Is Jerry on Board or Not?
By Matt Cordon (kh). Filed in Dallas Cowboys News in Brief |
This is getting unnecessarily confusing.
ESPN.com ran a story by Len Pasquarelli on October 25 suggesting that both Jerry Jones and Bill Parcells agreed that Tony Romo would start against Carolina on Sunday night. He says:
Parcells and owner Jerry Jones were noncommittal about which quarterback will get the nod Sunday night when Dallas plays at Carolina, but both men hinted pretty broadly that Romo will get the first start of his four-year career.
That apparently contradicts the big story that ESPN was running. Brad Sham on October 25 criticized ESPN for making too much out of what was really nothing. Here is Mr. Sham:
Tuesday, ESPN reported from the NFL owners’ meeting in New Orleans that there had to be a brewing firestorm between Cowboys’ coach Bill Parcells and owner Jerry Jones. There had to be, because Parcells made the halftime quarterback change Monday night from Drew Bledsoe to Tony Romo and Jones was against it. Jones was against it, and he was publicly saying he thought his coach had made the wrong choice.
To prove it, ESPN ran a sound byte from a TV interview with Jones. Asked if he had spoken to Parcells about the change and if he agreed with it, Jones said, “We discuss all the time. I really don’t know. I thought the best chance for us to be where we wanted to be, which was contending in the playoffs, was to go with the experienced quarterback, which was Drew. And I don’t know that I’ve changed my mind about that at all.”
And ESPN had their story. In SportsCenters, big stories ran about the Jerry-Bill controversy. Wednesday morning on the popular Mike and Mike in the Morning show, which simulcasts on ESPN Radio and ESPN2 television, multiple segments were devoted to the split between Jones and Parcells.
Listen, I’m a Mike and Mike fan. I mean, I’m a Mike fan and a Mike fan and a Mike and Mike fan. They’re entertaining, and I believe what I hear there. I know the network’s Cowboys beat reporter, Ed Werder, to be a person and journalist of quality and integrity. Werder did break the national story before the game Monday night that Romo was on alert and might come in.
But Werder wasn’t part of the New Orleans or Bristol, Conn., reporting on Jones’ comments from Tuesday. Too bad. Because we didn’t get the whole story from ESPN. In fact, much worse happened. We got a wrong story.
The sound byte from Jones was accurate, all right, and as far as it goes it does indeed appear that he endorses Bledsoe as the quarterback. If only his entire comment had run, as it did on some local outlets later Tuesday night, and on the Talkin’ Cowboys radio show on the Cowboys Radio Network and DallasCowboys.com Wednesday morning. The rest of the quote shows Jones straddling the fence in his answer, and in fact endorsing no one.
When you simply hear the rest of the answer, which in fact you could do by going to ESPN’s website, you hear him say, after saying he hasn’t changed his mind about the value of an experienced quarterback:
“But we’ve got to win games, and we’ve got to give ourselves every opportunity to. There’s no question Romo’s got more mobility, and he can mitigate some of the problems we have with Drew’s mobility. On the other hand, you saw (Monday night) we give up some good stuff experience-wise, too. It’ll be a tough decision.”
So what’s the difference? Why make a big to-do about it?
Because leaving out half the quote completely changes its meaning, and thus the story. In fact, if there’s no conflict between Jones and Parcells, there is no story. This becomes highly disappointing to the national reporters (and the local ones) who have been waiting for that since the day Parcells was hired.
Okay, so that’s coming from the official team radio announcer on the team’s official website. Now this one comes from NFL.com:
Jones hinted Oct. 24 he wanted to stick with the veteran. He explained that he actually was clinging to his preseason belief that Bledsoe would lead Dallas to the playoffs.
“I’m disappointed at the reason we’re having to make this change,” Jones said.
The QB switch has forced Jones to lower his expectations for this season. He’s no longer convinced this team could be “special,” the code word he and Parcells used this summer instead of saying they expected a deep playoff run.
“I have to be a realist,” Jones said. “I hadn’t thought or hoped that we’d be sitting here after the sixth game making these adjustments. … I did not want to this year go to an inexperienced quarterback. I wanted to have the benefit of Drew Bledsoe. It hasn’t worked out as of today. It just hasn’t worked out. That to me is a step back.”
So let’s get this straight: website of large media outlet says one thing; large media outlet apparently gets the story wrong; person who has an official capacity within the Cowboys organization says that the media outlet got it wrong; but the official league site–citing wire reports–provides information that is more like the media outlet’s version.
Okay, then. Thank goodness for Modern Marvels on the History Channel. Tonight’s episode? Death Devices: Societies rid themselves of criminals. Great stuff.
Tuesday, October 31st 2006 at 12:41 am
All Jones was saying is that before the season started he really believed Bledsoe would have a great season and lead this team to the playoffs. He certainly wasn’t the only one; I really believed that, too. Bledsoe’s performance has been disappointing to the point a change had to be made. With Romo being such an unknown and having never been under such pressure before, Jones could no longer “realistically” expect a playoff push. So it was extremely disappointing to him that Bledsoe bombed out. Again, he wasn’t the only one. There’s nothing there that really suggests he’s not in agreement with Parcells on the change. Seems pretty simple to me. After Romo’s performance in Carolina I’m sure Jones is breathing easier, just like the rest of us.
ESPN has lost all credibility with me. After the way they have handled their coverage of TO, it is clear they value sensationalism over honesty. And yes, Sham and Spagnola work for the Cowboys, but I have never known them to be dishonest in their reporting. I’ve never known them to cover anything up that the fans really need to know about. I definitely trust them over the national media outlets who don’t give a rat’s ass about the team.