Blind Spot: Why Won't Dallas Cowboys' Jerry Jones Follow Texas Rangers' Championship Blueprint?
WHITT'S END 11.10.23:
Whether you’re at the end of your coffee, your day, your week or even your rope, welcome to Whitt’s End …
*Sometimes the answer is staring you right between the eyes.
When the Texas Rangers lost 102 games in 2021, they spent a half-billion dollars to sign free agents Corey Seager and Marcus Semien and, two years later, engineered trade-deadline deals for key World Series champion pitchers Max Scherzer, Jordan Montgomery and Aroldis Chapman.
When the Dallas Mavericks couldn’t get over the hump in 2008 they made a “go for broke” blockbuster deadline trade for Jason Kidd. Three years later, they won their only NBA championship.
When the Dallas Stars were knocked out of the Western Conference playoffs four times in five years in the late 1990s, they won a bidding war for coveted free agent Brett Hull. The following season: Presto, their first Stanley Cup title.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
But with his Dallas Cowboys mired in a quarter-century slump without even getting to an NFC Championship, what did owner Jerry Jones do at the recent NFL trade deadline? Nada. Why?
“We made our trading deadline before the season started,” Jones said smugly.
Dealing late-round draft picks for cornerback Stephon Gilmore and receiver Brandin Cooks last Summer was fine and dandy. But when you are – by your own admission – slotted behind NFC powers San Francisco and Philadelphia, don’t you need to do everything possible to upgrade your roster? Like, say, the Eagles (acquiring starting safety Kevin Byard) and 49ers (trading for elite pass-rusher Chase Young) did at the deadline?
Jones did make an aggressive pre-season move, but it was for quarterback project Trey Lance. And this week the Cowboys are burstin’ with pride … at the signing of 31-year-old free-agent receiver Martavis Bryant.
It seems the owner is allowing his ego to prevent him from properly reading the room: Two years ago, the Los Angeles Rams won the Super Bowl by famously saying “screw the draft” and instead making bold deals to acquire quarterback Matthew Stafford and – at the trade deadline – pass-rusher Von Miller and receiver Odell Beckham Jr.
The Stars, Mavs and Rangers have also shown Jones the bombshell blueprint for championship success. His stubborn choice to ignore it is why the Cowboys will likely go a 28th consecutive season without winning a Super Bowl.
Jones claims he is jealous of the Rangers’ success. Just not enough to duplicate it.
*America’s Team … still. Despite Jerry’s best (non) efforts, the Cowboys remain the biggest draw in the NFL. It’s an amazing feat really, to remain so dang popular and prosperous without being productive.
The Patriots fancied themselves as “America’s Team” during their dynasty. The Steelers get all alpha when a couple Terrible Towels are waved in an opposing stadium. And earlier this year Pro Football Talk had the audacity to claim the Jets had overtaken Dallas as the league’s most interesting team.
But 27.1 million people don’t lie. That’s the number of viewers that tuned into last Sunday’s Cowboys-Eagles game on Fox. It’s the most-watched TV show of any kind since last February’s Super Bowl.
The league’s second-highest rated game of the season? Cowboys-Jets, Week 2. Pipe down, wannabes.
*As the late, great Walter Payton said: “When you’re good at something, you tell everyone. When you’re great at something, everyone will tell you.”
This is how I feel about the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament. The league keeps trying to tell us how good it is but … is it? I guess I’m wrong because last week’s Mavs-Nuggets game received a 35-percent increase in TV viewership over a random Friday night game. But to me it feels like college basketball’s preseason NIT.
Congrats NBA, you’ve finally come up with something even more meaningless than a division championship.
*Speaking of the Rangers and bold moves, Shohei Ohtani to Arlington can’t be real. Can it?
*Got on the golf course with Dad for likely the last time in 2023 last week. I had an eagle, which for me is quite rare. But I’m pretty sure he trumped me with three 2s on his scorecard. That’s right, three birdies on Par 3s. Not bad for an 83-year-old, two-time cancer survivor.
*We’re conditioned to complain. This week a female friend was whining about the time change. “Great,” she said with exaggerated disgust, “now when I wake up it’s pitch black outside.” Um, we just set our clocks back an hour. So it actually gets lighter earlier. Sunrise today was 6:52 a.m.; a week ago 7:46 a.m. But don’t let facts get in the way of your dreary disposition. Now, I’ll agree that “Fall back” results in 4:30 p.m. feeling like 9:30 p.m. We’re conditioned to complain.
*Good to see DFW former basketball stars already putting the giving in Thanksgiving. Nancy Leiberman’s charity christened its 127th “Dream Court” this week, and Dirk Nowitzki and his family on Thursday passed out turkeys, food boxes and blankets to over 1,000 families in need. Bravo!
*Hot.
*Not.
The Rangers, Mavericks and Stars have shown Jerry Jones the championship blueprint, but the Cowboys owner stubbornly refuses to follow it.
*Michael Irvin is guaranteeing a Cowboys win over the Eagles in the Dec. 10 rematch at AT&T Stadium. I don’t know about that, but I will promise a win over the Giants Sunday. Dallas is an NFL-best 10-1 following a loss since 2021, has won 11 consecutive at home, and is facing a New York quarterback named Tommy DeVito. Of course I also predicted they had zero chance of losing to the Cardinals and Josh Dobbs, so be wary with your wagers.
*My energy vampires that suck the living life out of me are: 1. Country music; 2. America’s obsession with alarmingly unhealthy “comfort food.” In other words, no, I will not accompany you to the local Cracker Barrel.
*Mavs lost to the Raptors Wednesday by 11 points in a game they missed 12 free throws. Sometimes it’s not all that complicated.
*People magazine has officially jumped the shark. A finalist for its 2023 “Sexiest Man Alive” is … this dude. What the what?! That’s merely an embarrassingly transparent stunt aimed at glomming onto the Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift hubbub. The annual issue has deteriorated into such a click-bait gimmick. Let me guess, this year’s winner (Patrick Dempsey) won’t be next year’s winner because somehow over 12 months he’ll turn into a troll?
*Rangers fan tries to steal a banner, winds up with a life-long tale … in his tail.
*Christmas arrived early this week at The Star in Frisco. If you’re in the area and in the spirit, check out a flashy drive-through farm of electricity.
*Newest Cowboy Bryant says he isn’t yet in football shape, but he’s been running “22 to 23 mph” during personal workouts. Get on a treadmill. Starting jogging. Slowly ramp up to 7, 9, finally 11 mph. Now ponder running twice that fast. Dare ya. (RIP to your hamstrings.)
*Sports radio news: The Ticket’s 30-year morning show was inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame in Kilgore, which is cool. Here’s to longevity. The Freak’s Jeff Cavanaugh celebrated the Rangers’ title by getting a “0” tattooed on his butt, which is weird. Here’s to fully evaporated magic numbers.
*Lots of amazing country clubs in DFW, and one of the best just got better. Canyon Creek in Richardson this week unveiled a multimillion-dollar “reinvention” project that includes 10 pickleball courts, upgraded tennis courts, a re-designed golf course and a “BoxCar” restaurant fashioned out of an old train.
*Jerry maintains he doesn’t believe in moral victories, but to hear him talk glowingly about his team in the wake of the loss to Eagles sure makes me think he believes in encouraging defeats.
*This Weekend? Friday let’s go to the Dallas Arboretum for some early holiday cheer. Saturday let’s work out with a rugby team. Sunday let’s watch Cowboys-Giants. As always, don’t be a stranger.
