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Wednesday, December 10, 1997

Cowboys owner says 'a lot' of blame goes to coaches

By Josie Karp

Knight-Ridder Newspapers

(KRT)

IRVING, Texas - The day after the loss to Carolina all but vanquished their playoff chances, the Cowboys started to confront their toughest opponent of this season: reality.

It landed with a thud at the team's Valley Ranch practice facility, where coach Barry Switzer maintained that his fate is in the hands of owner Jerry Jones.

And it reverberated from a ballroom at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Hyatt, where Jones, attending an NFL owner's meeting, said his expectations for his team may need to change and for the first time indicated that changes in the coaching staff could be imminent.

" ... It's always a time in the off-season when we look at potential staff changes, not only from the perspective of making a change of your own volition but a lot of times coaches have gotten other jobs," Jones said. "A lot of the blame, along with me, would be -1/4Ron-1/4S our coaching staff."

At the same time, Jones also said he may have been guilty of having too high expectations of a group of players that once performed at Super Bowl levels. This season, potential Hall of Famers such as quarterback Troy Aikman, wide receiver Michael Irvin and running back Emmitt Smith have had below-average seasons.

"Maybe we've got caught up with the fact that they're household names and the reality is that what got them there was great plays, and just because those names are household names doesn't mean that they're going to win the battle against the no-names," Jones said. "I think in our planning and looking at in the future, I think if we are a little more sensitive in that area it would probably serve us well in some of our decision-making. My expectations probably need to be adjusted a little bit."

Jones did not clarify whether those plans include Switzer. The coach, however, said he is planning on returning.

"I expect to be -1/4Rback next year-1/4S," Switzer said. "Jerry's the only one that can answer that ... I have a loyalty to Jerry Jones and this football team. I'll discuss with him those things candidly, openly and honestly at those times. But I want nothing but the best for this football team."

In the meantime, the Cowboys have begun to look ahead. Jones, team vice president Stephen Jones, scouting director Larry Lacewell, Switzer and Jerry Jones Jr., vice president of legal operations, met to discuss the future immediately after Monday night's loss to the Carolina Panthers.

Those discussions yielded minor moves Tuesday: adding practice squad linebacker Nate Hemsley to the active roster, cutting linebacker Daryl Hardy and signing tight end Sean Simms to the practice squad.

Jones indicated that bigger changes, in personnel and philosophy, will likely follow, involving more-prominent players.

"We've been reluctant to take a productive player that has performed on a Super Bowl team and send him down the road," Jones said.

Jones said he might have learned something from watching older players with big, multiyear contracts such as Charles Haley and Jay Novacek, succumb to injury.

"I think if there's one area that would concern me it would be the combinations or the managing of injury as it pertains to the length of a player's career, and the consequences of that in this system," Jones said. "I think that's one I can do a better job on. That may have impacted some of the disappointment we've had this season."

As for the more immediate future, Switzer put up no pretenses when it came to describing just what the Cowboys have to play for. In the final two games, the Cowboys will play with a combination of healthy veterans and young players who might provide long-term help, as a former champion struggles to attain mere mediocrity.

"We've got a chance to have a .500 season, which we'll try to go do," Switzer said. "Guys have got pride. They're not just going to go out there and lay down."

Jones, meanwhile, is looking further down the road.

"We'll start doing the things immediately that will improve our lot for the future," Jones said. "The entire process of our signing and keeping our own players as well as looking at possibilities in free agency as well as drafting as well as preparing the football team in the off-season calls for just an immediate directing of our attention to improving. That starts now."

For this season, anyway, it is too late.

(c) 1997, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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