Jerry vs. Jimmy: Cowboys Shove Ring of Honor Debate into Danger Zone

Apathy, Jerry Jones. You are shoving America's biggest and most passionate fan base - Cowboys Nation - toward the nightmare of apathy with your odd Jimmy Johnson views on the Ring of Honor.

In its simplest form, it's "sales and marketing.'' At another level, it's about the "Q Rating,'' or "Q Score'' - a measurement of the appeal of and familiarity with a celebrity, a brand or a product. Michael Jordan has it. But in another way, a less-beloved figure, Howard Cosell, had it, too.

And right now, inexplicably, as it regards the Ring of Honor, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is blowing it.

Everybody loves Jordan. Not everybody loved Cosell - but everybody had an opinion of him, good or bad, so his "Q Score'' carried some of the same weight as Jordan's.

And what happens when a celebrity, a brand or a product falls short of that? The grandest nightmare of the salesman and the marketer: Apathy.

“It’s not about that,'' Jones said on Monday when asked about fulfilling his promise to induct Jimmy Johnson into the team's Ring of Honor. "It’s about, 'Who I am going to put in the Ring of Honor?' We’re going to be making those announcements as we go.''

Yes, yes, we know that. The announcements. As we go. But we've been "going'' on a quarter of a century with Johnson. So, now what's the obstacle?

I’ve actually got a couple coaches, in addition to Jimmy, that ought to be in that Ring of Honor,'' Jerry answered, offering a more preposterous reasoning than ever before. And as a result? Jones - second to none in the history of sports and hell, maybe mankind - in the arena of sales and marketing - has pushed this issue into a circle of "Sales and Marketing Hell.'' ...

Apathy, Jerry. You are shoving America's biggest and most passionate fan base toward the nightmare of apathy.

Jones plegded to Johnson in the team’s Ring of Honor when the coach was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2020 and it made orderly sense: No matter Jimmy's crimes against Jerry, a person who is honored in the Pro Football museum must obviously be honored in his own team's museum.

Now it's three years later after that promise and almost 30 years after their divorce. And suddenly we're manufacturing a bogus conversation about "other deserving coaches''? Taking nothing away from Barry Switzer or Gene Stallings or Mike Ditka or Dan Reeves or Dave Wannstedt or Norv Turner or Dave Campo or Mike Zimmer or Butch Davis or Joe Avezzano or Bill Parcells or Jason Garrett, but ...

What in the living hell are we talking about, Jerry?

Jones declined to name the other supposed coaching candidates who merit induction at Johnson's level, which is wise, because there aren't any. But then Jones twisted the media visit back to that "sales and marketing department'' that he heads up with such mastery ... until now.

"And it’s good that whatever we do, we get to talk about it as much as we do,'' Jones said. "It gets more attention (by keeping it exclusive) than it does if we loaded it up.''

But that's where Jerry Jones is wrong. The Ring of Honor is a favorite topic of Cowboys Nation because it has gravitas. Vindictiveness and vagueness do not add to the "attention.'' They subtract from it, to the point that there are now Cowboys fans who react to the obvious Jerry-vs.-Jimmy snub by mumbling apathetically, "Aw, the hell with it.''

And it is absolutely stunning that "The World's Greatest Salesman'' sits in his Cowboys throne unaware of that.

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