Jones clearly back atop Cowboys' hierarchy

By JAIME ARON
AP Sports
IRVING, Texas (AP) -Jerry Jones insists Wade Phillips will have as much input into personnel decisions for the Dallas Cowboys as Bill Parcells had. It even says so in his contract, Jones added.

Then came the kicker: Dave Campo and Chan Gailey had the same wording in their contracts.

So forget what's on the legal documents and focus on the reality. After four years of working alongside Bill Parcells, Jones is once again taking full advantage of his dual titles as owner and general manager.

"It's just not correct that I don't have the ability or the energy or the skills to do what I do every time I make a decision," Jones said Thursday, following the hiring of Phillips. "I talk to a lot of people and get a lot of different perspectives before I make a decision. I get a lot of input and I factor it. If I didn't get the input and didn't do the homework, shame on me."

Jones views the Parcells experiment as vindicating. He sucked in his ego and appeased his critics by bringing in a proven "football guy" to help shape the organization.

And while Jones says "We are better off in a very significant way because Bill was here," he couldn't help but point out that the Cowboys won as many playoff games under their high-falutin' coach (zero) as they did under Gailey and Campo, who were mocked for being Jones puppets.

"It didn't work," Jones said of the Parcells Era. "We had some success, but at the end of the day we did not have the kind of success we wanted."

Thus, Jones feels free to doing things another way. His way.

He went into the coaching search looking for someone who could develop quarterback Tony Romo. Norv Turner was his best bet, although Jones was so impressed with Jason Garrett that he hired him away from Miami without knowing what role he'd have.

Jones liked the idea of Turner and Garrett working with Romo and the rest of the offense. Problem was, Jones still had to fix the team's bigger problem: defense.

He could've hired Ron Rivera to put in the 4-3 scheme Rivera used to get the Chicago Bears into the Super Bowl. But Jones, the general manager, decided he really wanted to stick with the 3-4 scheme that Jones, the owner, had spent so much time and money putting together for Parcells the last two years.

"I looked at it with an open mind," Jones said of changing defensive styles. "But at the end of the day, I decided I didn't want to. I wanted to keep going in the way we were going.

"I think it is fair for somebody in my role to make those decisions about the way you're going and the schemes in general, the philosophy," Jones added. "Now, that doesn't mean I'm going to tell (the coach) how to line up and whether to shade or stunt, those sorts of things. That's not what I'm going to do. But I can decide we are going to play the 3-4."

That led him back to Phillips, with Garrett running the offense.

"There's no question his availability opened some possibilities up with going with a more defensive-oriented head coach," Jones said.

Jones knows that he's taking a risk by entrusting Romo's development to Garrett, whose only coaching experience is two years as Miami's quarterbacks coach.

But it's a risk the former oil wildcatter is willing to take.

"Jason will be operating without a net," Jones said. "I like that. I think that brings out the best in people."

Garrett definitely has a good pedigree.

The son of a longtime NFL scout who spent many years working for the Cowboys, Garrett graduated from Princeton and played for the Cowboys, breaking in under Turner while backing up Troy Aikman. He later played for offensive gurus Jon Gruden in Tampa Bay and Sean Payton in New York.

Jones said he was thinking about hiring Garrett before Parcells retired. Now that he's here, he's already considered the front-runner to eventually replace Phillips.

Maybe yes, maybe no. But one thing is certain: When that time comes, Jones will having the final say.