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Wednesday, December 10, 1997

Cowboys go from Super Bowl to super bust

By DAVE GOLDBERG / AP Football Writer

Forget the remote chance the Dallas Cowboys have of making the playoffs. An era is over and there's plenty of blame to spread around for the demise of a team that won three Super Bowls this decade:

--Paul Tagliabue and Gene Upshaw, who created free agency with a salary cap. The Cowboys have lost 38 players since 1993, some of them developing youngsters who have contributed elsewhere.

--Jerry Jones, the prototypical meddling owner who still talks about sitting in the coaches' booth. "I don't make the actual calls, but I contribute," he says.

--Natural erosion. The Cowboys are an old team and old players are more prone to injury and take longer to recover than younger ones. Let Al, Dan and Frank moan about how they've never seen a team so hit by injury. Then let them look at the age of the guys who are getting hurt.

From the top:

When the NFL and the players' union agreed on free agency with a cap in 1992, they guaranteed there would be no dynasties.

This season, there's a good chance teams with 8-8 and 8-7-1 records will make the playoffs in the NFC, and around the millennium or soon after there probably will be six 9-7 teams, six 7-9 teams and 18 that finish 8-8.

The Packers are starting to feel the problem. They must find ways to keep players like Dorsey Levens, Robert Brooks, Aaron Taylor and Gabe Wilkens -- all free agents at the end of the season.

When free agency began, the Cowboys who had the most talent -- the result of Jimmy Johnson's astute use of the draft picks he got in the Herschel Walker deal. So at the expense of paying to keep Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin and sign Deion Sanders, they had to let go of Russell Maryland, Jim Jeffcoat, Dixon Edwards, Darrin Smith and many others.

Those many others include perhaps the three most important losses: offensive linemen Kevin Gogan, Mark Stepnoski and Ron Stone, whose presence this year could have made a big difference.

That leads to Jones.

He made the decision to re-sign the aging Nate Newton and Mark Tuinei. But that led to the loss of the three younger linemen, now productive starters with the 49ers, Oilers and Giants.

More important, he couldn't co-exist with Johnson, whose success is due as much to his personnel evaluation as his coaching ability. Look at his first two drafts in Miami.

So the drafts since Johnson left have been mediocre at best. Larry Allen is the only impact player the Cowboys drafted from 1993-1996 and while this year's draft looks good, players such as linebacker Dexter Coakley, defensive lineman Antonio Anderson and safety Omar Stoutmire are only the beginning of a rebuilding process.

And rebuilding is what's needed.

There is a foundation, starting with Troy Aikman. He's just 31, prime time for a quarterback, and is committed to staying. And Leon Lett and Darren Woodson are on defense.

But how many carries does Smith have left? How long will Sanders stay around? Where is the consistent complement to Irvin? And most of all, what happens to an offensive line on which Allen is the only one sure to be around for a while?

One thing that will probably change is the coach. Jones says a lot of nice things about Barry Switzer, but he always adds: "I haven't made any decisions beyond this year."

If he can find a coach who can motivate players such as Erik Williams and Anthony Miller (if he stays), that's fine. But the coach will also have to be someone who will tolerate "coach" Jones.

That's a big order.