Mammas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys

So Jerry Jones has fired another coach. Poor ol' Wade Phillips was let go yesterday for not getting his under-achievers to "play to win." And, of course, it needed to happen. As nice as a guy as Wade is, he is not head coaching material. Even if he was, he had lost this team. Shoot, he is probably relieved to be done with the mess in Dallas.

Now JJ is turning to his inept offensive coordinator to try to salvage something from this season. This was another inevitability - he almost had to hire Jason Garrett as the interim head coach. He was already being paid a head coaches salary; in only Jerry Jones fashion he was actually hired BEFORE the last head coach (Wade); and Jerry is in no position to be able to hire a big name coach right now. So even though this is a lame brain decision, it really was the only one JJ could make, what with the limbo of the collective bargaining agreement ending this year and all.

I will give Jerry this: he said what's needed is a "culture change" and he's right. However, I'm not sure how Jason is going to do that. He seems to operate about as cluelessly as Wade did. Sure, the offense gets a lot of yards, but they don't score hardly any points. So what we have are people with skill, but no heart. And THAT is what needs to change in Dallas. Which points back to Jerry.

See, I think Jerry Jones is a great owner. It riles me to no end when you have team owners that are only in it for the money and don't care about winning. But Jerry Jones IS a good businessman, and he also cares a LOT about winning. He probably wants to win more than any other owner in professional sports. The problem is, he's not a very good General Manager. He can sell things, but he simply cannot evaluate talent or create team chemistry. I believe this is the root of the problem with Jimmy Johnson and Bill Parcells. They were both good at that aspect, and Jerry sucks at it, and they butted heads. So not only did the coaches leave, but I think a bigger part of their problem now is that Parcells took a lot of the Dallas brass with him to Miami and now they have no front office people who have any clue about football.

So I look for the Cowboys to start shuttling players out who Jerry doesn't think are competing hard enough, and if there is no work stoppage he will likely hire another big-name coach... but until Jerry hires a General Manager - and actually lets a football guy run things (meaning let the GM actually be the GM - the same old culture is going to remain in Dallas, and the Cowboys are going to continue their losing ways. They will continue to go after "stars" and big name players, and they will be left with a roster short on chemistry and actual quality football players.