Coaches And Owner Talk Change

Since the disgusting effort put forth in Philadelphia, all the people in charge around Valley Ranch have been on a campaign of sorts. Much like our new president the title of their message is “change”. Change would be good and well deserved within this team, but much the same way I feel about our new U.S. administration I question whether worthwhile changes will actually take place. Both Jerry Jones and Wade Phillips have said on more than one occasion that they will be making changes, but have yet to give any kind of specifics. Now I understand that they are not going to give us details on upcoming “change”, but the details that we are getting are extremely vague. Which leads me to believe that the big time changes that I think need to take place will not!

This is a broken and depleted team, both physically and most notably mentally. The mental state of the Cowboys seems to daily become worse. Recently Terrence Newman continued his assault towards the “anonymous” player that leaked their internal problems to Ed Werder. Terrence calls the player a “coward” and does not seem willing to drop this issue. Bradie James got into the act with an altercation the day after the loss with a fan outside of Valley Ranch. This team is crashing right in front of our eyes! The way they played all year is nothing compared to what is happening right now.

Jerry Jones continues to back the coaching staff, Wade Phillips & Jason Garrett primarily. So the duties of resurrecting the mental state of the Cowboys will be left to Wade. I do not know about you but this whole concept scares the crap out of me! Wade is a good coach, and although he denies being too soft, he is tooooooo soft! Listening to him the other day on The Ticket he talked about “change” and how he needed to change. That is good to hear, but after being pushed to get specific I got a whole different feel. He began talking about “more rules and punishments for those violations” (still sounds good right) he then said that he has always had only two rules “play hard, and be here on time” (at least one of these rules was broken by a lot of people all year long). Norm Hitzges (from the ticket) began to question him about fines and how many times he had to fine players for being late to meetings. Wade gives a typical Wade answer something to the effect of ” uh well uh just a few” when pushed further he says this “You know sometimes when we fine the player he does not even know”, WHAT? WHAT? Can someone please tell me how the hell this form of punishment works? Let me get this straight! “player” shows up late to a meeting, Wade “fines” him, but the “player” does not know he is fined! Why fine the guy? Does this money go into a pot to buy cookies? Why on earth would anyone be afraid to be late to a meeting? It’s easy THEY WOULD NOT BE AFRAID! This guy is in charge of rebuilding the mental state of this football team! WOW! As bad as I hate to say it Cowboy Nation is in DEEEEEEEEEEEEEP trouble!

The players on this team did not respond to the whip cracking style of Bill Parcells. Last year being free from Parcells, the players stepped up and played hard for the new coach. Now their back to what they were with Parcells. This tells me that the players run the roost and no matter who the coach is they will decide what happens. The only cure to this problem is a serious change within the roster! Who goes and who stays? People all like to point to T.O. and Pacman, and that may be the right call but it is hard for me to believe that this entire problem is solely caused by one person! This problem or cancer which ever you prefer has been here longer than T.O. has been here. The first two years that he was with the team he did everything asked of him and by all accounts was a great teammate. I think the problem with this team has been and is the lack of players being concerned for their jobs! Fear of unemployment can do great things. The Cowboys top players for the most part are young guys. They have also been given the keys to the ship without fear of revocation. Example Zach Thomas was brought in this off season to push Bradie James. What happened? Bradie had the best year of his career! Last year the drafting of Anthony Spencer lit a huge flame under the rear end of Greg Ellis and sparked him to his first pro bowl! This team needs players that will push the starters. Players like Romo, Gurode, Adams, Colombo, Davis, Roy Willy, Canty, Spears need to be pushed, they need to believe that if they do not step up their performance they will be either on the bench or on the street! The o-line is the most under achieving, undisciplined, and plain out lazy groups in football. If this group had any kind of fear of being benched I guarantee drastic improvement!

The coaches can implement all the “change” they want (rules, fines, beatings) none of this will work until the players actually BELIEVE that they can be replaced! I really do not care what changes Wade makes to the way he deals with the players. I want to see major roster changes! I want to see Romo fear that he may have to change careers and become a golfer! I want to see this offensive line believe that the next false start maybe their last as a Cowboy! I want to see this Defensive line believe that a missed tackle will put them without a job! The gravy train for these guys needs to end and it needs to end now! No more excuses, from anyone. Make them believe and they will respond.