CNNSI: Cowboys go all out for Rings
It's the kind of wisdom you'd find plastered on a trucker hat or a cheap T-shirt in some rest stop along a Texas highway, but there it was, placed above Jerry Jones' desk during the Dallas Cowboys' glory days of the 1990s. It was a cartoon of two buzzards sitting on a fence in the hot, dry desert and underneath was the caption of one buzzard telling the other, "Patience my ass; I'm gonna go kill something."
It's been the motto Jones has lived by since he purchased the Cowboys with every last penny he had in 1989. And it holds true today, 17 years after he helped turn the struggling team into three-time Super Bowl champions and one of the most lucrative franchises in sports. Jones, however, hasn't had very much to celebrate since his team last won the Super Bowl in 1996.
During the last decade, he's watched the Broncos win consecutive Super Bowls, the Patriots win three of four, the Steelers rebuild into a champion 10 years after losing to Cowboys in Super Bowl XXX, and teams like the Eagles, Panthers and Colts consistently make a push for a title. All the while, his Cowboys have gone 75-85, with a 1-4 record in the playoffs. Their last postseason win came in a wild-card rout of the Vikings in 1996, which was also the last year Dallas won more than 10 games in a season.
Going through a humbling decade like that will make any buzzard, or owner for that matter, impatient. It shouldn't surprise anyone, then, that Jones has gone out this offseason and signed two of the premier and more controversial free agents in receiver Terrell Owens and kicker Mike Vanderjagt to bolster two need positions. Five of Dallas' seven losses last season were decided by a total of 20 points, including three by three points or fewer. The consensus among those within the organization was that if the team had a steady kicker rather than a revolving door of three journeymen, it would have probably gone 12-4 and had a first-round playoff bye rather than finishing 9-7 and out of the playoffs.
Owens and Vanderjagt, who are never shy when it comes to lambasting their quarterback or coach, may not be the most popular players in the NFL, but there's no denying their accomplishments.
The only reason both players were available to the Cowboys was the fashion in which they ended their seasons. If Owens had kept his mouth shut about his unhappiness in Philadelphia and Vanderjagt had nailed that field goal against Pittsburgh and saved his postgame appearance on David Letterman until after the Super Bowl, the Cowboys would probably still be searching for a No. 1 receiver and an accurate kicker. As it is, they ended up signing arguably the two best players at their respective positions to three-year contracts, not to mention other free agents such as offensive linemen Jason Fabini and Kyle Kosier, linebackers Akin Ayodele and Rocky Boiman and tight end RyanHannam. In the process theyhavepositioned themselves for their first legitimate Super Bowl run in a decade.
It's been the motto Jones has lived by since he purchased the Cowboys with every last penny he had in 1989. And it holds true today, 17 years after he helped turn the struggling team into three-time Super Bowl champions and one of the most lucrative franchises in sports. Jones, however, hasn't had very much to celebrate since his team last won the Super Bowl in 1996.
During the last decade, he's watched the Broncos win consecutive Super Bowls, the Patriots win three of four, the Steelers rebuild into a champion 10 years after losing to Cowboys in Super Bowl XXX, and teams like the Eagles, Panthers and Colts consistently make a push for a title. All the while, his Cowboys have gone 75-85, with a 1-4 record in the playoffs. Their last postseason win came in a wild-card rout of the Vikings in 1996, which was also the last year Dallas won more than 10 games in a season.
Going through a humbling decade like that will make any buzzard, or owner for that matter, impatient. It shouldn't surprise anyone, then, that Jones has gone out this offseason and signed two of the premier and more controversial free agents in receiver Terrell Owens and kicker Mike Vanderjagt to bolster two need positions. Five of Dallas' seven losses last season were decided by a total of 20 points, including three by three points or fewer. The consensus among those within the organization was that if the team had a steady kicker rather than a revolving door of three journeymen, it would have probably gone 12-4 and had a first-round playoff bye rather than finishing 9-7 and out of the playoffs.
Owens and Vanderjagt, who are never shy when it comes to lambasting their quarterback or coach, may not be the most popular players in the NFL, but there's no denying their accomplishments.
The only reason both players were available to the Cowboys was the fashion in which they ended their seasons. If Owens had kept his mouth shut about his unhappiness in Philadelphia and Vanderjagt had nailed that field goal against Pittsburgh and saved his postgame appearance on David Letterman until after the Super Bowl, the Cowboys would probably still be searching for a No. 1 receiver and an accurate kicker. As it is, they ended up signing arguably the two best players at their respective positions to three-year contracts, not to mention other free agents such as offensive linemen Jason Fabini and Kyle Kosier, linebackers Akin Ayodele and Rocky Boiman and tight end RyanHannam. In the process theyhavepositioned themselves for their first legitimate Super Bowl run in a decade.
posted by The Gryphon at 9:45 PM
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