This morning's column will be another ongoing attempt at keeping 'em honest during the off-season at Valley Ranch.
You can hold the thank-you cards and letters. Praise is not deserved here. I'm simply a lonely servant of the people, waging a one-man crusade against local football corruption and stupidity.
On today's agenda are two items:
(1) Excuses. (2) Revisionist history.
Let us review the facts.
Since the wrap-up of the Cowboys season, there has been an extensive campaign at Valley Ranch that centers on diverting the criticism aimed at head coach Jason Garrett and his handpicked defensive coordinator, Rob Ryan.
Jason was in his first season as full-time HC. Rob came in brand new as the DC. And then, dad-gummit, neither had a full off-season to implement his "plan" because of that lockout thing.
Give these fellows another year, we are told, before passing judgment.
Actually, I can accept that in theory. What cannot be accepted is making it an excuse for the failures of Garrett and Ryan.
Why?
Today, at 5:30 on Channel 4. That's why.
The San Francisco 49ers are one win away from the Super Bowl if they can win at home against the Giants in the NFC Championship Game.
Jim Harbaugh is the rookie head coach of the Niners. Harbaugh stepped off the Stanford campus to take the job on Jan. 8 of last year, three days after Garrett was given his job by Jerry Jones.
One of Harbaugh's first moves was to bring in a new defensive coordinator, the NFL veteran, Vic Fangio.
In San Francisco, new coaches in the most key of roles were working in 2011 without the benefit of a full off-season and are now one win away from the Super Bowl.
Valley Ranch, find another excuse for Red J and Big Rob. This one is not valid. Harbaugh and Fangio have eliminated it.
Next up, the topic of revisionist history.
As Jerry now faces extreme heat, much more than even the usual, for his role as the Cowboys' king of football kings, he continues to advise everyone to look at his full body of work since 1989.
Jerry repeatedly counters the critics by saying his same iron hand has been in place for 23 seasons, meaning he was calling the football shots as the Dynasty Days team was built and the Super Bowls followed.
This is not true. Any of us, media-wise, who have covered the Cowboys since 1989, know it was not true. So does anyone who worked for the Cowboys in those days.
Since it was two decades ago, Jerry relies on this time gap to present a case that is not valid. But some people believe him, even local media people who came on the job after the fact.
Instead, however, of making an argument over any of this, let's go to Google, and also thank e-mailer Alton, the one who actually went to Google.
The following is from a Sports Illustrated column on the NFL by Peter King that appeared in the issue of Oct. 15, 1990.
Peter, of course, is now an NFL media celebrity, and one of the nice guys in the business. Despite his many current TV jobs, he still covers the NFL for SI.
It also needs to be said that, then as well as now, no national writer has more "inside" access at Valley Ranch, which is a compliment to the well-deserved power and influence of King.
Read the following and remember it was written in October 1990, the second season of the Jerry and Jimmy Era here:
King then went on to explain what the Cowboys had coming up in the 1991 draft, picks that included the Herschel Walker trade to Minnesota a year earlier.
More from King:
Let it be noted, the Cowboys, a 1-15 team under Johnson in 1989, won Super Bowl XXVII after the 1992 season.
And a final word from King in the 1990 article, this one pertaining to the Walker trade:
Underline, circle and put in quotes "all-encompassing."
Jerry gives us revisionist history on the Dynasty Days. It is not the truth. What King wrote is the truth.
Johnson had such total power in those days; Jimmy even negotiated players' contracts in the off-season for his first two years here.
When he quit doing it in 1990, Johnson told me about the contracts, "It was the dumbest thing I could have done.
The players held it against me, and for good reason.
"I was low-balling the players in negotiations, telling them they weren't that good, then the season would start and on Sundays I was trying to convince them how good they were."
Bottom line: Those Super Bowls were not won with Jerry calling the football shots. They were won because Jerry gave a football man total control of football.
Otherwise, thanks for your attention this morning. I remain a lonely servant of the people, attempting to keep 'em honest at Valley Ranch.
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/01/21/3677624/excuses-revisionist-history-wont.html#storylink=cpy
You can hold the thank-you cards and letters. Praise is not deserved here. I'm simply a lonely servant of the people, waging a one-man crusade against local football corruption and stupidity.
On today's agenda are two items:
(1) Excuses. (2) Revisionist history.
Let us review the facts.
Since the wrap-up of the Cowboys season, there has been an extensive campaign at Valley Ranch that centers on diverting the criticism aimed at head coach Jason Garrett and his handpicked defensive coordinator, Rob Ryan.
Jason was in his first season as full-time HC. Rob came in brand new as the DC. And then, dad-gummit, neither had a full off-season to implement his "plan" because of that lockout thing.
Give these fellows another year, we are told, before passing judgment.
Actually, I can accept that in theory. What cannot be accepted is making it an excuse for the failures of Garrett and Ryan.
Why?
Today, at 5:30 on Channel 4. That's why.
The San Francisco 49ers are one win away from the Super Bowl if they can win at home against the Giants in the NFC Championship Game.
Jim Harbaugh is the rookie head coach of the Niners. Harbaugh stepped off the Stanford campus to take the job on Jan. 8 of last year, three days after Garrett was given his job by Jerry Jones.
One of Harbaugh's first moves was to bring in a new defensive coordinator, the NFL veteran, Vic Fangio.
In San Francisco, new coaches in the most key of roles were working in 2011 without the benefit of a full off-season and are now one win away from the Super Bowl.
Valley Ranch, find another excuse for Red J and Big Rob. This one is not valid. Harbaugh and Fangio have eliminated it.
Next up, the topic of revisionist history.
As Jerry now faces extreme heat, much more than even the usual, for his role as the Cowboys' king of football kings, he continues to advise everyone to look at his full body of work since 1989.
Jerry repeatedly counters the critics by saying his same iron hand has been in place for 23 seasons, meaning he was calling the football shots as the Dynasty Days team was built and the Super Bowls followed.
This is not true. Any of us, media-wise, who have covered the Cowboys since 1989, know it was not true. So does anyone who worked for the Cowboys in those days.
Since it was two decades ago, Jerry relies on this time gap to present a case that is not valid. But some people believe him, even local media people who came on the job after the fact.
Instead, however, of making an argument over any of this, let's go to Google, and also thank e-mailer Alton, the one who actually went to Google.
The following is from a Sports Illustrated column on the NFL by Peter King that appeared in the issue of Oct. 15, 1990.
Peter, of course, is now an NFL media celebrity, and one of the nice guys in the business. Despite his many current TV jobs, he still covers the NFL for SI.
It also needs to be said that, then as well as now, no national writer has more "inside" access at Valley Ranch, which is a compliment to the well-deserved power and influence of King.
Read the following and remember it was written in October 1990, the second season of the Jerry and Jimmy Era here:
In March 1989, after he took the job as coach of the Cowboys, Jimmy Johnson asked veteran NFL coaches for advice. He wanted some tips. He wanted to do things right. Says Johnson: "Here's one thing they all told me: Make sure you get as much control as you can over the personnel side of the team."
So look at it now. Jimmy scouts, Jimmy drafts, Jimmy cuts, Jimmy coaches. No other coach in the league has as much power as the 3-18 Johnson. Although Cowboys owner Jerry Jones lists himself as president and general manager, he has such wide-ranging trust in Johnson that he allows his former college roommate to make almost all the football decisions -- including trades -- for the club.
So look at it now. Jimmy scouts, Jimmy drafts, Jimmy cuts, Jimmy coaches. No other coach in the league has as much power as the 3-18 Johnson. Although Cowboys owner Jerry Jones lists himself as president and general manager, he has such wide-ranging trust in Johnson that he allows his former college roommate to make almost all the football decisions -- including trades -- for the club.
King then went on to explain what the Cowboys had coming up in the 1991 draft, picks that included the Herschel Walker trade to Minnesota a year earlier.
More from King:
In the next three or four years, it should be clear whether Johnson used his power wisely. "Actually, we ought to know by 1992," Johnson says.
Let it be noted, the Cowboys, a 1-15 team under Johnson in 1989, won Super Bowl XXVII after the 1992 season.
And a final word from King in the 1990 article, this one pertaining to the Walker trade:
It'll be a good deal for Dallas if Johnson's all-encompassing job of rebuilding the Cowboys works.
Underline, circle and put in quotes "all-encompassing."
Jerry gives us revisionist history on the Dynasty Days. It is not the truth. What King wrote is the truth.
Johnson had such total power in those days; Jimmy even negotiated players' contracts in the off-season for his first two years here.
When he quit doing it in 1990, Johnson told me about the contracts, "It was the dumbest thing I could have done.
The players held it against me, and for good reason.
"I was low-balling the players in negotiations, telling them they weren't that good, then the season would start and on Sundays I was trying to convince them how good they were."
Bottom line: Those Super Bowls were not won with Jerry calling the football shots. They were won because Jerry gave a football man total control of football.
Otherwise, thanks for your attention this morning. I remain a lonely servant of the people, attempting to keep 'em honest at Valley Ranch.
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/01/21/3677624/excuses-revisionist-history-wont.html#storylink=cpy
