Sorry Charlie
Time to dish myself some crow now.
Four years ago I thought Tuna would get us at least to the Conference Championship game before he left town.
I figured by year 4 we'd be there, Tuna would split, we'd inherit a Tuna-Junior and be set for another go.
Well, here we are.
Four years of Tuna and what have we to show for it?
Pass the ketchup...
1. A fluke playoff season, featuring Quincy Carter at Quarterback and the NFL's best Defense,
2. That same Defense subsequently dismantled and rebuilt into a mediocre 3-4,
3. A 2-year body of work showcasing Vinny "Methuselah Lives" Testaverde and Drew "Cement Feet" Bledsoe,
4. An influx of overpriced, over-rated Free Agents,
5. An abandoned ship that seemed so close to sailing at full speed,
and
6. No clue where to turn from here.
To be fair, we DO have several fairly successful recent draft picks, enough to conceivably build a team around, including a budding quarterback (albeit one who needs some tough love).
So you could say that Tuna's stay was successful, since we're arguably in better shape now than when he rode into town.
But I don't remember anyone ever paying an architect so much
just to lay a foundation,
nor do I remember an architect leaving his project
before that foundation has even dried.
-----
What will the new Sheriff at Valley Ranch inherit?
1. An undermanned, piecemeal coaching staff,
2. A potential Running Back controversy,
3. The question of Terry Glenn's future (will he want to stay in Dallas now?),
and
4. An 81-TOn, multi-million-dollar albatross with bad hands and worse attitude.
To again be fair to Tuna, we can lay some of this on Jerry Jones. We know he's a bear to work for, with his meddlesome personnel decisions and domineering ways.
I've heard it said recently that Tuna has, at least, put the shine back on the star enough that coaching in Dallas is no longer the dead-end it was perceived to be after Jones completely hamstrung Chan Gailey and Dave Campo.
However, I've also heard that you can't polish a turd.
Jerry may not quite approach Al Davis's machinations in scale, but he's not far behind,
and it's threfore hard to picture anyone JUMPING at the chance to move to the Metroplex.
Let's just pray that he has the cojones this time to hire someone who ALSO has cojones; someone who will stand-up to him when needed.
posted by BWX Blogger @ 3:29 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I completely understad why Tuna is considered Hall of Fame material:
• He's one of eleven coaches to win multiple SB's.
• He's one of only five to take two different teams to the SB.
• He's the only coach who's taken three different teams to the Conference Championship game.
• He's the only coach to ever take four different teams to the playoffs.
Sure, his style of play became a bit outdated when the league began emphasizing the pass with rule changes seemingly every year.
You could say the game naturally evolved a bit faster than his mindset, or you could argue he was undermined by the competiton committee.
Neither detracts from his resumé.
---
You are very correct in your assessment of Jones. His ego and impatience have completely undermined his ambition.
With the exceptions of Seifert and Switzer, a coaching change usually brings with it a fallow time of re-grouping (at best, rebuilding at worst) before the fruits of the change ripen.
Jones, like so many other owners (ya listening Davis? Snyder?) is way too quick to pull up roots if a new regime doesn't flower immediately.
Lately it's all too common for an owner's expectations of the new staff to be way too optimistic and unreasonable, especially in the short term.
Oddly enough, we can attribute THIS to Jones, too, for hiring Jimmy Johnson and proving that a big change can occur almost overnight. With this one fluke, he's become a victim of his own success.
But history has proven that this (now decade-old) quick success was the exception. Success takes time in ANY endeavor, especially team oriented.
Jones needs to look beyond his OWN history, and follow a proven blueprint for once. When mavericks get old their ways become predictable, and what was once cutting-edge is suddenly trite.
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