You can't believe what 'Blabs' says

         "I look to the future with Jason [Garrett], not just through his contract that we're sitting here with right now. I think he has a couple of years left on his contract, but that's not a thought. It is not what is implied when you say, 'This is an Armageddon year for him.' It's not that with me."  -- Jerry Jones, on Saturday talking about his latest Dallas Cowboys head coach
     
          Oh, sure, Jerry, we believe you.
          No, we don't. We think you're full of it. Well, actually, we think you're full of yourself, too.
          OK, I vowed not to do a blog piece on this, but Mr. Jones leaves me no choice. I'm going back on my word because I know my subject matter does the same.
          So I'm going to criticize him (as if it matters). Gosh, how unusual.
          It's an easy blog because he's an easy target. In short, his football "smarts" are a joke and the team he owns and (unfortunately) runs as general manager -- I'm sad to say -- is a joke, and has been for several years now.
          The Dallas Cowboys, and I never thought it would come to this, are what the New Orleans Saints were for so long -- one of the NFL's laughingstock teams.

This sour expression, after last season's final loss to the
Washington Redskins, is how we feel about Jerry Jones'
general manager's role with the Cowboys (Getty Images)

             Hey, no one -- I promise you -- wants to see the Cowboys win another Super Bowl, or ten, more than I do. But I cannot watch this team, and I cannot read the daily newspapers or watch the local TV stations or, for damn sure, listen to the radio talk shows. Because invariably the subject is Jerry Jones.
              And I wish, for gosh's sakes, that he would just shut up.
              He reminds me of all those glory years when George M. Steinbrenner III owned the New York Yankees, and dominated the news. How many times over those years did I write in a newspaper column or say in public that Mr. Bluster should just get the hell out of the way.
               How many times have I said that about Jerry Jones? Me, and thousands of Cowboys' fans, and the media.
               Because Jerry reminds me so much of George. George was Mr. Bluster; Jerry is Blabs.
               He blabs and blabs and blabs, and really, you can't believe so much of what he says. At least he's no longer predicting the Cowboys will make it to the Super Bowl, or have a great chance to win it. I mean, you can only look stupid for how many years?
                When he says, as he has in the past, that the Cowboys have "Super Bowl talent," it's laughable. What that means is, hey, I've done my job; if we don't win, it's not my fault.
               And if you hear that crap about how his Cowboys won those three Super Bowls back in the early 1990s, just two words for him: Jimmy Johnson.
               Give Jerry credit for making millions, in oil and gas and in football. Give him credit for willingness to spend millions on this football team, and for helping change the way business is done in the NFL. He's a marketing whiz, a wheeler-dealer in business. I've read often that he is great company, a generous man.
                Give him credit for giving the media, and fans, so much material to rip him.
               Also give him credit for one playoff victory in 16 years (and a 34-3 loss the next week). Give him credit for poor personnel decisions, year after year after year after year. Doesn't know what he's doing, nor apparently do the people (coaches) around him -- except maybe Bill Parcells almost a decade ago. Doesn't want to get out of the way because, as has been pointed out often, he's a football genius.
               (Now Jimmy Johnson knew how to pick a staff, and more importantly, players, how to motivate them and how to coach them. So did Parcells, but only to an extent, as long as Jerry didn't interfere. Hello, Terrell Owens.)          
               Sure, the Cowboys have had some outstanding players; they have some now. They have a quarterback who Mr. Jones insists is one of the NFL's "elite" QBs, and some days Tony Romo is. But at least three-four games a year, he's a so-so QB, or even a poor QB. He's mistake-prone; he always has been; and he saves that for some of the biggest games each season. Plus, he's been injury-prone.
                 But what the Cowboys also have, every year, is problem areas -- safety, defensive line, offensive line, etc. What they've become, and I have said and written this repeatedly, is Murphy's Law's team. Whatever can go wrong -- injuries (especially to some of those star players), bad breaks, bad bounces, strange calls, players driving drunk and killing people -- does.
                  Just read that, after one day of training-camp conditioning drills, at least 10 Cowboys are hurt and can't practice. One is out for the season already.
                   Jason Garrett hasn't helped. Sure, he's bright and dedicated and thinks he knows how to win. He's also boring; he talks in cliches and says exactly what you'd expect, reveals little, and he has made some well-chronicled strategy mistakes during games. He's proven to be an 8-8 coach.
                   We're rooting for him. But, frankly, he was also -- surprisingly -- a boring play-caller. Maybe that's why Jerry insisted that someone else (offensive line coach Bill Callahan) call plays this season.
                    But it really doesn't matter who coaches the Cowboys, who the coordinators are, who calls plays. Because as long as Jerry is around, and wants to know exactly who's doing what and has a say-so in that, the results will be the same. We have lots of years of proof now.
                    What he needs to do is not only shut up, but get totally out of the way (and his sons, too), let his coaches coach and, more importantly, let other people scout and pick his football players. And still contribute as much Jones family money as he wants.
                    I am sick of seeing Jerry in front of the cameras and mikes. But he can't help himself. He loves the attention; he craves it.
                    It is a given that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Cowboys' beat writer will have a Jerry Jones quote in every game story; he feels compelled to do that ... as if it matters. I know this for a fact; I edited enough of those stories. But all the media treats Jerry that way; as if his words should be printed in Cowboys' blue ink.
                   The only time Jerry doesn't show up is after a particularly embarrassing loss (and there have been too many), just like his team didn't show up. My observation: Win or lose, I don't care what he says. it makes no difference. He still sounds like a country hick, and you can't believe him anyway.
                     Because when he insists that Jason Garrett's job is safe this season, remember Wade Phillips. Week after week in the first half of the 2010 season, Jerry insisted he would not fire Wade during the season. Even on the Friday before the Cowboys fell to 1-7, Jerry said that. Three days later, he fired Wade.
                     So if the Cowboys start 2-4 or 2-5 or 2-6, or worse -- and those are possibilities -- and if Romo is injured and out for the season, as in 2010, what then?
                   Blabs is just blabbing. That, not running a winning football team, is what he does best.
                   I wish it weren't so.