More Tuna, for Lack of Other Topics (Like Football, Perhaps?)
By Matt Cordon (kh). Filed in Dallas Cowboys News in Brief |
It is bad when the NFL Network shows a replay of last year’s Super Bowl, and I can’t watch it because (a) I am still sickened about last week’s loss, and (b) the game featured the Seattle Seahawks, and, well, you know who won last week. ERRRRR….
So let’s keep talking about Bill Parcells, shall we?
Nick Eatman says that the Cowboys aren’t doing anything until they get an answer from Parcells:
One week, the Cowboys are getting ready for their first playoff game in the three years, and seven days later it’s like a ghost town here at Valley Ranch.
But maybe that’s a good thing, considering how it all came crashing down in Seattle last Saturday night.
The players have cleared out and the coaches have been given some time off as well.
But what about the head coach?
No, Bill Parcells, whose future with the team remains in question, has been a regular here at Valley Ranch all week.
While he still has a year remaining on his contract, Parcells is supposed to make a formal decision some time this month on whether to return for a fifth season with the Cowboys.
Parcells reportedly told his assistant coaches on Wednesday that he needs more time to make his decision, which will likely involve a sit-down meeting with team owner and general manager Jerry Jones.
If it comes down to that, look for Jones to strongly encourage Parcells to stay.
Jones has reiterated to the media that he not only wants Parcells back on the sideline for the 2007 season, but would be surprised if he didn’t return.
“Again, I don’t want to fuel speculation one way or the other,” Jones said. “Like I’ve said. Bill is outstanding. He’s certainly, I think, has a lot of fire in his oven, or boiler, and has the passion there. And that’s great.”
Matt Mosley, though, doesn’t seem to be buying it:
No matter how many times Jerry Jones talks about how much better shape this team is in than when Bill first arrived, Jones can’t hide how disappointed he is that it hasn’t translated into playoff wins.
The Bill apologists (spots now available) will point to those three consecutive 5-11 seasons leading up to his arrival and say this team is poised to make a Super Bowl run.
I’m just trying to figure out what they’re hanging their hats on.
Is it a soon-to-be 66-year-old head coach who’s watched his teams fade in December four straight years?
Or perhaps it’s the return of linebacker Greg Ellis, who may become the first player to make a run at Canton by missing eight games due to injury.
No, the biggest indictment of this team is that it suffered another collapse in a season when the NFC was pathetic. Think about it.
If we’d known before the season that the Giants would implode and the Redskins wouldn’t even show up, our expectations would’ve been even higher than they were.
That Bill’s rallying cry late in the season was basically “We’re not the only ones who suck” is just sad.
You heard players talking about turning things around, but you never got the sense they believed those words. This is a team that didn’t appear to have any leadership on defense in the absence of Ellis.
Linebacker Bradie James appointed himself team spokesperson but then proceeded to get exposed on a weekly basis (see Jon Kitna).
And safety Roy Williams might be the biggest name on defense, but he’s not wired for leadership – or covering tight ends.
Jerry has said repeatedly that he wants Bill to return for what would amount to a lame-duck season. He says he doesn’t see his head coach’s year-to-year status as a negative, but I sense he’s ready for closure.
Meanwhile, the only thing we’ve heard from Bill is an angry denial of his reported interest in the Giants’ GM job.
Right now, he’s trying to decide whether he can leave $5.5 million sitting on the table.
I’m told he’s already been contacted by at least one major TV network and he could easily land a consultant’s job somewhere. But neither of those options would offer him anything close to what he’s earning here.
The longer Bill waits, the fewer replacements Jerry will have to choose from.
Okay, so let’s then cap this off with Randy Galloway saying that Jones has adopted an “idiotic” (no dog-butt reference, Randy?) business model.
Consider the case of Jerry Jones, a brilliant bidnessman who became a football idiot more than a dozen years ago, and to this day has never advanced beyond the first stage of recovery.
March of ‘94, the Jimster left town.
Football-wise, it has not been right since then at Valley Ranch, and the only large-and-in-charge constant over this long stretch of years has been… yes, Jerry.
True story. In my business, and just from a personal standpoint, you cannot help liking Jones. And I do like him. If you knew him, you would, too.
Give me a room full of the one hundred most devout Jones-haters in town, and then let me unleash Jerry on them. Guaranteed, that in about a half-hour, 90 of them would be yukking it up with Jerry like he was an old friend.
But football-wise, that changes nothing.
In this area, Jerry is now approaching terminal idiot stage. There is, apparently, no known recovery.
Jones’ immense bottom-line success over the years should be a college business school blueprint for students.
But the football bottom line continues to be an ongoing bust. It’s 13 years, and counting, with no progress, once the last remnants of the Jimster dynasty faded away.
Yet, even after this latest Cowboys failure, all we’ve heard so far this week at Valley Ranch is silence.
A head coach, we are told, is making up his mind about whether he wants to work for $6 million next season.
Amazingly, it does appear to be Bill Parcells’ choice. I’m already on record as saying Bill wouldn’t be back. So I could be wrong, although not necessarily about “shouldn’t” be back.
Nine more months to go, friends.
