assistants is an easy fix and has become en vogue in NFL circles, although, it is technically sloppy seconds from the Big Bill handbook. And I thought any and all things Parcells had been deemed fail?

Jerry has added two pretty significant variations to this plan, namely he gagged them, not Wade. And he is the voice of the Cowboys, not Wade.

Under the Big Bill one-voice plan, he was the voice.

Go ahead, argue Patriots coach Bill Belichick does not talk to the media with any kind of regularity, which is true. What’s also true is Pats owner Robert Kraft is not opining weekly about locker room chemistry or injuries or how to best utilize Randy Moss.

Belichick is the voice. And if he is not talking, the organization is mostly silent. Unlike in Dallas where Jerry is the owner, general manager, stadium foreman, ticket salesman, PR director and now coach.

Real or imagined, Wade looks a highly compensated defensive coordinator with an interim “Cowboys Coach” label slapped on until a suitable replacement can be properly enticed to play very distant No. 2 to Jerry. And this brings us back to the Tony Romo perception argument.

He believed it didn’t matter. He is figuring out just how wrong he was.

The thing about perception is, if left unchallenged, it becomes reality. It might already be in the case of Wade. His silence in Indy has him looking as cupcake-y.

If Jerry’s plan was to prop up Wade, he has failed.

All he has really done is further embarrass his coach, and Wade does that quite well by himself with his bragging about bye-week wins and his infamous pledge to be “more whatever.” As well as his inability to win a playoff game.

Jerry is the one who willingly and eagerly signed on for another year of this when everybody was saying fire Wade. His buzz word was continuity.

So he brought Coach Cupcake back, and then basically exposed him as a puppet. By gagging him. By stripping him of any pretense of authority. By turning him into Assistant Coach Cupcake.

And if Jerry was willing to do this to Wade, he may as well have gone all the way and fired him.

Share on Facebook