Reading Jeff Pearlman’s book “Boys Will Be Boys” is a depressing reminder of just how great the Dallas Cowboys of the 1990s were. Sure, some players had their problems–drugs, women, abuse, strip clubs, drinking, cockiness–but when it was Sunday each one of those guys had a mission that they accomplished three times in a decade. It was the greatest time ever to be a Cowboys fan. Most of the badness was behind closed doors and all of the glory was on national television.
The reminder of that decade is depressing because all it does is solidify the fact that the Cowboys of today don’t have what the Cowboys of the 1990s had.
The Cowboys of the 1990s had a wide receiver named Michael Irvin who practices until he puked. He mentored rookies and he pushed his fellow teammates. He was a leader in the locker room. Full of demons, Irvin showed up on Sundays and he was an overachiever.
The Cowboys of today have a wide receiver named Terrell Owens, who as talented as he is, has a hard time grasping what it truly means to be a teammate. He is not a leader. He’s just great.
The Cowboys of the 1990s had a running back named Emmitt Smith, a guy who largely kept a distance from the drama, and played through pain to gain. A back many teams passed on, thinking he was too small and too slow to be a good NFL running back, he became the top running back of all time with the Dallas Cowboys. Who could forget Smith playing through a separated shoulder against the New York Giants to keep Cowboys alive. He was a leader.
The Cowboys of today have two fantastic running backs. Marion Barber III is a bruising powerhouse who runs through opposing linebackers, and sheds tackles for those extra yards. Although he is a motivator just by the way he plays the game, he is not a leader. Felix Jones is a rookie who has already shown flashes of greatness. But he’s not going to lead this team, not yet, and likely never.
The Cowboys of the 1990s had a quarterback named Troy Aikman, a guy with a machine gun for an arm and the accuracy of a sharpshooter. Never perfect, Aikman got better with age. When he erred, he kept his head up high. When the press pounded him, he led with optimism.
The Cowboys of today have a quarterback named Tony Romo, someone no one knew four years ago. Early in his career, analysts compared him to Brett Favre because he made plays from scratch, plays out of nothing, plays out of thin air. Yet, when faced with adversity, he hangs his head or he moves on with an awkward school-boy smile. He dates a silly blonde, and gets hammered for it. Instead of studying playbooks before a playoff game, he goes to Mexico. And he doesn’t lead this team. He’s just fun watching and he’s a good quarterback.
The Cowboys of the 1990s had a coach named Jimmy Johnson, a fiery fighter who was coaching the raucous Miami Hurricanes, where he led them to a National Championship. He never feared to cut a player for not performing. He never feared anyone. He questioned the talent of Troy Aikman and considered trading Michael Irvin. He built a dynasty based on fear. He crossed lines most coaches today wouldn’t dare touch. He brought players to tears. He wanted to win. He didn’t have no Camp Marshmallow. He took risks.
The Cowboys of today have a coach named Wade Phillips, a guy with a very good regular season record, but who is winless in the playoffs. He doesn’t scare anyone. He doesn’t push anyone. He knows his team has talent and puts the onus on the players to perform. He questions no one. He expects to win, but he’s not sure they will win. He’s not a leader.
See the pattern? The problem with the Dallas Cowboys of today is they are missing a leader in the locker room. The Dallas Cowboys of the 1990s had several. The Dallas Cowboys of today are full of talent–talent that might be better than any Cowboys era ever–yet they are missing the biggest component to championships: a vocal and visible leader.
But what else the book reminds me of is how great the Cowboys special teams were in the 1990s. They blocked punts. They blocked fields goals. They scored touchdowns on kickoffs and punt returns. They had Deoin Sanders and Ken Gant.
Although they Cowboys of today finally scored a kickoff touchdown this year, the special teams is “led” by some laid back imitation.
The Cowboys of the 1990s had wildmen like Charles Haley, Ken Norton, Tony Tolbert, Jim Jeffcoat, Leon Lett and James Washington. Wildmen on the field especially.
The Cowboys of today have no wildmen. They just have stars. They have immense talent.
Stars fall. Stars explode. Stars eventually die. But Dynasty become a part of history. And so do the leaders.
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I’m alright with these Cowboys not fitting the mold of a former dynasty, I just wish there was one or two players on both sides of the ball that would show some kind of leadership.
I think the greatest Cowboy team of all time are the 1992 Cowboys. Not only did that team had leaders but that team also had swagger. they could beat anyone they faced. ahh the memories…now I wish the ‘08 Cowboys would learn from that team
Learn what they did on the field, not off. Reading Pearlman’s book really reminds you of the lesser guys who had big impact.
Maybe Jones should throw his wallet at Jimmy Johnson! I really do think we are missing a top level number two receiver so we can spread the field better. Teams are keying on TO and they keep trying to force him the ball. Maybe they should think about lining up Felix Jones at WR or from the RB position put him in a position to go deep. Covered by a LB? Don’t think so
The best judge of how far this team will go will be there last 6 games. We are still 4-1 and playing way below our potential, Don’t push the panic button yet. This might be a plus that we are finally not peaking too early and leading to a fizzle late. We are not playing our best ball. When we do sort it out…
Jeff is a good friend of mine. I”ll give him this link he’ll get a kick ou of it
I agree with staubach, last year we played all out every game and what did that get us, a buch of tired players in the playoffs. Were still winning games and I think when the time comes this team will step up and deliever. At this rate were definetly in the playoffs and with a lot of juice left in the tank.
Jimmy Johnson is a mastermind w/ an Industrial Psych degree, IMO best coach ever newhere, ultimate draft think tank and I believe still the only coach with a NCAA champ and NFL champ thats why his boat is called 3rings… did I forget to mention he is from Port Arthur, Texas… Wade is from Port Neches and another good coach tDodge(southlakeHS, UNT) is also from Port Arthur …Dodge and Jimster both Yellow Jackets
Great post Landryhat. I think our biggest problem is Wade Phillips. He tries to hard to be there friend no their coach. I think Jason Garrett will be a better head coach when his time comes. Jason is more respected than Wade he knows how to draw the line when it comes to coaching. He dont have to yell at you but he get what he wants out of you. Our team is like a bunch of spoiled kids and its all Wades fault. I think Wade is a good guy but his laid back attitude is not going to work year after year.
jason witten; demarcus ware; thet lead by example. that is more contagious than anyone screamin and yellin on the sideline. they’re all business. thats what this team needs, all business. we all know we got talent. we know we’re predicted and expected to go to the superbowl. thats enough pressure in it’s self. the press is all over our guys on a daily basis. we just need guys like witten and ware that don’t seem to pay a whole lot of attention to the shit around them, they just do they’re job. the young guys of aloof guys will see this and see that it works, and suddenly you got your team calmed down and focused on business. that’s what wade brings to the table as well. a calm focused attitude will go a hell of alot farther with this team then the team of the 90’s. you had irvin who was a leader, but was a sparkplug that we needed to motivate that team. we are in a different time and we need to be more professional and business like to get this one done. well i’m happy with the 2 leaders we have to do that with this team and wade phillups
Your team reminds me of the year the Redskins tried to buy a superbowl in 2000. You didn’t make quite as crazy an impact with free agent acquisition as we did, but your team is behaving the way the ’skins did that year.
You have talent, but that talent doesn’t seem very interested in working together as a team. Sometimes that talent seems to think that winning will just fall in their laps because they “deserve” it. They don’t think they have to earn anything and seem to believe that it should be handed to them because they have talent. They’re already talking playoffs and everyone picks them as a superbowl favorite, and they let it go to their heads. They get offended when people point out that they’re struggling to defeat bad teams.
Their coach, like Norv Turner, is mediocre at best. People like him but they aren’t inspired by him. They won’t fight for him or bleed for him. He often makes moves that anger or befuddle the fans.
Instead of a quarterback controversy like the Redskins had (Brad Johnson vs Jeff George), you guys have a coaching issue with Wade and Garrett. Even if Wade and Garrett truly get along and don’t have a problem (which I’m far from convinced is true), it still makes things awkward to have a power structure set up like that where ownership clearly intends one person to take over the other’s job in the near future. It cannot help but cause conflict and awkwardness and it cannot help but make things difficult for them to work together.
You have an aging veteran who’s been on a lot of different teams (TO vs Deion) who’s driven to win one more superbowl, but who’s also often a distraction because of his flamboyant ways. Unlike Deion, TO can still produce, so you have that going in your favor.
But really, I see a lot of parallels here. I think you can learn a lot from looking at the mistakes of that doomed team of the Redskins. Just hope it doesn’t end the way it did for my skins (with Norv getting fired mid-season) and the team falling apart in the end.
i’m not gonna stand here and bash on our team and wade. we are 4-1 in the toughest division in football. we have all the talent in the league to get it done. we know whats there. we know whats expected. we ahve to be focused on getting it done no matter what the distractions are. we don’t need anything making anymore distractions. we need this team to come together, and it does’nt look like rah,rah is gonna do it. i say business. get down to business. can anyone tell me 2 better examples of that get down to business attitude than witten and ware???? lets ride em to the bowl……thats why I like wade. he’s the right man for that approach……tell me if i’m wrong and why…….i’d love to argue this one all day
Can we talk about the Cardinals?
Sure and when we get more than 10 penaltys dont worry thats Wades fault and when we lose a game it has nothing to do with the player its Wades fault. This team is only where it is cause of Garrett. Look at our offense compared to our defense. Wade has so much talent and he plays Cornerbacks 10 yards deep almost. I thought when Wade was here our defense would improve to be a number one defense. I just think when your team is having penaltys dont take the blame get onto them so it wont happen next time. When your team decides to go on vacation before a BIG RIVAL PLAYOFF GAME get onto them. Be their friend at home during the season be their coach. I would be fine with the way Wade does things if it worked. If he was such a great coach why is he making what Jason Garrett is making?
i’m not saying he’s the greatest coach ever or anything. jimmy johnson was a great coach. but he had his faults. as a person, he was a son of a bitch. he divorced his wife when he came here to dallas to coach, because he said he did’nt have any time for her in this life as a head coach in the nfl. he alienated his family for years. but on the football field he was things that legend is made of. ask aikman what he thinks of jimmy johnson. i’ve heard him comment several times that jimmy was the most intence and successful person he’d ever met. but he loved norv turner, his offensive co. he was good friends with norv. he responded to norv’s leadership and his character as a man. he still holds norv at a very high esteem when he talks about former coaches. you remember that we won with norv at the co. position. was it all jimmy?? hell no, aikman never liked jimmy, but he played for him. aikman liked norv and he played for him too. so it varies to what approach a coach must take. let wade’s approach work, and it will. you don’t hear the players complaining about wade. if we did then we’d know we got problems. all i’m hearin is how bad some fans think he’s doin, well some fans think he’s ok, and i guess some players do too, and thats what counts.
Silly blonde? I really don’t understand why you keep taking a dig at her. Is she that bad in your eyes? She may not be an articulate person but she is NOT as dumb as you think. For instance, there was one time you made fun of her saying she grew up watching Roger Staubach when she was born in 1980. She was actually refering to reruns, not ‘live’. Her grandfather was a football coach and her father was a huge Cowboys fan. Growing up in Texas, the Dallas Cowboys dynasty was nothing new to her.
You might be right but I think the only reason he looks like a good coach is because of Garrett. Our offense is mainly the reason we made it where we did last year and Garrett is the offense. I think Wade would be better as a defense of corrdinator not a head coach.
jessies fan…..ah, ya thats good…………..
and you may be right also. norv turner was a better co. than he was head coach, no doubt about it. but he was a great co. and he was’nt that bad of a head, either……so in this situation, i’d say garrett is gonna need time to mature into a head. he’s already proving he’s a good co. so really in this situation who would better fit this now than wade. why would anyone fire wade now. garrett is not ready to be the head, and why put all that extra detail on his plate now when he’s still learning to run an offense. look at zorn in wash. he’s done his time, it’s his first head job, but he’s done his time on the offensive side of the ball first. if you want garrett effective you gotta give him time. and your not gonna bring in another head coach at this time, that would really screw things up. so ride it out. wade is perfect for the situation we have now, and somewhere down the road the time will be right for garrett. but wade’s been here before. he know’s the drill. and he’s been in football a long time, with a good petigree. lets let him do the job. the players seem to really like him????
and do you guys really think that wade gave the players permission to screw off before the playoff game without jerry jones knowing about it. as hands on that jerry is, much like al davis, how much happens with this team that jerry does’nt know about or give his blessing to. come on we got to get off that bullshit that this playoff vacation was wade’s fault. hell jerry probably paid for the trip. and having jessica hang around his boy tony is some great pub, doesn’t anyone else see this shit or is it only me???????????