Is it really all about Romo?

It is the start of football season and of course, the Cowboys are all the buzz, why, well who knows. Yet Jones, Romo etc have been in the news and the title of this blog was inspired by an article about Romo that was well written that I found in Yahoo sports and there apparently is a video story about Mr. Jones, but for today….

And so is it really all about Romo? Does the success of this year fall on his shoulders? I think not. There is so much more at play than what Romo can do. Is it all about Garrett? Nope, do both of them have any responsibility in what happens? Well yes, but what hopes does a Cowboy fan have?

Well if you are still one of the two or three people left on this planet that thinks Jerry Jones can make a positive impact on the Cowboy football world then this blog post might be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back of your optimism or belief.

Let’s go back a few years to see why yours truly doesn’t hold out much hope.

At one point Mr. Jones hired one Jimmy Johnson and Mr. Johnson spent about three years putting the foundation together for a great football team. It didn’t happen right away, but lo and behold the Cowboys won and won again. The team he put together was so good that even after he left it still managed to win and compete well for another five years. Remember Jerry Jones said that any one of five hundred people could coach the Cowboys to a championship once he let Mr. Johnson go. Yep well for two years one Coach Switzer kept our little dreams alive. I have nothing against Barry, but Jerry was right and anybody could coach that much talent to victory.

Time took its toll. Whenever something is not maintained well sooner or later things fall apart. And guess who was in charge those wonderful post Johnson years, yep one Jerry Jones.

The decline happened gradually, but by the early 2000’s and a few coaching changes later (so don’t blame the coaches) the team racked up three 5-11 seasons in a row. The one constant from the end of the Johnson era to then was Jerry Jones. He wanted to run the show and he certainly ran it into the ground.

Then Cowboy fans got a visit from the tooth fairy and Mr. Jones had a lucid moment and hired Bill Parcells. It took about three years and lo and behold the Cowboys were winning football games again. Then the tooth fairy disappeared Mr. Jones forced Terrell Owens on Mr. Parcells. Mr. Parcells saw the writing on the wall that Mr. Jones would never give up the ghost of his ego and decided to move on. Mr. Parcells was in the process of getting the Cowboys back on track and even for a few years after he left the remnants of what he started ended up winning the only playoff game the Cowboys had won in a decade. Yet he left and the decline began again.

Now we have watched three 8-8 seasons in a row, and couldn’t win the proud East in its most mediocre years since the 1960’s. Could Romo have won us the East at this point? Yes quite possibly, he did make some bonehead plays a couple of times, but overall the team was not up to the overall task. This is not just because of the quality of players or coaches. No this goes back to the attitude of the owner. The whole party is nothing but a party, no real discipline, no accountability, especially on the owner by the owner.

And what next? Unfortunately myself and some national sports writers see another 5-11 season on the horizon. Why, well Mr. Jones has been left in charge again for years and the demise has just kept building. Could the Cowboys do better this year? Maybe, the one lucid moment Mr. Jones had since Bill Parcells was drafting offensive line instead of Johnny Football this year. From stories told though it sounds like there may have been other hands involved. And this offensive line the Cowboys have somehow managed to obtain is there best foot going forward. The potential is there, hopefully they can keep them together and develop them, but almost sounds like too much to ask from a man who prefers image over substance. Maybe just maybe though this line can keep the offensive on the field for forty minutes a game, the defense makes the other team punt once in the game and the Cowboys win some games by one score. We can dream.

And speaking of image over substance, the whole Jerry Jones/Cowboys thing in some ways show why we have so many problems in our country. How can a man who is basically responsible for the decline in value and quality of a product that was once highly touted be rewarded with increased value in his company? How is it the Cowboys keep growing in value making Mr. Jones richer every passing year, yet he is responsible for the product that is diminishing in quality as he grows richer. It is all marketing and hype. I would say no substance, but that would be grossly unfair to the many players such as Witten, Ware, even Romo and more who do go out day in and day to win football games, but aren’t given the tools to be successful such as an owner that holds himself accountable to the product he puts on the field.

There is no accountability, no discipline, no drive, or the Cowboys should have won the East the last few years even with Romo making a mistake every now and then. It is not just him, but a team not having win at all cost driven into their heads day in and day out; A GM that knows football and how to find the right players; a head coach that can be a head coach, makes decisions and lives and dies by them; and an owner that knows nothing about football except how to spell it staying out of the way. Yep that would be great, but instead Mr. Jones is rewarded year in and year out with increased value making him think he does actually know something and we, the fans, are left holding onto dying dreams.

Go Cowboys, I will say it now because it looks like it is going to be a long year.


And that image/substance thing, well the problems for our country are found right up the street from DC’s football team where Congress is more concerned with its image (especially at the individual level) than doing anything of substance.

And next up on the hit parade of blogs, a little bit about our man of action one Mr. Rick Perry. Image/substance?? Well maybe, maybe something more