Tyron Smith is a "Garrett Guy"

Unfortunately the mainstream sports media, and that includes the local Dallas media, very seldom do stories on the good guys.  They spend most of their time writing about the Aaron Hernandez's and Josh Brent's of the world.  And while these stories need reporting, I think a little balance about the good guys should occur also.  However, I doubt in today's tabloid world that will ever happen.  But thanks to the internet, stories can be written and published by other sources.  DallasCowboys.com has a great story about one of the good guys that you'll probably never hear about on ESPN or MMQB.  Take a look here, great read about Tyron Smith (right tackle), another one of those "Garrett Guys" that seems to fill the Cowboys ranks these days.

As Sergeant Schultz would say... "I know NOTHING!"

If you haven't watched Jason Garrett's opening address to the team, then you should now...Here....
If you have watched it, you know what I mean, when I say Jason has these guys trained on how to navigate the media.  After being asked about his engagement to Hulk Hogan's daughter, Costa answered with:

“We just got engaged, but my focus right now is really on training camp and doing my best for the team.”

Great answer Phil.  I noticed the same type of constraint last night while watching the Michael Irvin interview with Dez Bryant on NFL Network.  Dez kept the answers simple and on point, paraphrasing for Dez..... "we're working hard to make the team better".

Keep it up Cowboys Players, you know the media is always out to paint the Cowboys in a negative light - that's both local and national media.

Romo to Follow Garrett as Offensive Coordinator

Apparently Romo wants to follow in the footsteps of Jason Garrett, and after playing football as QB, become an offensive coordinator.  And who knows, after that possibly head coach (that's my comment, not Romo's).  Here's a quick hit from Dallas Morning News:

Romo wants to coach: Jerry Jones wanted Tony Romo to get more involved in the offense this off-season, and apparently Romo has taken to it like a fish to water. In fact, Jones revealed that his quarterback now has aspirations of becoming a coordinator one day. “[Romo] told me, ‘When I’m through playing ball, I want to be an offensive coordinator One of the biggest shame things for me is that I may never have gotten to call my own plays. I think I’m a heck of an offensive coordinator,’ ” Jones said.

Jason Garrett Video

Due to Peter King's bias against the Cowboys, I hate to promote his new MMQB, but I think every Cowboys fan should watch this video.  Excellent inside view of Jason Garrett and the opening Training Camp speech to the team.  

Click HERE to take you to a Star-Telegram blog to watch the video so you don't have to go to MMQB and give Peter "The Cowboys Hater" King more hits.

Peter King Uses Cowboys to Get Good Ratings for His New Website

It is really aggravating that the Cowboys let Peter King use them to promote his new website.  He has not been a friend of the Cowboys.  Click Here for Garrett's comments about Peter King having this access to his speech.  It obviously was not Garrett's choice, of course we all know it was Jerry's decision.  In the post Garrett tries to be nice and said....."He’s been a great friend to the NFL and a great friend to the Cowboys for years."  All you have to do is read any of King's MMQB articles and you know that simply is not the case.  Even in this new inaugural MMQB he lists how many times he talks about individual football teams and he admits that his mention of the Cowboys is second to least of all 32 teams.  While the Cowboys have been very mediocre for the past 15 years, they are still America's Team and still garner larger TV ratings than any other team, even when they are 8-8.  So for King to barely mention them is just a concerted effort on his part to ignore them.  Couple this small number of mentions in his article with the fact that the largest percentage of those Cowboys discussions are always in a negative light.  

So with all of that Cowboys Hating History, it's disconcerting that Jerry would "help" Peter King out with this new website. King obviously used the huge interest the Cowboys always brings to kick off the new MMQB. 

Read more here: http://sportsblogs.star-telegram.com/cowboys/2013/07/jason-garrett-calls-pre-camp-speech-posted-by-peter-king-nuts-and-bolts-but-says-motivation-is-no-1-.html#storylink=cpy

Cowboys Training Camp Schedule

We finally move away from the dark side of the moon.  Due to their participation in the Hall of Fame Pre-Season Game, the Dallas Cowboys are the first team to report to training camp.  Players started arriving in Oxnard California today, Friday July 19th with training to begin on Sunday July 21st.

That's right, it's starting to look a lot like Christmas...I mean Football.  Here is the Dallas Cowboys Training Camp schedule as currently posted.  Practices times tend to fluctuate periodically throughout the pre-season as coaches adjust schedules.

DALLAS COWBOYS TRAINING CAMP SCHEDULE

Date	Time / Action
Saturday, July 20th	12:00 p.m. - Camp Opening Press Conference
Sunday, July 21st	10:30 a.m. - First Walk-Thru
Sunday, July 21st	12:00 p.m. - Jason Garrett Press Conference
Sunday, July 21st	4:00 p.m. – First Team Practice
Monday, July 22nd	4:00 p.m. – Practice
Tuesday, July 23rd	4:00 p.m. – Practice
Wednesday, July 24th	4:00 p.m. – Practice
Thursday, July 25th	No Practice
Friday, July 26th	4:00 p.m. – Practice
Saturday, July 27th	2:30 p.m. – Practice
Sunday, July 28th	4:00 p.m. – Practice
Monday, July 29th	4:00 p.m. – Practice
Tuesday, July 30th	4:00 p.m. – Practice
Wednesday, July 31st	No Practice
Thursday, August 1st	4:00 p.m. – Practice
Friday, August 2nd	5:15 p.m. – Practice
Saturday, August 3rd	Team Travel to Canton, OH
Sunday, August 4th	No practice – Preseason Game –Dallas vs. Miami (7:00 PM CST)
Monday, August 5th	No Practice
Tuesday, August 6th	4:00 p.m. – Practice
Wednesday, August 7th	4:00 p.m. – Practice
Thursday, August 8th	Team Travel to Oakland, CA
Friday, August 9th	No practice – Preseason Game –Dallas vs. Oakland (9:00PM CST)
Saturday, August 10th	No Practice
Sunday, August 11th	5:15 p.m. – Practice
Monday, August 12th	4:00 p.m. – Practice
Tuesday, August 13th	4:00 p.m. – Practice
Wednesday, August 14th	4:00 p.m. – Practice
Thursday, August 15th	5:15 p.m. – Practice
Friday, August 16th	Break Training Camp
Saturday, August 17th	No practice – Preseason Game –Dallas @ Arizona (3:30PM CST)
Tuesday, August 28th	Kickoff Luncheon @ Cowboys Stadium (11:00 am CST)

Lock Out Jerry Jones

I know there are an endless number of Jerry Jones hate articles and blogs, many of which I have written myself.  But even here at the beginning of summer and a long way from Football season I came across a couple of items from writers and an ex-Cowboy player, discussing Jerry Jones interference.  Reading these made me get on the Jerry Jones Soap Box once again......

Here's the first item I found from the Dallas Morning News with quotes from Nate Newton.... Dallas News Staff Article - Nate Newton's Advice to Garrett

The reason the Cowboys are perennial losers since Jimmy left is because of Jerry Jones.  In the story above, here is an ex-Cowboys, Superbowl winning player talking.  In the article, he even admits that he "loves" Jerry, but he knows the mindset of young pro football players.  It's like an army, you have to be willing to go to war for your head coach, either through fear and/or respect.  With Jerry Jones interference, he automatically creates 2 - 4 losses each year, which is enough each year to keep the Cowboys out of the playoffs. In Dallas, Jerry always undermines the head coaches.  That's why Parcells left.  Even though Parcells was building something good, because of the T.O. thing (and who knows what else was going on in the background that we the general public are not privy to) he knew that Jerry would ultimately undermine everything he had done and that would be just enough interference to make the cowboys lose in the end.

In another transcript, Nate even goes on to discuss how Romo needs to ignore Jerry.... Dallas Morning News - Nate Newton transcript KSEN radio interview

Again, all of this from an ex-Cowboys player who loves Jerry Jones.  Regardless of how much he likes the man personally, Nate knows enough about pro-football operations to know that Jerry is the ultimate ruination of the once great football franchise, Dallas Cowboys.

Then if all of this didn't get me on enough of a Soap Box, coincidentally the great Randy Galloway of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, posted an article discussing the exact same thing...

Randy Galloway - "We Like this Jason Garrett Digging In"

 

With all of this in mind, my suggestion for Jason Garret is this.....

Meet with Monte Kiffin and Rodd Marinelli and say look...."It's hard to coach in Dallas because of Jerry. He's always meddling, splitting loyalties between the coaches. Just like you guys, you are loyal to him because he hired you, not me.  But let's get together as a group and be loyal to each other, and support each other in the face of Jerry.  Show him that we have control of this team offensively and defensively, that we are the football guys, that we make the decisions, not him".

Jason should build this consortium that over rules Jerry.  The players would see this happening and be responsive to the coaches again.  Same goes for Jason Garret and Romo, get together and shut Jerry up/out.  Then when the wins start piling up, their confidence and authority would grow.  Jerry would then become isolated as a rambling old, meddlesome man who everybody just ignores.

Cowboys End 2012 Season

The Cowboys end the regular season in familiar fashion.  A win/in or lose/go home scenario.  Once again for the Cowboys, they lose on a Romo interception and go home.  At this point what can you say that has not already been spoken, written or at least thought about.  There are the Romo haters and the Romo lovers, both have valid points.  There are the Jerry Haters (I don't think there are any Jerry Lovers) and they certainly have their justifiable and historical data points.  There are the Jason Garret haters and lovers.

As with most problems I don't think there is a one magic bullet theory.  I think there are issues to be corrected in each of these areas.  Regarding the Romo problem - sure if you could have Tom Brady, Peyton Manning or one of the two hot new QBs Luck and RGIII of course you would trade Romo, but those are not options (well at least not now, Jerry probably could've coaxed Peyton here during his whistle stop tour of franchises last spring).  So you have Romo who is a very good QB.  Not a great QB, but he definitely is better than a lot of the QBs in the league and always helps the team win 3-4 regular season games.  So you keep Romo, you begin an earnest search for his replacement as he is now 33 years old, and you build a team concept that doesn't rely 100% on Romo, which now the Cowboys obviously do.  You do that by beefing up your defensive line to lower the score of opposing teams and thereby letting Romo know that he doesn't have to score 35 points to win.  You do substantial work in upgrading the offensive line so that:
1.  To take pressure off Romo so he won't be rushed into stupid mistakes as often.
2.  An upgraded Offensive line will help an obviously good running back DeMarco Murray run the ball more efficiently which will also take pressure off Romo.

The Jerry problem, nothing you can do about this.  His stamp is all over this team, and because of this there may not be anything that anyone can do.  His dysfunction may ruin this team regardless of any changes made.

Jason Garrett problem.  I for one, believe that in today's world, instant success is expected too often in pro coaching.  However, with the player parity in the league, I also see that Coaching is probably more important now more than ever.  With that said, I think JG should be allowed more time to establish his players and establish his environment.  Now this may be impossible with Jerry Jones running around the premises and getting into fights with Ratliff in the locker room, but I think JG should be given more time.  However, I do think he needs to bring in an Offensive Playcaller.  Being the head coach and offensive play caller is too much for one individual.  You may be able to do both well, but there is no way you can be great at both.  There is no doubt in my mind that this is why JG appears to have problems with time management in some games, it's because he's thinking about the next play to call.  There should be two separate people with these duties.  With Norv Turner and Tony Sporano now on the streets, there is no excuse for JG not hiring an Offensive Coordinator/Play Caller and relieving himself of playcalling duties.  

So while everyone has their theories and ideas, I think if you addressed two of these three problems as outlined above (I say two, because the third one - Jerry Jones problem, there is nothing that can be done about that one), then the Cowboys will at least have a chance at the Playoffs next year.
The most frustrating thing though is to have to write this type of essay year after year.