Thought I would share, this is from a businessman I know here in Frisco. And America's Team is HQed in Frisco so lots of interaction but some level 1 and 2 insights leaning on the business (vs football) side of things.
Alright it’s the next day. Let’s have a sober (less emotional) talk about the Cowboys organization. Let me preface this by saying that I like the Jones family. Jerry is not some evil villain. He’s a fundamentally good-natured guy who likes people and loves competition.
But the organization is broken in terms of creating a results-driven football franchise. Having the opportunity to live in Frisco and overlap frequently with the organization, I’ve seen a fatal flaw in how they do business. Jerry oversees the whole empire but his three kids increasingly run the day to day. Many times I’ve personally watched as a decision is made by mid or lower level employees that makes sense for the organization and at the last second one of the Joneses catches wind and kills the decision. The effect is embarrassment, confusion, and paralysis. Again I have personally witnessed this MULTIPLE times. The football team is run exactly the same way. A decision is made by Phillips/Garrett/McCarthy and at the last second Jerry or Stephen via Jerry kills the decision - humiliating the coach and undermining him to all the players and staff.
What’s the outcome of that culture? Fear. No one is rewarded for original, innovative thinking and action. You could be a young coach with a brilliant new offensive scheme that could truly revolutionize the league, but ultimately an 82 year old GM who last had success before the freakin’ internet even took off, will decide he doesn’t like it and tell you to take a hike. It’s literally just one guy’s opinion, ultimately. The Jones family are not a collaborative, open-source type org. It’s very much a monarchy.
The best a non-Jones can achieve is “hand” status, which just means an advisor with no teeth. And that comes at the price of ever really telling the truth or getting your way. That’s what all these head coaches have in common; they’re eunuchs. I’m sure McCarthy was trepidatious about coming here based on the rumors he’d heard of this dynamic, but then Jerry wined and dined him, flew his family around in the helicopter, took him to dinner at the Cowboy Club, and then set the hook with “this could all be yours!” Jerry is incredibly charming and likable when he wants to turn it on and here’s the kicker - I think he actually thinks every time that it’ll be different and that he WILL let the coach make decisions but then the first knock on the door happens, followed by: “Great idea Mike! I’ll take that under advisement. I don’t think we’re going to do that just now but keep those great ideas coming. Listen, why don’t you and your wife come over and have dinner with me and Jean tonight at the Club so we can dream about the future together.”
Mike walks out shaking his head. Did that just happen? Was this a fluke or how it’s going to be going forward?
So then there’s this other dynamic. Jerry is SUPER loyal. It’s very admirable, actually. If you pass his vetting and he attaches the cowboys name to yours, he will stick with you until Armageddon. The problem is that his loyalty is based on fealty. Can you see the power dynamic here? Jason Garrett always toed the line so Jerry stayed with him in spite of cripplingly poor in-game coaching decisions timeand again for years beyond what we all saw as a failed experiment.
Interesting to look at the two examples of coaches who didn’t fit this narrative. First off, Jimmy. He had won back to back Super Bowls and was in the middle of a dynasty and couldn’t handle Jerry’s micro-management because he didn’t want to be a eunuch.
Secondly, Bill Parcells. They outright had to publicly discuss the power dynamic because Bill wasn’t going to be a eunuch. He had tremendous success in his bold decision-making and was making huge progress in modernizing the team but finally couldn’t handle it and quit. Now I’m going to take him at his word because he said he didn’t leave because of Jerry and that they had a good dynamic, but there’s still more to it than what was public. He left after just four seasons. Anyway, let’s just say that they somehow had a good working relationship because they were the same age and had mutual respect and Jerry recognized that Bill was smarter than him about football. I think that’s the last coach he’s felt that way about.
So where does this leave us? Well, nowhere good. Nothing is going to change. The ONLY small ray of hope I have is for Jerry to pull his Jedi mind tricks and somehow seduce Belichick to come be our coach. I don’t know what In the world Bill would see in this gig, but because it’s the Cowboys and there’s a load of Super Bowl level talent untapped, and because Jerry is looking for a magic bullet that’s ANYTHING but his own dysfunctional organization, there’s a ray of hope that it could happen.
Jerry and Bill together along with the best talent money can buy (in the cap) feels a lot like the Yankees of old, or Miami when Lebron and Wade were together. In other words, not the underdog. Basically the team that Darth Vader would root for. Win at all costs. I think fans are ready to win, and get this 28 year old monkey (do monkeys even live that long?) enough to swallow anything served up. Bill B could hopefully fall into more of the Bill P mold and go in with enough respect to have at least SOME leash.
If Jerry keeps McCarthy it’ll be the same Groundhog Day over and over again and if Jerry hires another mild-mannered yes man coach it’ll be Groundhog Day again for a few more years.
I wish I was more optimistic but instead I’m filled with apathy. I’m sick of repeating the same pattern and no complaining we all do will change the Cowboys organization’s power dynamic which is the real reason we keep losing. Companies thrive in cultures of innovation, healthy decision-making, and empowerment of talent.
Fix the organization, and maybe we can start winning again, when it matters.
[Note: By the way, I recognize that many of you Frisco folks can’t publicly agree with anything like this because everyone’s afraid of the Joneses finding out which just reinforces my point about how they do things and why their organization is dysfunctional. Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. As a longtime ardent antagonist against “The Huddle” I’m used to leading the public charge
