Cowboys biggest problem over the last 27 years has been coaching.
Sometimes I might agree, but the fact is that he's had at least two very successful coaches who took less talent to Super Bowl victories with other teams, Parcells and McCarthy.
Jerry Jones thought that anyone could coach a good team and be successful. He underestimated the value of the coach's input. He thought that he was above it all.
There are two types of very successful coaches. One is the technical type who understands the game and how it's played from every aspect. He knows defenses and offenses. He's always a step ahead of the other team, the first to make adjustments. They provide the tools, but mostly rely on the players to be self-motivated. Tom Landry was this type, one of the most innovative of his time.
The other type is the motivator, like Parcells or George Allen. They have the ability to get more out of a team than it's collective talent should allow. They inspire greatness from overachievers and instill the team purpose in every individual. These types surround themselves with good assistants for the technical side.
Jimmy Johnson embodied both of these types, a real rarity. Had Jones not run him off, I believe his players would have stayed with him for many more years instead of fleeing the Cowboy program for more dollars. Sure, he kept Aikman, Smith, and Irving but he lost an offensive line which many agree was the best ever in Dallas, gone to free agency. Who knows what might have been?
the man works his ass off with little on field to show for it for the past 27 years.
Jerry Jones is a saavy businessman and has built the Cowboys to the most valuable NFL franchise of 6.5 billion dollars value. Like most of us, he recognizes player talent when he sees it. What he does not understand is how to put together a team, which can perform as a single unit.
The Cowboys are and have been for many years a collection of individual talents, prima donnas, many of whom who look great when judged alone but unable to blend into a unit. They continually lead or near the top of the league in penalties, many of which occur at critical points in a game. It's their nature, to try and make the outstanding play when the chips are on the line, instead of performing their individual job to further the team's purpose.
On paper, everyone says the Cowboys have great talent. And, they do, but is that talent capable of blending into a team? The Cowboys are exciting to watch, a highlight reel of exceptional plays on offense and defense, yet continue to lose big games when team performance is on the line. They are highly undisciplined, and even some of the most disciplinarian of coaches have been unable to rein them in.
Over the years, Jones has continued to collect the misfits of the league, players with exceptional talent who just couldn't get along on other teams, players with personal problems or who've been in scrapes with the law. These players perform extraordinary feats and sell tickets, but are undisciplined and refuse to become part of the team execution. Other players resent them and it trickles down to inhibit team performance. Many of us old time Cowboy fans refer to Jones' tenure at Dallas as "gangster ball".
If you look at the really successful team programs over the past 25 years, you'll see very disciplined teams who don't tolerate penalties or turnovers or stupid mistakes. It doesn't matter how much talent a player has if he's too stupid to learn the system or too egotistical to join it.
