A Letter to Jerry Jones

Dear GM Jerry:

First of all yes, I did enjoy those three Super Bowls.  I enjoyed them very much.  Thank you.  But it’s been a VERY long time since that last Super Bowl and I think it’s about time for some long overdue changes.  The last really good move you made as owner/GM/head cook/dish washer of the Dallas Cowboys was to hire Jimmy Johnson.  Then, because poor little you felt you weren’t getting enough credit fired the coach that had just won back-to-back titles (BTW-Title three was Jimmy’s too and you know it). 

It’s been seventeen years of absolute garbage coming out of Valley Ranch.  The fans of this team (of which I am one) expect better.  Many of us were fans long before you bought this team.  And a large portion of us will still be here long after you’re gone.  Is this really what you want you legacy to be?  You’ve been a great owner.  But let’s face facts.  As a GM you stink! 

You’ve spent the last seventeen seasons plus one draft trying to prove to the world what a genius you are by making idiotic draft trades and signing washed up free agents to ridiculous contracts.  You’ve hired one puppet coach after another with one exception and you only hired him to get a new stadium built. 

You, Jerry Jones, are a narcissist that’s surrounded himself with sycophants and I despise you because of what you’ve done and continue to do to the football team I’ve loved since long before you signed a check.  I, along with most of my friends, were rabid Cowboys fans but over the last seventeen years you’ve slowly drained that passion from us and replaced it with apathy.  There was a time when I wouldn’t miss a Cowboys game come hell or high water.  Now if that collection of ill-fitting parts is playing I might watch if I have nothing better to do.  And I can’t begin to tell you how angry that makes me. 

Isn’t it time you stop tarnishing the star you’re so proud to own?  Stop ruining Sunday afternoons and nights and Monday nights and Thanksgivings for the millions of people who consider themselves Cowboys fans.  You’re travelling down the same path that Al Davis took the Raiders down.  Is that what you want for this team?  Do you want it to get to the point where that monument you built to your ego is barely half full for games?

Resign as GM and do what you do best: Market and promote the Cowboys and your stadium.  Make all the stupid rapping pizza commercials you want and let someone who knows what the hell they’re doing run the football team.

Sincerely,

A Very Disgruntled Fan                  

Dallas Cowboys: Inside the Mediocrity

Me-di-o-cre: 

Adjective: Of only moderate quality; not very good: “A mediocre manager”.

           Synonyms: middling-moderate-indifferent-ordinary
 
The last time my beloved Dallas Cowboys won the Super Bowl was January 28, 1996 when they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XXX 27-17.  Since then under the “leadership” of owner, president, and general manager Jerry Jones they have wallowed in their own mediocrity.  Let’s take an in depth look at the kind of success GM Jerry has led this team and its fans to.
 
There have been 17 NFL season since that Super Bowl XXX victory.  That’s a total of 272 regular season games.  In that period the Cowboys have a win/loss record of 138-134.  That’s a percentage of .507, only seven thousandths of a percentage point above dead even. 
 
They have advanced to the playoffs only seven times in the last seventeen seasons.  In those seven appearances they have a record of 2-7 (.222).  Their only playoff wins coming in the 1996 Wild Card round against Minnesota and the 2009 Wild Card round against Philadelphia. 
 
In those 17 seasons they have only eight winning seasons with winning totals of 9 wins 3 times, 10 wins 3 times, 11 wins once, and 13 wins once.  They have six losing seasons with losing totals of 10 losses 3 times and 11 losses 3 times.  And they have three seasons where they have finished with records of 8-8.  Two of those being the last two seasons (2011 and 2012) missing the playoffs completely for the last three seasons.  Even during the recent “glory” days under Head Coach Bill Parcells (2003-2006) the Cowboys record was only 34-30 (.531) with two playoff appearances and zero playoff wins.
 
In the last 17 seasons the Cowboys have ushered in six head coaches.  All of which, according to Jerry, were to lead the Cowboys back to the Super Bowl.  Six men in 17 seasons mean that each of these savior coaches had an average tenure of 2.8 seasons.  During the same time frame they have rummaged through seven starting QB’s leaving an average QB tenure of 2.4 seasons.  These prime athletic specimens include NFL legends Quincy Carter, Chad Hutchinson, and Vinny Testaverde.
 
During the last 17 seasons of luke-warm crap the Cowboys have trotted out onto the field on game days the only number that makes any difference is the number “1”.  They have had one owner, one president, and one general manager.  And all of them are, unfortunately, the same person, Jerry Jones.
 
Jerry has claimed publically on countless occasions that nothing is more important to him than winning.  This is only partially true.  To Jerry nothing is more important than winning…as long as he gets the credit for it.  Jerry knows everyone gives the vast majority of the credit for past Super Bowl success to Jimmy Johnson.  Therefore Jerry’s inflated ego insists that he has to prove to everyone he is a football genius and can do it all by himself. 
 
This is why I have come to despise Jerry Jones.  He has taken a storied NFL franchise, the franchise I have lived and died with, and turned them into the very definition of mediocrity all because he must satisfy his ego with no regard to the fans that loved and supported this team long before he signed the check purchasing them.
 
The Cowboys most recent 8-8 debacle prompted Jerry to state at a press conference that there was going to be “meaningful and substantial” change at Valley Ranch.  This is a BOLD FACED LIE!  The only meaningful and substantial change can come at the position of general manager.  And the entire world knows Jerry will never replace himself as GM.  Jerry’s over-inflated ego will never let him admit it but he is completely willing to continue to run the Cowboys franchise into the mud on the off chance that he will catch lightning in a bottle and win another Super Bowl. 
 
And it’s this willingness on his part to accept middling, moderate, and ordinary results from his team that is turning a once passionate fan base totally indifferent.