3 Reasons 'The Life Coach' Can Help Cowboys To The Super Bowl
FRISCO - Not too long ago, I am roaming the halls of The Star in Frisco, walking and talking with Jason Garrett. We turn a corner and the then-coach of the Dallas Cowboys observes a quartet of young players, strutting down a corridor, shoulder-to-shoulder.
"What do we have here?'' RedBall says with a laugh. "It's the 'Reservoir Dogs'!''
Each member of the foursome smiles and nods in response, and struts on their way ... quite oblivious, I'm quite sure, what the hell "Reservoir Dogs'' even is.
Garnett was corny but sincere, and over the course of the last decade, most of his players in Dallas recognized that and appreciated that. But when former Cowboys star Dez Bryant says to me, as he did the other day, "I like coach Garrett but I think he has a hard time connecting with young players today,'' I get what Dez means.
Meanwhile, the Jones family has the opposite problem. They connect just fine with the players, right up to the grandfatherly Jerry Jones. But I've long argued they connect too well and too deeply - to the point that some players and their families have joined the ownership on exotic vacations.
It's really neat that the Romo family and the Witten family got to travel to Turks and Caicos and Cabo with the Jones family. But what does it do to the morale and "feeling of family'' to the other 51 guys in the room?
Enter new coach Mike McCarthy and his new "assistant head coach'' Rob Davis, who has never actually been a football coach before ... and really, isn't going to be a football coach in Dallas.
Can Davis' presence single-handedly lift the Cowboys back to true Super Bowl contention? As we speak to the 51-year-old former Packers player (a long-snapper for a decade) and executive (he spent another decade essentially in "player development'' in Green Bay before leaving for the private sector in 2019), a Packers-turned-Cowboys player happens to stroll by.
"A legend,'' receiver Randall Cobb says of Davis.
Maybe, but "single-handedly''? No. With allowances from the Jones family and trust from McCarthy and buy-in from the players, though? I've pinpointed three areas where "The Life Coach'' can help.
1) 'GARRETT GUYS' - Garrett's Cowboys never had a leadership "void.'' But they still might've had a leadership "problem.''
Dating back to during coach Jimmy Johnson's time here, and in an even more pronounced way since his March 1994 departure, select Cowboys players have felt empowered to take their thoughts and concerns straight to the owner's box, where powerful and passionate paterfamilias Jerry would listen, learn and act.
The result, after 25 years of Deion Sanders creating a race war inside Valley Ranch after being anointed "Unofficial Assistant GM,'' of Terrell Owens believing a clique of teammates plotted against his success, of ex-Cowboys wondering if Garrett was disloyal to Wade Phillips as he schemed to take his job, of Garrett oddly choosing to go on "Guys Weekends Out'' with a select handful of players, of the Jones family oddly choosing to invite the Romo and Witten families to join them on luxurious vacations, of ousted Bryant in 2017 openly suggesting the roster's "Garrett Guys'' betrayed him?
As much as the Cowboys of 2019 talked of them being part of a "brotherhood,'' there is a rich history here of favoritism and suspicion, of "captains as moles,'' of a building-wide gift for C.Y.A., and now a quarter-of-a-century wait for even another sniff of a Super Bowl shot.
What Rob Davis tells me: "The locker room is the most important room in the building.''
I don't know how the Jones family will interpret that, but I know how they should interpret it: There must be boundaries. The owners aren't coaches. The coaches aren't players.
The players matter most - but they're not their own bosses, and shouldn't be empowered beyond being hugely key employees. And their greatest connection, their greatest power, their greatest bond, cannot be with the owner.
It has to be with the guy in the next locker stall.
"You can have 'strategy,'' Davis tells me. "But as (legendary business consultant) Peter Drucker once talked about, 'Culture eats strategy for breakfast.' We're looking to bring all the pieces together.''
2) 'SECOND-CHANCE VALLEY RANCH' - Jerry Jones harbors a belief in the "rehabbing'' of careers, football and beyond. It's an admirable trait, and when it works? Not only is the player and his family benefitting - the team wins, too.
Before team headquarters moved to The Star in Frisco, I labeled the policy “Second-Chance Valley Ranch.’’ We'll never know how well it works because for every Joseph Randle or Greg Hardy, there might be a dozen other guys with problems that Dallas' "player programs'' department helped him with. ... with help so efficient and effective that the public never had to hear about it.
But then I think about the still-in-limbo Randy Gregory, and about how the "player programs'' solution was to assign him a housemate, employed by the team, who has no particular skill, education or background in psychiatry, medicine or even parenting.
And I wonder if the Cowboys realize that Jerry's own want-to is not a “special sauce’’ that can cure the ills of the wayward.
My impression of Rob Davis is that his resume does feature the aforementioned talents. And when asked to define his new job, he spoke of his ability to help young men grow into productive adults, in and beyond football.
''It's about trying to help them take care of their life off the field, too,'' he says. "The NFL can provide a lot of distractions. Most of us are from humble beginnings ... (the NFL) can be pretty big for us. (It's about) being able to help those young men maneuver through the trials and tribulations ... We want high accountability and high dependability all all of the things that make championship cultures and championship teams.
There's nothing wrong with signing "Fallen Angels.'' The Dallas Mavericks once signed Delonte West, The Texas Rangers danced forever Josh Hamilton. This is the way the world, sports and otherwise, often works.
But helping a rehabbing star isn't about a magic wand., For the Cowboys sake, hopefully it's about employing someone with the skill set of a Rob Davis, who tells me the plan is for him to work closely with the Cowboys' departmental leaders in the player programs area (Bryan Wansley), the executive wing (Todd Williams, COO Stephen Jones' right-hand man) and the scouting department (Will McClay).
And, in serving as McCarthy's lieutenant and liaison, to work closely with each player.
Says Davis: "They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.''
3) '53 BRANDS' - "You're greatest strength,'' Hall-of-Fame Cowboys icon Michael Irvin is fond of reminding me, "is your greatest weakness.''
Think about it. What is the Cowboys' greatest organizational strength? It's that the Dallas Cowboys are "The No. 1 Brand in Sports.''
And their greatest weakness? I would suggest that Cowboys players naturally assuming "The Brand Is The Thing'' is that cultural weakness.
This organization is dotted with folks who say all the right things but do too few of them. This is a franchise that is all about "image'' and "marketing'' and "PR,'' and it has bred a roster that I've nicknamed "53 Brands.''
They aren't bad people or bad players. (DeMarcus Lawrence and Jaylon Smith, two marketing-minded Cowboys, are men I find to be of high quality in both departments.) But what if the employee's focus is divided, as is surely the case with many athletes of today, between "sacrifice for teammates'' and "cashing in'' (two long-standing and understandable sports constants) plus now more than ever, "image'' and "positioning'' and "branding.''
"53 Brands.''
They are, of course, allowed to "advertise themselves.'' I do that. You probably do, too. But here's how central it is to business here at The Star: The contract negotiations with Jaylon were very much about his ability to flex his entrepreneurial muscle with "America's Team.'' And the Dak Prescott negotiations, which sources tell me figure to on March 10 include the franchise tag? They are very much about the Joneses reminding him about the financial side benefits of taking the legendary baton of Meredith, Staubach, Aikman and Romo.
For real: If I am at The Star and craving a donut, there is an excellent chance that I will find one in the Media Workroom ... provided by team sponsor Dunkin Donuts ... complete with frosting that forms the logos of the Cowboys and of my radio station, 105.3 The Fan.
How does one explain to an employee of a company that puts branding first that he's not allowed to do the same? My general suggestion is that the Cowboys find a way to keep the "marketing department'' from bleeding into football ops. "Separation of Church and State,'' if you will.
Says Davis, acknowledging the gigantic spotlight on "America's Team'': "We're just going to keep the main thing the main thing.''
Maybe McCarthy's Jones-granted freedom to even hire Rob Davis - a coach who isn't really a coach - is the first example of such a separation, a positive nod in that direction.
