Finally, The Dallas Cowboys Are Doing It Right

Oct 11, 2014; Fayetteville, AR, USA; Dallas Cowboys owner

Jerry Jones

is honored along with his teammates from the 1964 team prior to the game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Arkansas Razorbacks at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports

The Dallas Cowboys are one of the most historic franchises in all of sports. From its inception in 1960 to now, there is no team in any sport that gets the attention, good, bad, or indifferent, like the Cowboys. Not even the famous New York Yankees can match the attention of the Cowboys. No team is as loved and hated as the Cowboys.

Haters from other teams spend more time worried about the Cowboys than do their own teams. No team drive ratings like the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys have the highest rated games when they play. Hell, they went more than a decade without a playoff victory, yet they were still the most watched team and most interesting team in the NFL.

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Find me another team in the NFL that can do that. Please find me a team that can literally be slightly above .500 from its last Super Bowl victory in 1995 and still be relevant. You won’t. I don’t care how historic their franchise is. That goes for the Steelers, Packers, 49ers, and Patriots, just to name a few, since they all have appeared in at least five Super Bowls.

The Cowboys got this way by winning. Winning big time. It started with Tom Landry, the man with the Fedora Hat. Landry wasn’t successful at first as the Cowboys head coach. But with time and the genius work of GM Tex Schramm, Landry took the Cowboys to five Super Bowls and winning two of them.

Landry had 20 consecutive winning seasons. Not to mention drafting Hall of Famers Roger Staubach, Bob Hayes, Bob Lilly, Tony Dorsett, Randy White, Rayfield Wright, and Mel Renfro. Landry laid down the winning tradition of the Cowboys and made them “America’s Team”.

Jerry Jones

When Jerry Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys in 1989, the Cowboys were coming off of a 3-13 season and were pathetic, no longer the winning organization under Landry. Jones fired Landry and replaced him with his former college teammate, Jimmy Johnson. After a disastrous 1-15 season, the Cowboys went 7-9, 11-5, 13-3, and 12-4. Winning consecutive Super Bowls in Johnson’s last two seasons.

The Cowboys were definitely back. Eventually, the Cowboys went on to win three Super Bowls in four years, win over 90 games in the decade, became the team of the 90’s, and produce four Hall of Famers. The Boys were back.

They were temporarily.

Jones would fire Johnson after winning his second consecutive Super Bowl. Replacing him with Barry Switzer. Switzer would win that other Super Bowl with Johnson’s boys. The last time the Cowboys won a Super Bowl.

And that’s when the Cowboys became mediocre.

As Jones leading the way as the Cowboys’ draft guru, the team drafted miserably, year after year. No longer was Johnson there to find the hidden gems like Darren Woodson, Larry Brown, Leon Lett, Erik Williams and Brock Marion. To make matters worse, the Cowboys would lose Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, and Daryl “The Moose” Johnston to career ending injuries. The team that won the most games in the 90’s suddenly became the most mediocre franchise in the NFL.

The Cowboys opened the 2000’s with three straight 5-11 seasons. It wasn’t until Jones had enough of losing that he hired Bill Parcells and the Cowboys started winning again. Parcells immediately turned the Cowboys around, going to the playoffs in his first season.

Parcells would draft the likes of Jason Witten, DeMarcus Ware, Terence Newman, Julius Jones, Marion Barber, Chris Canty. And signed two undrafted rookies to camp that eventually became starters. Miles Austin being one. The other being Tony Romo.

The “Big Tuna” had put faith back in the Cowboys and the players he drafted would stay on the roster for several years and make plenty of Pro Bowls. The Cowboys would make it to the playoffs in 2006, only to lose in heart breaking fashion to the Seattle Seahawks.

Parcells would resign after the 2006 season and Jones did the predictable and hired Wade Phillips. Coach Cupcake, the ultimate yes man, didn’t do much but take a very talented football team as the number one seed to the playoffs only to lose to the hated Giants in the divisional round. That was his only highlight.

2010

When Jason Garrett took over as head coach in the middle of the 2010 season for the underachieving Phillips, nobody really knew what to expect from Garrett besides being a coach Jones really liked. But aside from Garrett being the head coach, a scout by the name of Will McClay was part of the organization and Stephen Jones was more active. Things changed for the better. Although the Cowboys would go through three straight 8-8 seasons, they were drafting better players and were getting closer to the playoffs.

That persistence paid off this season with a 12-4 regular season record, winning the NFC East, earning a playoff victory, and having one of the best tandems in the NFL. Dez Bryant and Tony Romo. Not to mention a really good coach in Garrett.

And the fact that Jones is no longer calling the shots like he used too. We all know he has some say but with the departure of DeMarco Murray and the team not re-signing key players to save money, lets you know its a new day in Valley Ranch. Jones got out of his own way and allowed the “football people” to make the right decisions.

This is what the Cowboys’ fans everywhere has been waiting to see: Jones as the owner of a talented team that can go win a Super Bowl and constantly win. Win like Tom Landry did back in the day. When they became “America’s Team”.

When Jones bought the Cowboys back in 1989, the late GM of the Cowboys, Tex Schramm, told him “the Dallas Cowboys are the glitz and the glamour of the NFL.”

Jones should remind everyone of that in tonight’s draft.

Because, finally, the Cowboys are doing it right.

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