‘Mad Dogs!’ Cowboys Ripped By ESPN Hypocrites for Jerry Jones Quotes
Should a “Mad Dog” bite the hand that feeds it?
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones this week did his usual round of radio and TV interview this week at training camp - a “car wash,” we call it - as he’s pretty much done for the entirety of his 34-year ownership of the franchise.
Additionally, Jones is without question the most accessible owner in sports and will therefore be conducting more interviews, including we assume his twice-weekly visits with flagship station 105.3 The Fan.
Is Jones in these visits - and all of his interviews, the huge majority of which I have been present for or personally conducted - zany? Informative? Confusing? Funny? Newsworthy?
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. All of that and more. Yet for some reason, after 34 years of Jones relentlessly “selling the Cowboys brand” by being accessible - longtime New York talk-show host Chris "Mad Dog" Russo is choosing now to be offended by it all.
On ESPN’s “First Take,” accompanied by Stephen A. Smith, Russo trashed Jones for doing weekly interviews and seeking to be the face of the team.
"This is what's wrong with Dallas,” Russo barked. “Jerry Jones is doing ... weekly interviews on radio stations in Dallas? Really? This is who you want to have representing your team, the owner? Who never played a down in the NFL?"
Russo and Smith also alleged that Jones labeling Dallas’ offense “Dak-friendly” the team is somehow acquiescing and babying the quarterback … failing to realize that every offense is tailored to the strengths of its QB.
But back to the anti-Jones schtick. There is irony in Russo believing that Jones having started on an Arkansas national champion (I’m betting Russo doesn’t know that) but then not playing in the NFL … makes him less qualified to talk Cowboys then Russo and Smith.
They talk Cowboys daily … without the benefit of ever playing,
Can it be argued that the Cowboys are a less-successful team because of Jerry’s quotability? That’s always seemed a stretch to me; are we saying that a gagged Jones would’ve led to Dallas beating the Niners last season in the playoffs?
But yeah, it can be argued. And had been argued. For 34 years. I’m wondering first if Russo is just now learning of this sentiment. And I’m wondering additionally - after watching ESPN one morning to be offered about 90 seconds on Messi to every 90 minutes on the Cowboys - if “Mad Dog” is self-aware enough to realize that without “America’s Team” to kick around, ESPN might find itself back televising slo-pitch softball and “lumberjack challenges.”
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