Jerry and Stephen Jones are nothing more than salesmen. And they’ve managed to convince everyone that the Cowboys are real contenders, even if they haven’t won the NFC Championship since 1995.
It’s an amazing feat, really. More surprising than winning a single Super Bowl in any of the last 28 seasons. They have kept the Cowboys in the most valuable franchise position and with the most attractive draw in the entire league without the results justifying it.
Earlier this year, owner Jerry Jones declared that the Cowboys are “all in” (in the traditional middle-of-the-table chips sense) for the 2024 offseason. That hasn’t happened. Now, executive vice president Stephen Jones is basically saying they don’t need to go all out because they’re already close to winning everything with what they have.
The vibe stemmed from a question posed by SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio’s Adam Schein about whether the Cowboys believe quarterback Dak Prescott can lead the team to a championship.
“Absolutely,” Stephen Jones said. “I mean, I totally believe Dak can lead us to a championship. He does everything the right way. He is undoubtedly the leader of this football team. He keeps everyone motivated during the offseason. He has everyone working and doing everything necessary to push themselves and have every opportunity to win a championship. It happens that sometimes that old elongated soccer ball doesn’t bounce in your direction. And we’ve had some tough times and tough games there in the postseason. But you know, we’ve won 12 games three years in a row. I think that’s at the top in terms of what teams have done over a three-year period. And, you know, we’re hanging around the edge. We just have to go up and grab it, to use a basketball term, and shoot it. We’re hanging around the hoop. “We just have to do the job.”
The 49ers are hanging around the basket, with two Super Bowl appearances and two NFC Championship appearances in the last five seasons. The Cowboys are barely on the playground when the real games begin.
If we’re going to use a basketball analogy, the Cowboys are the top four seeds that get eliminated in the early rounds of the NCAA tournament. Every year. They can’t even earn the chance to play in the two most challenging games: the conference championship and then the Super Bowl.
They act like they are tossing coins and it’s only a matter of time before they land. heads, heads, heads, heads for them after another regular season in which they are 12-5 heads against tails.
That’s not how it works. The attitude trivializes how difficult it is to win playoff games with higher stakes. And the Cowboys are struggling to even win the wild card games. They are 5-13 in the postseason since winning Super Bowl XXX.
This goes beyond the old elongated soccer ball that doesn’t bounce in your direction. It’s about something consistent and persistent that keeps the other team reliably knocking the Cowboys out of the playoffs. In total, 72.2 percent of the time.
Basically, if they’re really hanging off the edge, it’s only to end up on the wrong side of a sign.