[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Jerry Jones has a motive, but it's not yet clear

By Frank Luksa

Dallas Morning News

(KRT)

DALLAS - In the interest of relieving alarm and perhaps worldwide famine, Jerry Jones has dismissed the subject that he keeps bringing up. He will not coach the team he owns.

Or so he said.

Jones told the New York Times last week that he has thought about demoting himself from owner-general manager to head coach. He didn't say when the idea came to him or why. Nor did he reveal who talked him out of it other than himself.

One other thing Jones didn't say. He failed to mention he had a head coach whom the owner-general manager thought was doing a nice job. The anonymous coach suffered a verbal chop-block by omission.

The Times quoted Jones as saying it would be selfish of him to coach the Cowboys because others are more qualified than he by experience. Therefore, he said he "probably won't do it." Jones was more definite Sunday when he told our Cowboys correspondent Jean-Jacques Taylor: "I coached my last football game a long time ago."

Some NFL owners don't believe it. Jones obviously has chattered freely about coaching his team to league counterparts. Talk of that magnitude gets around. Those who lean toward conspiracy theories would say the remarks were designed to get around.

One owner, speaking on condition of anonymity, informed the Times that he thinks the idea will always have a shelf life in Jones' mind.

"For him, it's the challenge," the owner said. "He could be the only man in modern sports history to win a Super Bowl as coach, general manager and owner. That intrigues him."

What's going on ... a trial balloon full of preposterous air?

It's street-corner knowledge that Jones fancies himself a coach. Also, that he doesn't rank coaches as supremely vital in the overall scheme. He is, but they aren't. It was more than a Freudian slip or mad snap when he slurred their profession by claiming any 500 of them could have led the Cowboys to Super Bowl victory.

Standard reaction to this story is to think, oh, the inflatable Jones ego expanded again. He's playing ruler of the empire, redirecting attention to himself during a bye week for the Cowboys. Jones gets antsy when he's not the center of attention for a week. Or perhaps he only confessed an ambition held since teenage days.

Maybe that's all there is to it. But never forget, Jones has many active brain cells at work around the clock. He's a graduate of public relations charm school, no longer victim of ridicule who blurts tangled sentences and scrambled thoughts. He can talk on his feet and still has the capacity to talk everyone else off his feet.

Jones does not say so many reckless or indiscreet things anymore - unless he wants them circulated. His words are calculated. His remarks have purpose. His thoughts congeal around an agenda.

Thus the mystery of why Jones loosed this genie from the bottle unless he reverted to careless conversation. I can't speak to his motive except to believe he has one. The subject of who'll coach the Cowboys in 1998, a nuisance issue to the team, is ensured to fester all season. More potential danger exists if subordinates sense a weakened head coach and jockey for position ... just in case.

In another way, Jones is just fulfilling the mandate he outlined upon buying the franchise in 1989. He said he'd be involved in everything from socks to jocks. He later turned to dollars and cents. Now he admits flirting with X's and O's.

Whoever the unmentioned head coach, his position hasn't been enhanced by fall-out dialogue. If it's the same guy who was here last season, his chair was chilled when Jones declined to renew the roll-over clause in their contract. The phantom coach will finish the 1997 season with two years left on his deal.

Jones is an ever-lurking presence on the practice field, in meeting rooms, at the draft table and on the sideline during games. He's drawn to the bench by thirst for football action, love of the arena and perchance to be seen by TV cameras. Normally a fourth quarter arrival on the Cowboys bench, Jones joined his team before halftime last Monday night against the Philadelphia Eagles. Clue or coincidence?

Recall that Jones gagged the coaching staff and named himself as lone news outlet prior to the NFL draft last spring. So really, speculation about Jones becoming head coach of the Cowboys is pretty much outdated. Isn't he already the man?

(Frank Luksa is a sports columnist for the Dallas Morning News. Write to him at: Dallas Morning News, Communications Center, Dallas, Texas 75265.)