On Thursday night reports broke that Jerry Jones and the Cowboys may be moving on from head coach Jason Garrett after nine years.
For a team stuck in the mire of NFL mediocrity, it seems like a no-brainer decision. The Cowboys have under-performed under Garrett. It’s time for the team to move on.
What will be more interesting to me is what happens next. Will Jerry Jones bring in an exciting coach who can change the organization? Will Jones finally cede some control, and allow a strong voice to come in and build the team and culture?
For most owners, they want to bring in smart people who can run a great NFL franchise. For Jones, who also acts as the Cowboys’ general manager, I’m not sure that’s the most important thing. Maybe he’d rather the team be a middling NFL franchise, one who can make the playoffs every few years and compete in a meh decision, as long as he gets to call all the shots. That honestly might be what matters most to him.
I’m not judging him for it. In his head, I’m sure he believes that he’s the person who can give the team the best chance to succeed. But as his ridiculous “negotiations” with Ezekiel Elliott showed — in which he publicly bashed Elliott then gave him the contract he wanted anyway — Jones might not be as good at all this as he thinks he is.
That’s not to say he’s totally inept. As in-over-his-head as he may appear to be at times, he’s built some talented rosters over the years.
And, more importantly, this is what he loves doing. Other owners sign checks — Jerry runs things. He adores building the team, scouting the players, negotiating. This is what brings him joy.
Call it ego, call it following his passion. Call it it’s his money and he can damn well do what he pleases with it. Whatever it is, this is what he wants to do.
The only problem with Jones’ approach is it leaves him vulnerable to hiring Yes Men who won’t interfere with his decision making.
It’s an open secret in Dallas, one that even Troy Aikman is talking about now, that Jones refuses to cede total control of the team to the head coach. This all apparently stems back to how the Cowboys operated under Jimmy Johnson, where Johnson insisted on being the lone voice in the locker room and maintaining a higher level of control of the team.
The Cowboys won that way. They won a ton that way. But Johnson became a legend in his own right. And Jones had to cede a bit of control, and a bit of the limelight, in the process.
For Jones, maybe having that control and that limelight is more important than winning. It’s his money, it’s his organization, it’s his stadium. Sure, he could hire an exciting young coach and forward-thinking GM and turn the team over to them. Maybe it would work, and they’d win a Super Bowl.
But it wouldn’t be Jerry’s team anymore. Not really. And maybe, to him, that’s really the only thing that matters.
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