Sunday, July 19, 1998

Like Bill Bates, Mark Tuinei and Tony Tolbert should have a chance to say goodbye

By Randy Galloway / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS -- You tell me.

If Bill Bates deserves all this, meaning his own retirement media conference, where he also walked right into a Cowboys' coaching job; about 50 inches in this sports section devoted to the football life and times of Bates; plus being added to the Channel 11 sports staff as a football analyst and station goodwill ambassador ... .

If Bates can exit the NFL player ranks with all these trumpets blaring, how does anyone explain the continuing sound of silence for Tony Tolbert and Mark Tuinei?

Age and aching bones are breaking up the once-great Dallas dynasty, and when Chan Gailey took over as coach, he accelerated a retirement process that, frankly, had been allowed to drag.

While Jerry Jones, who is in Wichita Falls, pointed out again Friday, "This is not a youth movement," he did hold on to some of his relics far too long. And it seems to have taken Gailey to remind Jerry of that.

But as these old warriors are removed from the football landscape, the priority police need to be on alert to ensure proper sendoffs are afforded those who deserve such.

Jones did that a year ago with Jay Novacek and Charles Haley. Both were given a full-blown media session for a going-away party. (As Brother Frank Luksa wrote at the time, here were two players who never had a minute for the media, but upon leaving they wanted to chat all day.)

Jones did it again this week for Bates. Actually, Bates' goodbye might have rivaled the Roger Staubach retirement announcement. A tad overdone in this case, but Bill is a nice guy and was a fierce competitor, so better overdone than overlooked.

To each his own, but when I saw the Bates hoopla, Ol' Irked here felt bad for Tuinei and Tolbert.

After 15 years of service, mostly entrusted with that critical left offensive tackle role of protecting Troy Aikman's backside, Tuinei was told this spring that he had been released. Compared to Bates' sendoff, the Tuinei fanfare amounted to about the same thing as an assistant trainer leaving a pink slip under the windshield wiper of Mark's car.

Where's the respect for a guy who was an offensive line anchor through three successful Super Bowl campaigns?

Then there's Tolbert.

Bad knees knifed his career, only allowing about seven prime time seasons out of the nine years he played. But Tolbert was as solid at defensive end and as solid in the locker room as any player who has passed through the Valley Ranch doors. Like Tuinei, Tolbert was right in the middle of the three Super Bowl campaigns.

Let it also be noted that when the Cowboys, as a franchise, went through the disgrace era a couple of years ago, the names of Tolbert and Tuinei never surfaced. Both were as important to the football success as Novacek and Haley, and more vital than Bates, while taking nothing away from Bill.

So Jerry, aren't the Cowboys and the local media overlooking some deserving departees?

"As far as the lack of emphasis on what it means to be without these certain players, I agree totally that we have come up short, at least thus far," said Jones.

In fact, when Jones spoke at a team meeting Thursday in Wichita Falls, he made it a point to bring up the names of Tolbert and Tuinei, first and foremost.

"I just wanted these younger players to know the shoes that had to be filled when a team no longer has a Tuinei and a Tolbert," said Jones. "They represented us proudly, on and off the field."

When released by the Cowboys, both players told Jones and Gailey they held out hope of returning at some point this summer, or early in the season.

"Neither wanted an emphasis made on retirement, and that's one of the reasons this has all been low-keyed," said Jones. "But Bill (Bates) also didn't make a retirement speech. His feelings about playing again are the same as with Mark and Tony.

"That's why I agree that when the right time comes, we owe those two something. Both have meant too much to our team, and they still do."

As with Bates, it's doubtful either Tuinei or Tolbert figure again in the Cowboys' on-the-field plans. Ailments and/or age have determined that.

But to forget those kind of players so soon, now that would be the real injustice.

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(c) 1998, The Dallas Morning News.

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