Jerry Jones is Playing the Ultimate Game of Madden

June 11, 2013; Irving, TX, USA; Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones talks during a press conference after minicamp at Dallas Cowboys Headquarters. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

Jerry Jones is simply living the dream. His dream, my dream, and by the sound of it – your dream. He owns and operates the Dallas Cowboys. He has given himself ultimate power. He chooses head coaches and assistant coaches. He makes draft decisions, free agent decisions, and retention decisions. All personnel runs through Jerry.

Many know Stephen Jones is involved in many of these decisions also. In fact he has a bigger role in most day to day personnel decisions. Pro scouts and draft scouts also have a say on player acquisitions, but Jerry has to approve it. Jason Garrett has to approve his staff and the players he’s willing to coach, but we all know Jerry first makes the decisions and then asks Jason afterwards. Garrett can make the little moves on his staff, but Jerry handles the big ones (Callahan, Kiffin).

It would be accurate to say most decisions are discussed as group and some are even made as a group. But only those that Jerry allows…

Jerry Jones has his own real-life Madden Football game going on. Just like in Madden Football, he gets to make all the decisions he wants. For those pesky little ones he will differ to his staff, but make no mistake, he handles the big ones.

If you play Madden Football you’re probably not much different. You make the big calls on the roster, but when it gets to later rounds in the draft, you really just base it on the scouting report. Why bore yourself with the lower-end players, right? Same thing for filling out the bottom of the depth chart – you may even let the CPU handle those spots. Well, Jerry does the same thing only his CPU is Stephen Jones and Jason Garrett. They handle the real work and the day to day stuff. Jerry just swoops in for the good stuff.

Sep 22, 2013; Arlington, TX, USA; Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones talks with son executive vice president Stephen Jones during halftime against the St. Louis Rams at AT

This doesn’t mean Jerry doesn’t listen to others. He really does listen and weighs those opinions in his decisions. Stephen Jones makes most of the calls and Jerry typically signs off on them, but the fact is – he’s the one signing off. He’s the final say in everything Dallas Cowboys. He still holds the GM title for that reason. Stephen spends more time as the GM but he’s impotent without Jerry’s signature. It’s really the same way you and I play video games, isn’t it?

Thankfully, he’s not making play calls or controlling player movement too. We’d probably see even more passing and we’d probably be going for it on 4^th and 10 at least once a game! But from the team management perspective, he’s just playing one big awesome video game. He’s living the dream. Now would you be any different?

Maybe you would – maybe you wouldn’t. The truth is you wouldn’t even know what you would do unless you were in his shoes. Fans are still coming and revenue is still flowing. Would you give up ultimate power. You can say you would, and you may even believe you would, but you know the old saying, “Ultimate power corrupts.”

Note: This past week I’ve received a record number of emails about Jerry Jones. None of them were favorable. We’ll be addressing some of those emails in the coming days. As I was reading them I was noticing many had their own plan they were confident in. Most mentioned they could do a better job. All of this got me thinking. Would we all do the same thing? We say the team needs a real GM but if we had the option of playing GM would it be too tempting to pass up? This drew the obvious parallel to Madden Football. If you don’t play this I apologize for using an unhelpful illustration but I think you still get the point regardless. Take the time and give it all some thought. If you have a particularly unique take on Jerry I encourage you to email your thoughts because I’d love to hear them. Or just feel free to comment below.

Do you have questions or comments regarding Dallas area sports? Email Reid at permaximum@hotmail.com. You may be included in the next weekly mailbag. Follow Reid on twitter @ReidDHanson