It's time for Cowboys fan "Myth Busting'...

It's time for Cowboy fan 'Myth Busting'... 

*[I'll preface this that my posting is really a TV mini series in length. It's not the Cliff Notes version favored by many fans. I won't apologize for it's length, as a more thorough rendering of topic was my intent. Sorry for it's length, so please allow me to post seven pages before starting your comments...thanks]


All right, this fan has put up with fellow 'fans' for some time now...and generally it was a one directional call to arms against any and all Cowboy fans who did not embrace a wholesale onslaught of insult and demeaning of the terms involved with anything directly related to responsibility or production on the carpet itself. This was elevated to a full blown and grass root's 'support' of the team to include outright degradation of all so called rose-colored wearing fans that did not want to go so far as being a true rebel and provide funds to erect a billboard directly accross from the New Stadium and from it's vantage insult the very top level involved in the franchise itself. These insult hurlers wanted nothing less than the immediate removal of Jerry Jones himself, as GM of his own team. They would settle for nothing less to give any credability to the illustrious organization or those fans who followed them due to what they had done in the past and the demonstrated more recent events in that same franchise.

No matter what was presented to this self appointed keepers of the grand vision, they, and 'they' know who YOU are....would have nothing to do with analytical analysis. They would always substitute an insult driven and personal vindication of their own pleasure limiting blinders instead. They never stopped short of a humiliating and stereotyped attack against anyone not first proclaiming Jerry Jones as a fumbling ingrate; Wade Phillips as a delapidated and defeated overreaching bowl of jelly; and a total lack of 'guts' in a whole roster of players. NO, it NEVER ended short of a tar and feathering, and usually, an attempt to run such diversive elements as simple fans telling it like what they saw....off 'Cowboy' sites or insulting with the NEW social low level of cultivation. They called them idiots, retards, and childish for sticking to the actual presentation of a differing view of developments and actual trends taking effect even as those proclaimed that in fact there was NOTHING ever to occur until (1) Jerry Jones was no longer anywhere near actual participation in football decisions; (2) Wade Phillips was removed from any function on a coaching staff of the Dallas Cowboys; (3) there was just too little actual talent on the offense after TO's departure, to propell the Cowboys into a realistic competition against NFC East Rivals in New York and Philadelphia; and (4) there just was too little talent left on the defense after Dallas allowed such elements as Chris Canty, Anthony Henry, Kevin Burnett, and Greg Ellis to depart.

The myths of gloom strongly thrived on such elements of association as Jerry wandered into the Dallas scene totally unprepared and blind in his dealings from the start. He was supposedly a non-football person who relied upon Jimmy Johnson's ability to discern talent and forge direction for both he and the franchise. Through a transition of ownership, all blame was thrown at Jerry for the end of Tom Landry's time at the head of a vastly changed team in a NFL that had started a new direction in talent and applications as well.

Just to get things back in a realistic perspective, let's just look at what the picture of Jerry in an executive capacity should be described as such:


*(taken from the official Dallas Cowboys site)

Executive Profile

In one of the most dramatic eras of ownership in professional sports, Jerry Jones's stewardship of the Dallas Cowboys has brought unprecedented results and success to one of the world's most visible sports entities.

Highlighted by Super Bowl victories following the 1992, 1993 and 1995 seasons, Jones became the first owner in NFL history to guide his team to three league championships in his first seven years of ownership.

In 1995, Dallas also became the first team in NFL history to win three Super Bowls in four seasons while tying the NFL record for most Super Bowl victories by an organization with five.

By 1999, the first decade of Jones's ownership closed with eight playoff appearances, six division titles, four conference championship game appearances and three world crowns. Dallas closed the millennium as the NFL's "Team of the Decade" for the 1990s.

Since he took over as general manager in 1989, the Cowboys have drafted 17 different players who have gone on to appear in a combined total of 63 Pro Bowls. Dallas has also signed four veteran free agent players who have made 13 Pro Bowl appearances while representing the Dallas Cowboys. Since 1989, the Cowboys have made 97 trades, the most celebrated of which was the 1989 deal that sent Herschel Walker to the Minnesota Vikings and provided the personnel foundation for three league titles.

In selecting the on-the-field leadership for the Cowboys, Jones hired a pair of coaches who won three Super Bowls in Dallas: Jimmy Johnson (1992-1993) and Barry Switzer (1995). Chan Gailey followed with a division title and playoff appearances in 1998 and 1999. In 2003, Jones successfully recruited two-time Super Bowl winner Bill Parcells to Dallas, and Parcells then directed the team to a 10-6 record and a return to the playoffs in his first year on the job. In the last 27 years, 26 different owners have entered the National Football League. Of that group, only Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft of New England have guided their franchises to more than two Super Bowl championships. Moreover, Jones joins Art Rooney, Jack Kent Cooke, Al Davis, Eddie DeBartolo and Kraft as the only men to have won at least three Super Bowls as NFL owners.

On the league front, he has actively contributed to enhancing the NFL's status as the world's premier professional sports league by serving on the NFL's Competition Committee, the Broadcast Committee, the Management Council Executive Committee and the Business Ventures Committee. His vision in the areas of marketing, corporate sponsorships, television, stadium management and community service has made a visible imprint on the landscape of sports in America.

As a co-captain of the 1964 National Championship Arkansas Razorbacks, Jones is one of a very small number of NFL owners who actually earned a significant level of success as a football player. Jones is currently living his passion by engineering the fortunes of an NFL franchise. A man of varied interests who will not rest on yesterday's achievements, he is a dedicated businessman and family man sharing a vivid enthusiasm for both.

The Dallas Business Journal picked Jerry as the 2010 Business Man of the Year....and describes his progression as follows:

A Cowboy to the Core
by Chad Eric Watt Jan 04 2010


Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has changed the NFL game with his maverick moves and Texas-size ambitions.

A win is a win.

That’s the message Jerry Jones is trying to convey to the media swarming around him in the Dallas Cowboys’ locker room.

It’s November, and his first-place NFL football franchise has just defeated the lowly Washington Redskins 7-6, scoring the game’s sole touchdown on a 10-yard pass with 2:41 left to play.

Jones didn’t throw the ball, catch the pass, or call the play. He hasn’t strapped on football gear in 45 years.

Yet, he’s about to hold court.

“It’s a real, real statement for this team to have won this football game,” said Jones, shifting effortlessly into the babble typically reserved for star players and coaches in post-game press conferences.

In any other locker room, the owner would have been way out of place. But the players don’t seem to notice, and the coaches don’t protest.

This 67-year-old owner is in his natural position. In the spotlight, in his suite, on the sideline, and in the locker room—every aspect of the Cowboys’ business is Jerry Jones’ business.

Ultimately, Jones can’t control whether the team wins or loses on the field, but he can make it into an efficient moneymaking machine—and he has, in every way imaginable. From his innovative approach to marketing the team to the one-of-a-kind fan experience he created with the opening of Cowboys Stadium at the start of this season, Jones’ impact on the NFL cannot be overstated. And, after more than 20 years in North Texas, during which time he has been a leading supporter of the Salvation Army, his impact on the region extends well beyond his team. That’s why the Dallas Business Journal has picked him as our Executive of the Year for 2010.

The Dallas Cowboys’ $1.2 billion stadium will help the football club add more than $360 million to the company’s top line for the 2009 season. But, regardless of the arena, Jones has built the iconic Dallas Cowboys into a lucrative and seemingly recession-resistant business that’s standing strong in the face of the worst recession since he bought the team.

The team sold all the suites in the new stadium, albeit some on a single-game basis. The recession’s biggest impact on the football club is that, as of mid-December, it hadn’t sold naming rights for the venue.

Still, the Dallas Cowboys are the most valuable franchise in the National Football League, and neck and neck with Britain’s Manchester United soccer club for being the most valuable sports business on the planet.

Jones was a millionaire when he bought the Cowboys. Rebuilding the team made him a billionaire and enabled him to create a billion-dollar arena for the team (with a little help from the people in Arlington).


A Maverick From the Start

The most hands-on owner in the NFL first became known as the rich Arkansas oilman who bought the Dallas Cowboys and immediately fired its beloved head coach to hire his college teammate.

At the same time he was bringing change to the Dallas Cowboys he also was bringing change to the National Football League.

“No one handed us an operating manual,” Jones said, referring to how his team should be run.

Visiting with other owners, Jones could get a sense of how other teams were doing it. But, even 20 years later, he marvels more at the things they weren’t doing at the time.

“You couldn’t find a team that was involved in stadiums,” Jones recalls. And few teams did anything special with their brands.

Jones began changing that as soon as he could, at first in the face of lawsuits from the league and howls of protests from his fellow owners.

Over time, that’s changed.

Newer owners saw a method to Jerry’s madness.

“Jerry is a big thinker who can execute,” said Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots. “He is one of the best salesmen I’ve ever met.”

As he’s shifted from rebel to part of the institution, Jones says he’s slowed down. But that’s hard to believe. He’s constantly thinking—words sometimes fail to keep up with his mind. He’s at the same time both smooth and intense, focused and restless, constantly fiddling with his Super Bowl ring. (He has three, but wears only one at a time.)

“He is so smart, so creative, and has so much energy, he just blurs past you,” said Bill Lively, president and CEO of the North Texas Super Bowl Host Committee and a former director of the Dallas Cowboys band and halftime productions.

Before the Redskins game, Jones stopped an interview to take a call from offensive coordinator Jason Garrett. Jones told his play caller that Kevin Ogletree deserved a roster spot as the team’s fifth wide receiver, and he ought to get more repetitions in practice and in games. With that call concluded, he’s immediately back in the interview, as if it never happened.

That’s how involved Jones is in running his team. And his work has only gotten more intense. The Cowboys are a playoff-caliber team with a recent history of underachieving. Then there was that billion-dollar construction project during the last four years. The folks filling the new stadium deserve a better effort from the team, Jones says. And Jones himself deserves better.

“All you have to do is walk in here and know that I mean business,” Jones said, standing proudly in the new stadium.

Buying Low

Jones is the high-profile boss of the highest-profile team in the highest-profile sport on the continent. And, as of last year, he got a high-class football stadium to match.

That’s a long way from 1989, when he paid $160 million for the Cowboys—$150 million for the team and $10 million toward Herschel Walker’s guaranteed and unpaid contract.

The National Basketball Association was on the rise. And Texas in the late 1980s was stuck in a recession highlighted by real estate foreclosures, bank failures, and an energy bust. Cowboys owner Harvey R. “Bum” Bright, an oilman himself, had to put the team up for sale.

“In 1989, you not only had an economically depressed climate, you had a mentally depressed climate here,” Jones said. “If that hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to buy the Cowboys.”

As coach Tom Landry said a tearful goodbye, newspapers reported, incredulously, that the man who fired him planned to set up his own office at the Dallas Cowboys headquarters in Valley Ranch where he would be full time. Jones might even oust longtime general manager Tex Schramm and actually run the team himself. (Schramm departed shortly thereafter.)

For those closest to Jones, his behavior wasn’t puzzling at all.

Before oilman Mike McCoy was Jones’ partner in the business that made them wealthy, he recalls that Jones was a minority owner in another drilling project, but Jones still behaved like the boss.

“He was still doing it the Jerry way—he had a whole lot of minority interest,” McCoy said. (In fact, Jones sought out McCoy and convinced him to partner on an oil business so that Jones could be the boss.)

“He wouldn’t ever own something that he didn’t run,” said Charlotte Jones Anderson, Jerry’s daughter and the club’s president of charities and vice president of brand management. “He felt like he was going to go in and run this business and do the best job he could.”  It was a big job.

The Cowboys still had a sterling reputation as a football team, but as a business, it was bleeding red ink.

“The interest was $75,000 a day, and the operation, stadium and team, was losing $1 million a month,” Jones said. “So combined, $75,000 a day and a million a month, that’s over $100,000 a day.”

Jones always wanted to own a football team. A year out of the University of Arkansas at age 24, Jones seriously looked at buying the American Football League’s San Diego Chargers. The price would have been about $5.8 million.

His father, Pat Jones, who at the time owned a successful insurance business, advised him against it. Jerry walked away. Weeks later, the AFL and NFL merged, and the Chargers ultimately sold for $11 million.

“My dad always told the story of how he cost me $5 million to $6 million right out of the chute,” Jones said.

Son of a Showman
That’s probably the only bad business advice Jones ever received from his father.

Jerral Wayne Jones was born in Los Angeles, but raised in Arkansas, where his father had a supermarket business.

“He was quite a showman,” Jerry Jones recalls. “He would walk around in a white cowboy hat and cowboy suit.”

The showman was also a hard worker, and he expected the same from his son, even after two-a-day football practices.

The elder Jones later left the grocery business and started Modern Security Life Insurance Co., which made him millions when he sold it in the early 1970s.

It’s fair to say Jerry Jones had a head start in business. In addition to his father’s tutelage and fortune, Jones played football for the University of Arkansas, winning a national championship in 1965. That opened doors in the Arkansas business world.

Whatever support Jones received from his father he multiplied tenfold by starting his own oil business at the right time, in April 1981. That was just before the energy bust—a terrible time for companies with existing assets and debts, but a great time to get started.

“While everybody was floundering in a terrible environment, we were drilling our very best wells,” said McCoy, Jones’ partner in Arkoma Exploration Co.

Changing the Game

After laying his oil fortune on the table to buy the Dallas Cowboys, Jones quickly set about changing the team and, ultimately, how all pro football teams operate.

In 1990, Jones rebid the Cowboys’ local radio rights, signing a deal with KVIL-FM 103.7 and ending a 19-year run on news-radio station KRLD-AM 1080.

KVIL paid $3.5 million a year for five years, according to newspaper reports at the time—up from $2 million a year that KRLD had been paying.

Jones’ business partner McCoy said the NFL and its teams have historically “awarded” broadcast rights, rather than creating a competitive-bidding environment.

“What you need is one additional bidder and all the strategy changed,” McCoy said. “If you have an odd man out, the price goes through the roof.”

Three years later, with Jones on the NFL’s television committee, the Fox television network bid $1.5 billion for the right to air National Football Conference games, shutting out longtime broadcaster CBS. Fox’s offer of about $395 million a year topped CBS’ top offers by more than $100 million a year. That contract led to a new era of ever-escalating deals for NFL television rights.

On the radio side, Cowboys radio continues to move: Last April, the Cowboys dumped The Ticket (KTCK-AM 1310) for a startup all-sports-radio competitor The Fan (KRLD-FM 105.3). KRLD-FM adopted the same call letters as its AM sister station in December 2008.

But media rights weren’t the only thing changing. Inside the stadium, Jones got a license to sell beer in Texas Stadium in 1991, after two years of ownership.

Previously, the stadium was BYOB, and the Cowboys’ concession revenue—a percentage paid to the club by a vendor—was only a pittance.

To convince a skeptical City of Irving to allow beer sales in Texas Stadium, Jones brought bags of empty beer cans and whiskey bottles collected in the stadium after a game.

Beginning with the new stadium, Cowboys concessions now are handled by Legends Hospitality Management LLC, a joint venture between the Cowboys and New York Yankees led by Mike Rawlings, a former Pizza Hut executive.

Legends is bringing a completely different approach to stadium food and drink, Rawlings said.

Bad stadium food is a result of the way the business is structured: The food vendor writes a big check for the right to sell to the crowd and then goes about trying to make money by charging big dollars for bad food and drink.

Legends, by contrast, operates like a joint venture with teams and stadium operators. It pays a smaller rights fee up front, but shares revenue down the road.

“The teams feel more accountable for the fans to be happy,” Rawlings said.

And the more Legends sells, the more the partnership makes for its owners.

Rawlings didn’t share financial stats for Legends’ first year thus far, but said things are going well.

“We’ve blown past our numbers,” he said. “Fan satisfaction and training have been excellent.”

The Ultimate Salesman
But more than negotiating richer deals from the usual sources for his team, Jones found new ways to make money from the Cowboys.

In 1989, the Dallas Cowboys had two main revenue sources: ticket sales and broadcasting contracts.

“The only sponsor we had materially was American Airlines, which sponsored the media guide,” Jones said. “There were many things regarding the promotion of the team that weren’t being done at all.”

When he bought the team, the Cowboys’ blue star and other trademarks were held in an NFL pool, which controlled most sponsorships, clothing deals, and merchandising. When that deal expired, Jones pledged he would begin selling the Cowboys himself.

“I’ve got too much that I can do with our marks and logos,” he said.

In August 1995, he signed a $40 million deal with Pepsi, despite the leaguewide deal with Coca-Cola. A month later, he signed a sponsorship deal with Nike, again without the NFL’s knowledge or consent.

The league sued Jones; Jones sued back. And fellow owners began taking aim at Jones.

But a funny thing happened on the way to NFL anarchy. The Cowboys’ side deals didn’t particularly diminish the leaguewide sponsorships.

“It grew the pie a lot bigger,” Jones said. “The NFL ended up with bigger revenues, and the clubs ended up with bigger revenues.”

Explaining that to the league office and incumbent owners was frankly too difficult, the master salesman says.

“Words wouldn’t get it done; you had to almost show them,” Jones said.

“The idea of clubs having a soft drink and the league having a different one—that wouldn’t work. Well, it works. They’re getting two different things—it is just twice or more the value.”

A year later, the sides settled their dueling lawsuits, and the Cowboys got the freedom to sell what they had wanted.

Now, instead of doubt and distrust, Jones is finding his ideas are getting the benefit of the doubt.

“I was going over a concept about signage and sponsorship, and (Tennessee Titans owner) Bud Adams came up to me and said, ‘Jerry, I didn’t understand a word you’re saying, but I want to do it. You’re enthusiastic about it,’” Jones said.

Big Front Door, Small Back Door

Jones excels at making money with the help of others. When he’s spending money, he’s just as intense about not spending more than he has to.

The lesson he learned from his father is the one about a big front door and a small back door, or, put another way: Take in as much as you can, but be mindful of how much you pay out.

“The hardest thing to copy is the kind of common sense he has about business—knowing a good deal from a bad deal. He’s just good at it,” McCoy said. “He’s very meticulous about making decisions.”

When the Cowboys moved into the new stadium, American Airlines more than doubled its sponsorship presence in the new stadium. That’s because the Cowboys are a strong brand, and they’re good to work with, said Billy Sanez, director of advertising, promotions, and corporate communications for American Airlines.

“Are they going to take your money and run? No,” Sanez said. “They’re interested in whether our programs work.”

At home games, American is running a contest promotion called “co-owner for a day,” which aims to treat a fan to a game day in Jerry’s shoes, almost. Implicit in that promotion is that the owner’s position—not quarterback, not head coach (in case you forgot, his name is Wade Phillips)—is the best spot on this football team.

The co-owner promo is one of the more memorable advertisements that Cowboys fans see during a home game. The second quarter of the Redskins game featured nearly as many promotional spots as it did replays. (Replays and cheerleader shots on the stadium’s giant scoreboards carry sponsorships too.)

The Dallas Cowboys excel at making the most of its sponsorships, but not overdoing it, said Erin Patton, a former Nike executive, who is now a brand management consultant and Cowboys season ticket holder.

“What the Cowboys do really well—they have a strategic sponsorship process,” he said. “It’s not just putting someone’s logo somewhere. They really figure out how to integrate their sponsors into the experience. It becomes authentic to the fan.”

Jones’ intensity is a great deal for his business partners in making money, but tough when it comes to getting him to spend his money.

After Emmitt Smith’s second Super Bowl win in the early 1990s, the star running back held out for the first two games of the next season as part of a contract dispute.

“The Cowboys had the leverage, plain and simple. They tried to utilize that leverage,” Smith said.

But the Smith-less Cowboys started out 0-2 and Jones and Smith came to terms. When he was back on the squad, it was business as usual—for the next eight years. Smith left the Cowboys after the 2002 season without a contract.

“(Jones) didn’t want to make an offer to me (at that time) because he felt like he was going to insult me,” Smith said. “I probably would have played for less money, but we just never got around to talking about how much less.”

Smith would play two years for the Arizona Cardinals before re-signing a one-day contract with Dallas and retiring a Cowboy.

Billfold in the Car, a Half Cent on the Table

The negotiator Smith dealt with is the one Arlington Mayor Bob Cluck thought he was going to meet with in 2004 after stadium talks fell apart between Jones and the City of Dallas.

“I had heard so many things about Jerry Jones. Somebody said, ‘Look, when you go over there, don’t take your billfold with you,’ ” Cluck said. “And I believed that—I left my billfold in my car.

“It turned out he’s a man of his word; he does what he says he’s going to do. He has never tried to put anything over on us.”

Of course, Cluck and Arlington had something Jerry Jones could use—a half cent of local sales tax. Arlington used the same tax revenue to build the Texas Rangers’ Ballpark at Arlington and retired it early when higher-than-forecasted sales taxes paid off that project.

Thanks to investments in public transportation, Dallas and Irving didn’t have any more sales tax to offer. That, plus a cap on Arlington’s portion of the building costs made the stadium deal work.

“The fact of the matter is Dallas didn’t have access to a source of financing that was freed up,” said Ray Hutchison, a public finance lawyer at Vinson & Elkins, the law firm that represented Arlington in the deal with Jones.

After Arlington voters approved the additional tax to cover the city’s $325 million stadium investment, Arlington ended up getting a $1.2 billion facility. The construction and opening of the stadium have helped Arlington weather the recession better than its neighbors, Cluck notes.

Sales tax collections 10 months into 2009 were down 10 percent and 7 percent in Dallas and Fort Worth, respectively, while Arlington is down 2 percent for the same time.

“We would’ve been down (more) if not for the revenue Jerry Jones brought in,” Cluck said. 

Buying a Super Bowl?

Jerry Jones can build the most valuable pro football team in the league. He can build a cathedral to sports and entertainment. He can unite Dallas, Fort Worth, and the suburbs while hosting the 2011 Super Bowl. He can control the weather there.

But he can’t control who wins the games played there.

Yet, on the horizon, there’s a chance to change that. The National Football League’s labor agreement with the players association is set to expire after the 2011 Super Bowl in Arlington.

If the two sides don’t reach an agreement before March, the 2010 season will be played without a salary cap. While a number of other rules come into play in an uncapped year, the Cowboys, fueled by revenue from the new stadium, could become the New York Yankees of football.

The Yankees collected their 27th World Series baseball championship last fall, in large part by outbidding all other teams for top-notch talent. Major League Baseball doesn’t have a salary cap.

Jones was noncommittal about how he would operate in an uncapped year.

“Just because you have a dollar in that year doesn’t mean you need to spend it,” he said.

Cowboys chief operating officer Stephen Jones was just as circumspect about buying a Super Bowl the year the game is played in Arlington, but it’s clear that father and son have spent time thinking about the prospect.

“We’ve got to have a plan, regardless,” Stephen Jones said.

Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, said that money alone can’t buy championships, even without a salary cap.

“What we’ve learned is you need to get quality and value,” he said. “Spending money isn’t going to get you wins.”

But it can get you a stadium that’s built for championship teams.

“When you make the kind of commitments it takes to build a stadium like this, you don’t have to waste a lot of energy explaining yourself,” Jones said.

“You don’t have to explain to a lot of people where your expectations are.”

Now, this thread has already approached a mini-tv series length, but it could be exploded into specifics clarifying aspects of change and direction....just digressing a little to point directions here:

*(taken from the DMN)
On the issue of the 'wisdom' lost with the departure of Jimmy Johnsons:

It's like 2½ months shy of 20 years ago when I first laid eyes on Emmitt James Smith III, the Florida running back who came out early the year the Cowboys selected him in the first round of the 1990 NFL Draft.

Funny, the twists in life. The Cowboys needed a running back that year because:

First they traded Tony Dorsett to Denver in 1988 since he and Herschel Walker really were struggling to co-exist.

Then Jerry Jones buys the Cowboys and replaces Landry with Jimmy Johnson.

Then it takes less than half-a-season for Johnson to sour on Walker, realizing the team's only bonafide star player in 1989 was not his kind of running back.

Then the Cowboys trade Walker to Minnesota that season for a king's ransom, leaving the Cowboys without a serious running back and in need of what Johnson would call "the guy."
Even with such a great need at running back, the Cowboys ended up selecting Smith with the 17th pick in the draft . . . begrudgingly. Remember?

Johnson was infatuated with Baylor linebacker James Francis. He thought he could get by with Plan B free agent Keith Jones at running back. So Johnson spent the early portion of that first round trying to trade up from 21 to 13 with Kansas City to grab Francis, knowing he was going to go well before the Cowboys ever picked with the choice they received from Minnesota in the Walker trade since the team with the worst record in the NFL the previous season (1-15) actually already had spent what turned out to be the first pick in the 1990 draft selecting quarterback Steve Walsh in the 1989 supplemental draft.

Cincinnati pre-empted the trade. They grabbed Francis one pick ahead of Kansas City. And even when the Cowboys went back to the drawing board, Johnson still hadn't given up on Francis, then calling the Bengals trying to swing a trade. Cincinnati didn't want to budge.

Johnson and his coaching staff, made up of his former University of Miami assistants, knew all about Smith, what with that Hurricanes-Gators thing in the state of Florida. He was the guy they wanted but realized they were far too low to have their choice, and there was about to be a run on running backs since the only one taken to that point was Penn State's Blair Thomas going to the Jets at No. 2.

Time to move. So the Cowboys swapped firsts with Pittsburgh and sent them a third for the right to move to 17, where they selected Smith. After that, get this, the next three picks went like this: Green Bay, with two consecutive picks, first takes Ole Miss linebacker Tony Bennett and then Minnesota running back Darrell Thompson, and then Atlanta takes Washington State running back Steve Broussard - three running backs in a four-pick span.

Had the Cowboys sat at 21, Emmitt would have been long gone.

A more realistic picture of the present Cowboys is growing as I present a case here. This next season, these same Cowboys that received a basement full of ill received anticipations will again be a favorite in the NFC. The same pitfalls that loomed in their immediate past will again reappear in the continual year by year league that the NFL has evolved into. Assuming that the agreement with the Player's Association is again given yet another birthing.

That stated, it is still very respectable for a fan to favorably give respect and earned measure to the owner, Jerry Jones, and yes the GM as well....here, I'll include an 'appropriate' version given by another fan such as myself:

*(taken from the Dallas Cowboys Star Magaine)
Tip of Hat

I am a Dallas Cowboys fan's wife. I don't know too much about football, but I am learning. My husband is also an avid golfer. When he dies, I don't know if I should bury him on the golf course or in Arlington. But this letter is about Jerry Jones. He is quite the gentlemen. I have listened to some of the questions that have been put to him and he just smiles and answers them. In my opinion, some of these questions are insensitive, humiliating and degrading for the Cowboys. They are nosy and I refer to the letting go of Wade Phillips. For pete's sake, would Jerry tell the media before he told his head coach? The media, in any genre, be beligerent, insensitive and again, in my opinion, stupid. So, Jerry Jones, from this fan's wife, I take my hat off to you and think you are an admirable gentleman.

Anita C., Amarillo, Texas

From another fan yet:

Thanks to Tony and Jerry

As a fan of the 'Boys for 50 years, I want to thank Tony Romo for the great sacrifice he has made by cutting the ties with Jessica Simpson. No way he could rest, watch films and train with a major distraction like her. The next time he messes up, just think about the sacrifices and dedication that he has put in. I live in Eagles land. Got to tip my hat to Jerry for staying with Wade and believing in the young talent.

Francis W., Northampton, PA

No, fellow fans, there is life after a single monkey is removed off the proverbial back of any topic thrown up in a defiant attitude. Heck, with that perspective, get ready for a chimpanzee when Dallas plays Minnesota next season; then a orangutan when Dallas plays New Orleans; oh, and don't forget your gorilla when Dallas reaches the playoffs again and then needs to win the NFC Championship game next....myself, I'll just put on my rose-colored and enjoy yet another season....WITH Jerry the GM!!