Sunday, January 18, 1998

We should take Jones at his word

By DENNE H. FREEMAN / Associated Press

IRVING -- Now we know who to blame.

Jerry Jones said it himself. Blame him.

And why shouldn't we take the owner of the Dallas Cowboys at his word?

"Ultimately, the responsibility for the success of this organization belongs to me," Jones said the day he had to let the bootlegger's boy head north up Interstate 35.

His hiring of buddy Barry Switzer has turned out to be NFL's "Titanic" move of the 1990s.

The Cowboys were once a lock to be the team of the decade. With three Super Bowl wins, how could they blow it?

Jerry and Barry may have. The Green Bay Packers will be going for a second Super Bowl win in the '90s next week. Who is to say the Packers might not have four Super Bowl rings when the decade ends?

It's like a flashback to the 1970s, when Pittsburgh edged the Cowboys for team of the decade.

Jones said after Jimmy Johnson departed that Switzer was one of 500 people who could coach the Cowboys.

Following back-to-back Super Bowl wins under Johnson and with plenty of Johnson-accumulated firepower still in place, Jones was right. You, your neighborhood barber or fireman would have had trouble messing up the talent on the Dallas roster.

All Switzer was required to do was stay out of the way. His first year on the job he bumped an official in the NFC title game as Dallas tried to rally. His 15-yard unsportmanslike conduct penalty killed the Cowboys' comeback. They lost by 10 points.

The next year Switzer let a meddling assistant, now Oklahoma coach John Blake, get race rumors started and almost lost quarterback Troy Aikman. The team's black players had to rally to his side.

The Cowboys' talent overcame Switzer in 1995 and they beat an inferior Pittsburgh team to win their fifth Super Bowl.

The next two years was when the Cowboys really needed a strong head coach. Free agent defections continued, the offensive line became long of tooth and injuries mounted.

Dallas needed a disciplined, driven, innovative coach. Switzer didn't qualify on any of those counts.

Somehow Dallas won a fifth consecutive NFC East title in 1996 before falling to Carolina in the second round of the playoffs.

Then came the disaster of 1997, when Switzer completely lost his players. This came after he predicted before the season started: "I like our chances. ... We still have the nucleus of a team that has captured three of the last five Super Bowls. I don't think there is any question we will be an improved team in 1997."

They had the nucleus, maybe, but not the heart or the smarts.

The Cowboys became one of the most penalized teams in the NFL as they tumbled to a 6-10 ledger, the worst record since 1989.

Finally Switzer was exposed as the mere caretaker many suspected he would be, all save Jones.

In his final two years, Switzer was 17-17. That should be the measure of his coaching career with the Cowboys. What did he do when he really was needed?

Now, back to Jones.

"Barry Switzer was the right man for the right time," Jones said.

Really?

Was Switzer the right man the last two years when a proud franchise crumbled?

Jones should have found someone more tuned in to his quarterback. Jones now talks about bringing in a coach who has less baggage than Switzer. Aikman and Switzer couldn't get along at Oklahoma and Aikman never felt comfortable around him.

Jones had many chances to hire more competent people than Switzer and didn't. He must pay the price now.

In fact, he hired the wrong man at the wrong time.

The new man faces a lot of rubble when he is hired. And he had better have an iron-cast constitution, because Jones already is on the record as saying: "I'm not expecting us to take a very long road back to the top."