Cowboys' Jerry Jones Reacts to 'Culture Problem' Charge: FISH PODCAST
FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys are being accused of having created inside The Star a "culture'' problem. ... a question that team owner Jerry Jones, the supervisor of it all, is answering - by adroitly sidestepping.
"What is culture? I'm asking," said Jones while meeting the DFW media in his annual visit on the "party bus'' at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. "When I look at our team we need to be able to stop the run better and we need to be able to run the ball better. If that's 'culture' then we got a problem."
That's clever. That's cute. But it's not a real answer. And Jerry knows it.
In the Fish Podcast and the Fish Report, we address what we have theorized is the core issue. No, not "blocking and tackling'' and the like; the Cowboys by and large do those things very well.
And no, it's not about a "sense of entitlement,'' exactly, either - which is how a question was posed to Jones, allowing him to also brush off that assertion.
Said Jones: "Many (of our players) deserve to feel good about themselves, and feel good about the plays that they have contributed to the team. Those happen to be the very same players that get down on themselves more than anybody when they don’t play well. That’s not a problem on this team at all. We don’t have anybody pointing over there at somebody else and not pointing at their own mirror.
"I guess that could be defined as 'culture' but I don’t see that on this team - at all. I think Mike McCarthy has sent an outstanding job of having the right kind of atmosphere that can win and win more and win in the playoffs.''
We agree on the finger-pointing; we're in the locker room every day. Outside of the "Bro Bro Mama Drama,'' that's not the problem.
What Jerry was not quizzed on, though - and yes, we have this on our list when next we bump into him - is our core-issue thesis: No, not "stopping the run.'' No, not "entitlement.'' Simply this, as we've phrased it often and headlined it, "#53Brands'' ...
"The Dallas Cowboys sometimes seem like a marketing company that plays football on the side.'' - Mike Fisher.