I have a serious question.

Is it just me or is anyone else struggling to care this offseason?  

Normally I check BTB a couple times a day in the offseason.  Now I am down to once a week.  Normally I consume draft info with the restraint of a crack whore.  This year, I can hardly bother to look at 40 times.  Normally I read up on free agents and devise a strategy so if the team needed me to run the front office in a pinch I would be comfortable doing it (certifiably insane but sadly true).  This year... I have hardly looked.  Normally I am counting the days to the draft, the rookie camps and training camps.  This year... not so much.

I think its because last season ended so brutally I am still flat.  

Maybe its because with no pick until #51 (is that right -- I am embarrassed that I am not even sure of that) and people thinking that there won't be any 2nd round grades left at that point.  Maybe it's because this is the first time since Parcells took over I felt like we had more needs than the year before.

But I fear its more than that.

I fear I that this year exposed the team as a three ring circus:

RING 1: 58 guys more focussed on what they say to the media than winning.  Guys trying to get other guys cut or traded.  Guys who break down into factions, a group that at times seems on the brink of a race riot.  Players more willing to call out unnamed teammates in the press than to take on a ball carrier.  Parcells used to have a sign that said "Losers come together in groups to gripe about coaching and playing time.  Winners come together as a team."  I sometimes wonder if he has pictures of the 2007 and 2008 Cowboys around the borders of that sign.

RING 2: The coaches.  I started to say "Led by Wade Phillips" but that may not be correct. To be conservative, I will just say the Nominal Head Coach appears to be a eunuch with the motto "I'm just glad to be here."  Assisting him (and I am I use that term lightly) is our very own Boy Genius, the highest paid assistant in the league who has devised the most predictable offense seen in years.  In his defense, its hard to game plan when you are focussed on undermining the head coach and tossing your players under the bus.  When did Garrett turn into a less effective Mike Martz with freckles?  Coordinating the defense? No one, heck who needs a DC.  Especially in this economy with a lockout coming -- why spend $ on coaches you might have to pay through a lockout if you just bought the world's first 240 foot long HD TV?

THE THIRD (AKA THE CENTER) RING: Our very own Arkansas born megalo maniac.  Some see him as the only owner in the league with a radio show.  Others see him as the GM who has gone the longest without a playoff win.  But he doesn't care -- that's right Jerry is just glad people are talking about him.  He LUVS to win.  The only thing he loves more is to be in charge.  What a shame it is becoming increasingly apparent those two things may mutually exclusive.

How we got here (or a not so brief history of my love affair with this team)...

THE FIRST FOOTBALL GAME I REMEMBER WAS SUPER BOWL XIII.  I was 4 3/4.  My grandfather (who is an Annapolis grad) explained that we pulled for the team with stars on their helmets because Roger Staubach was a Navy grad.  We lost.  I remained a Cowboys fan.  By the time I was old enough to follow the game on my own it was the early 80's (The Cacth is the first game I remember actual plays from).  We were the team that almost made it.  We had a run like the Eagles.  But I left each season thinking we would be better next year -- maybe I was just too young to know better.

THEN WE LOST TO THE RAMS 20-0.  It was clear even to me we were on the decline.  The next three years were bad.  Steve Pelleur bad.  But once we went 3-13 we had to be getting better.  After all, we still had Tom Landry.  Oops.

JONES BOUGHT THE TEAM.  Tom was fired.  I was crushed.  I hoped the NFL owners would not approve the deal.  They did. I was devastated... But we got Troy.  And Steve? Huh? At least things weren't boring.  I became a draftnik.  Our Coach / GM Jimmy Johnson got enough draft picks to make it  full time job. We were on the upswing. We became dominant.  Drafts became a bit less interesting, but Jimmy's wheeling and dealing kept things interesting -- until he flew to close to the sun.

IN THE TIME IT TOOK TO SAY DYNASTY, THINGS CAME CRASHING DOWN.  Jimmy out Barry in. Wow. Jerry became GM.  Noooooo.  We went from having a coach who got in Steve Young's head to a coach who bumped officials.  We went from a guy who made the difference to a guy who cost us games.  Things spun apart S L O W L Y.  It was like watching Tyson come unglued after he fired Rooney.  Still, we always had a puncher's shot and the offseason mattered. I still can feel the waves of shock at passing on Randy Moss.   He reminded of that by ending our season in 1999 and letting us know our run was over.

THEN CAMPO GOT HIS CHANCE.  Things got so bad so fast that it was easy to watch the offseason.  Parity was sinking in.  Teams made big swings and we had high draft picks -- three years in a row.  

PARCELLS TOOK OVER.  After 9 years of steady decline under the rule of JJ - GM his control was compromised.  The team got younger.  The team got better.  The draft was important because we were rebuilding.  It was important because we had a great eye for talent churning the roster. It was exciting because we were getting close. 

WADE TOOK OVER.  Jerry got more involved. After making Parcells the second coach since Landry who could hire and fire assistants, JJ hired Garrett as HC or OC (he wasn't sure) then kept interviewing to see if he could find a HC to sit over him (as much as a boss can command people he can't hire or fire).  Jerry went about building the best staff he could (provided he hired former Dallas Assistants).  Houck and Campo "came home".  But we got better, I pretended things would be ok.  Last offseason was fascinating because we had a few holes to plug.  The team looked like a fantasy lineup. WE WERE GETTING CLOSE.

THEN REALITY HIT.  There is a reason teams don't build fantasy lineups.  This may look like an All Star team, but it plays like a group of All Stars with no concept of team.  The flaws seem real.  It's hard to tell who the good guys are - Ware, Ratliff, anyone, Beuler? Beuler? Some of our best guys MAY be problem guys: Flo, Newman, James, Romo, maybe even Witten.  The potential problem players are signed to long-term contracts.   The team seems to hate each other.  

I FEAR THERE IS NO QUICK FIX.  A coaching change / transfer of control could work wonders but isn't a near-term reality.  Meanwhile the team has gone from young to not so young.  Give Jerry/Wade 09 and then hire another coach and give hime a year to make changes and it's 2011 before we can hope to be great.  The team can do it, but it won't be a young team ready to make a run, it will be an older team that hasn't had a pick in the top half of the draft for seven years.  What looked like a potential dynasty may be lucky to get to one superbowl.  We are no longer young (and aging), we are signing old players, we are giving up draft picks, we are making decisions reserved for teams that must win now but we have a locker room that can't win.  We are locking those guys into long term contracts.   Meanwhile Pittsburgh beats us to six by being a well run organization.

AS DEPRESSING AS IT IS, I THINK THE OUTLOOK FOR THE TEAM IS AS BLEAK AS THE OUTLOOK FOR THE ECONOMY.  I hope I irrationally depressed.  I hope I am selling the lows.  I hope the team plays to its talent, but this feels like the first step of a multi year decline.  I fear I am looking forward to years of watching frustrating games.  I just can't get psyched up for the offseason because I feel like the organization is covering rust with spray paint.

Is anyone else this un-enthused?