Dallas Cowboys need to clean house of character concerns

Dallas Cowboys have a culture concern and they need to clean house of the bad character players causing it.

The culture that head coach Jason Garrett has been building for the Dallas Cowboys over the last several years is clearly in danger with all of the suspensions players are facing this season. Garrett, and the front office need to clean house with bad character players and get back to winning both on and off the field.

We have all heard the old saying “One bad apple can sour the whole bunch.” Apparently that can ring true in the NFL as well. The Cowboys have had a really good track record of late for players keeping their nose to the grind stone and staying out of trouble.

Then, the front office made a decision to sign troubled free agents linebacker Rolando McClain and defensive end Greg Hardy. McClain was so troubled off the field that he was cut from the Oakland Raiders even though he was the 8th overall pick in his draft class, and briefly retired. Hardy served a year long suspension and hasn’t received any interest for his services this offseason.

One could argue that those two defensive players have been bad mentors for young defensive ends Randy Gregory and DeMarcus Lawrence, both serving four game suspensions of their own. Boy, this is getting out of control quickly. If Dallas wants to build upon the culture they have already established, Garrett and company are going to have to take immediate action before they start to lose what they have built.

Hardy is not being brought back to the team as of right now, and hopefully not ever. Garrett has been very transparent in his opinion on Hardy being a Cowboy. Fans can only hope that the front office doesn’t get desperate enough to bring the troubled player back to Dallas. Like Garrett likes to say, he wasn’t the “right type of guy.”

There has been some reports that Garrett and team owner Jerry Jones have not seen eye-to-eye on McClain’s absence from organized team activities. When McClain choose to miss the majority of the spring practices many people were saying “here we go again.” Sure enough… here we are.

McClain is too lazy to dedicate himself to a craft that very few have the chance that would most certainly make him a very rich man. He would rather smoke pot than read a playbook. Come on, man! When is enough, enough?! Dallas would be wise to cut bait with him and send a strong message to the rest of the team.

Sometimes when a team wins enough games they will gamble on a player with a troubled past if the talent outweighs the risk. This isn’t the case with McClain, and it may not be the case with Gregory and Lawrence either.

These players that can’t stay on the field because they can’t keep their nose clean need to be put on notice. Either shape up, or ship out! You can’t help the team when you aren’t on the active roster, regardless of how much potential you may have.

Garrett has proven one thing during his tenure in Dallas; he’s going to make players stick to the process and do things the right way. If the front office isn’t going to follow his formula, they need to find a new head coach because you have to give the man the keys to succeed.

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The team can’t afford to stray away from what has helped build the high character roster that it has had. Jones and company need to give Garrett the control needed to strike fear deep into the souls of these players that think they can continue to get away with this type of behavior.

There’s an old saying that also rings true…

"“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”  — Tim Notke"