You would think after 34 years there would be very little that Jerry Jones would say that would surprise any of us.
Yet, Jerry still manages to do just that. Last week, when pressed about getting Jimmy Johnson on the Ring of Honor, Jerry dropped this nugget at camp in Oxnard.
“We’re going to be making those announcements as we go. I’ve got a couple of coaches, in addition to Jimmy, that ought to be in that Ring of Honor.”
Now, back in the before times in West Texas – when I worked my first job on a drilling rig in the Permian Basin – I had a boss who on occasion would look at me and say:
“Boy, have you lost yo’ mind?”
There was another word spoken before ‘mind’, but we do try to keep this page PG-13. You get the idea.
Oddly, I heard those very words — and in his voice — as I thought the same thing when I read Jones’ comments. Then I decided to see if I could figure out who he’s talking about.
Assistant Coaches Need Not Apply
The Cowboys have had some great assistant coaches. Many have gone on to become successful NFL head coaches.
Dan Reeves, Mike Ditka, Gene Stallings, Dan Campbell, and Sean Payton just to name a few.
But should an assistant coach be up on the Ring? Not really.
The honor should be reserved for head coaches – like Tom Landry.
The only other non-players who should be eligible would be front office people who made a huge impact on the franchise – like Tex Schramm and Gil Brandt.
I would argue that the Cowboys’ original owner, Clint Murchison Jr., should be up on the Ring too.
The moves Murchison made just to get Dallas an NFL Franchise in the first place are reason enough.
Eight Men Out
So it has to be one of the eight previous head coaches not already up there. To be honest, if Mike McCarthy gets Dallas a Super Bowl win this year, I’ll move to put him up on the Ring next year.
First off, Jimmy Johnson should have already been up there. Probably at the same time the triplets went up at that.
He should have been put in shortly after the NFL announced he was going to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
We all know the reason why he wasn’t and just how petty it is.
It seems Jones is trying to hold out until Dallas wins a Super Bowl without Johnson as the head coach. Only then can finally “prove” he can win it without Jimmy.
He could also be waiting until Johnson is no longer around before putting him up, denying Jimmy a triumphant return to Dallas.
Or it could be that he’s going to make Jimmy wait until Jerry himself has headed for the great oil well in the sky, leaving it to Stephen Jones to put Jimmy up.
It’s an option that most Cowboys’ fans could be forgiven for half-jokingly responding to in this way:
After Landry And Johnson
Once the first two head coaches are properly enshrined, the pickings get very slim. Which only adds to the mystery of who Jerry is talking about.
Chan Gailey went 18-14 and lost two wild card games. Dave Campo went 15-33 and never finished higher than fourth in the NFC East.
Bill Parcells? He went 25-23 and lost the only playoff game he coached for the Cowboys.
Wade Phillips? 34-22 with a 1-2 record in the playoffs without getting past the divisional round.
Hardly Ring of Honor-worthy numbers for any of those four coaches.
The Jason Garrett Resume
He might be looking at Jason Garrett when he’s thinking “other coaches”, but really?
Yes, Garrett had a winning record over all at 85-67 and won two playoff games. But, like Phillips, he failed to get past the divisional round.
That just isn’t good enough to land on the Ring. For that, you need at least one Super Bowl on the resume.
And only one other coach has one of those in Dallas.
Barry Switzer, Glory Thief
And this is exactly who I think Jerry has in mind when he says other coaches should be up there as well as Jimmy. And he’s dead wrong.
Yes, Switzer was the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XXX when they defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers.
So he’s officially credited as a Super Bowl winning head coach. But he won that title with Jimmy’s players.
In fact, I would argue he cost Dallas a chance to be the first NFL team to win three and possibly four Super Bowls in a row.
Switzer did not have Dallas ready to play in the 1994 NFC Championship game against the 49ers. His decisions in the game simply put the final nail in the Cowboys’ coffin.
They were a better team than the 49ers that year. They would have destroyed the Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX.
His 40-24 record in the regular season, his 5-2 playoff record, and all the accolades with his name on it were all stolen from Johnson.
The Solution
Jerry doesn’t have a lot of good will built up in Dallas. It started with the ham-handed way he replaced Landry with Johnson.
To this day, there are still people who hold that against him. Those three Super Bowls helped buy him some forbearance.
Imploding Texas Stadium and building JerryWorld in Arlington pushed the meter in the wrong direction for some fans.
Add in nearly 30 years of not even making it to a conference championship game, much less a Super Bowl, and Jerry isn’t exactly a saint in Dallas.
It’s time for Jerry to check his ego at the door, buy himself a little good will, and be the better man.
He needs to acknowledge that without Johnson laying the foundation in the early 1990s those three Lombardi trophies don’t happen.
Nor would the franchise he paid $65 million for — along with $75 million for Texas Stadium in 1989 — be worth billions today.
At some point this season, on separate game days, both Johnson and DeMarcus Ware need to walk into AT&T Stadium and see their names up on the Ring of Honor.
In both of their cases its overdue. In Johnson’s case its long, long overdue.