Own Up, Jerry: You’re the Loser in Cowboys’ Family Feud

Barry Switzer? Some guys never learn, do they? Has there been an owner in pro sports since George Steinbrenner who is so successful, yet so bent on self-destruction as the Cowboys’ Jerry Jones? Six months ago it was his treatment of Emmitt Smith; now it’s Jimmy Johnson. They are only the two most important members of the two-time Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys.

But Jones thinks he’s The Man, the only man. If Smith isn’t signed, just waltz in some guy named Derrick Lassic and give him the ball. A running back is a running back, right? Tired of Jimmy? Bring in Switzer, a man who hasn’t coached anywhere in a few years and wasn’t particularly good as a college coach his last couple of seasons. My favorite line so far comes from Cowboys defensive back Kevin Smith who said, “What are we going to do, run the wishbone next year?” Maybe Troy Aikman will transfer to the Rams.

You can go one of two ways on this latest Jimmy-Jerry feud. In Scenario A, this is just another case of a rich fat cat getting bored and needing to be in the paper during the offseason. This wouldn’t be the first time an owner got a little loose in the bar during the NFL winter meetings and said a thing or two he regretted 12 hours later. And it’s not the first time Jerry and Jimmy have been fed up with each other and it won’t be the last.

But in Scenario B, Johnson gets just what he wants, which is to stay out of Dodge. He’s been dropping hints since the end of the season that he’d rather be in Florida, with the new expansion franchise in Jacksonville -- near his boat and away from Jones. If Johnson gets fired in the offseason, Jones would have to honor the 10-year contract he and Johnson agreed to in 1989. Not only would Jones have to pay Johnson’s salary, but Johnson would be free to look elsewhere, anywhere, for a gig.

You know how long Jimmy Johnson, the best coach in the NFL, would be unemployed? One second.

Somehow, without a whole lot of logical explanation, Jerry Jones went from making a toast at the league meeting in Florida, to roasting Johnson. It didn’t take long for people to start comparing Jones-Johnson to Steinbrenner-Billy Martin. This, in fact, may even be the way Jerry Jones sees it.

Two problems: Jones isn’t enough of a bully to be Steinbrenner, and Johnson, while Martin’s equal if not superior as a leader of men, isn’t the insecure and troubled man Martin was.

Anybody who saw Jones back down (and wisely so) during the Emmitt Smith negotiations last fall knows Jones is mostly a blowhard. And Johnson, a man who once said his wife “knows she’s number two” -- with football being No. 1 -- obviously isn’t intimidated by contracts of any kind. Jimmy Johnson is and always has been a mercenary, a coach for hire. But if you let him do his thing, you’ll be wearing a championship ring before you know it.

Before his head got so big, Jones himself said Johnson was worth five Heisman Trophy winners and five No. 1 draft choices. Now, after two Super Bowl victories, Jones wants us to believe Johnson’s value has dropped below that of Switzer, an unemployed man who used to coach the wishbone, a man who watched Aikman take his talents to UCLA rather than change his conservative system at Oklahoma.

The worst thing that can happen to a team is that an owner starts thinking he’s more important to the success of a franchise than the best players and the coach.

Even before Michael Jordan retired from the Chicago Bulls, the owner and GM were telling people they welcomed the challenge of trying to win a championship without him. This is why Jack Kent Cooke and San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo have stayed near the top of the NFL for so long. They asked tough questions, they meddled up to a point, they opened their wallets when needed, then they got out of the way and let the people they’d hired go to work.

Jones, on one hand, wants to be respected like Cooke and Eddie D., but his never-ending quest to be in the papers and on camera make him look more like Tom Benson, the Saints owner who boogies on the sideline when his team wins a home game. Jones, with each passing episode, is reminiscent of Al Haig, a man who keeps telling everybody he’s in charge, perhaps because he needs to convince himself.

But we know who’s in charge. Jones is a great businessman, period. Even the agents who have negotiated contracts against him say he’s about the most savvy owner in the league. Owners enhance, they don’t play or prepare players. That’s what Emmitt Smith and Jimmy Johnson do better than anybody in the league right now. If you own a team, any team, and the coach or manager wins two consecutive championships, what more could you want?

Perhaps Jerry Jones knows exactly what he’s doing. A two-time champion could easily have trouble getting revved up for the next regular season, unless everybody in the locker room is united against the owner. But just as easily, Jones could be overplaying his hand. Johnson doesn’t bleed Cowboy blue, he doesn’t need to look at his chest and see pinstripes the way Martin did. He’d fit just as nicely as Don Shula’s successor in Miami’s Joe Robbie Stadium or anywhere else in the league for that matter.

For now, Johnson has gone to his boat off the coast of Key Biscayne and Jones tries to control the damage. There wil be more toasts, more “off-the-record discussions.” Johnson will tweak Jones, and Jones will fire back. With Tonya and Nancy gone, there’s a lot of air time and news columns out there to be filled.