Wednesday, January 8, 1997

Thanks, Panthers, for sparing us all more trash about Cowboys

By Brian Schmitz / Orlando Sentinel (Jan. 8, 1997)

(KRT)

No matter what fate befalls the Carolina Panthers on Sunday in Green Bay - frostbite or overexposure to Limburger - they are owed a great debt of gratitude. They cleaned up the next Super Bowl site - no small feat, if you've seen Bourbon Street and other sections of New Orleans.

Thanks, Panthers, for sparing us and our children from being exposed to more trash about the Dallas Cowboys.

Carolina knocked off the defending champions, putting them back out on the streets, which, come to think of it, might be a scarier proposition. Still, the Panthers ought to be awarded an extra draft pick or something for eliminating the Cowboys.

A Super Bowl week featuring the Cowboys would have been unbearable, listening to the sordid reruns and X-rated replays of Dallas' indiscretions this season. And we haven't yet mentioned dredging up the stale tales about owner Jerry Jones' battles against NFL marketers and Barry Switzer's coaching IQ.

Toss the embarrassing year that the Cowboys had in the middle of the world's mightiest media feeding frenzy, and you would have a week full of sideshow stories dominated by sex, violence, crime, gun-play and drug abuse. I mean, we can get that kind of news in our lives ANY TIME.

Who would have wanted a "Hard Copy" Super Bowl?

Sure, maybe the Packers would have sent the Cowboys on vacation or to the nearest bail bondsman this weekend. But now, we don't have to live in fear that Dallas' notorious talent would have kicked in at Lambeau Field and then allowed them to repeat in New Orleans, giving cynics a field day with corruption-does-pay angles.

Oh, I'm sure that certain suits in the league office are bemoaning the fact the star-studded Cowboys are out of the running. The NFL doesn't quibble over some ghastly image problems when there is big money on the line, courtesy of TV ratings and hungry advertisers.

The NFL has too many dollar signs in its eyes to see that purging Dallas from the picture may have been the best thing for the league - and for the Cowboys.

Carolina did everybody a favor in signalling the end of an era in Big D.

The Cowboys never will be the same again on the field. The groundwork laid by Jimmy Johnson had been steadily eroded by free-agent defections, key injuries and salary-cap restrictions. They still had a boatload of talent and enough prideful performers in classy Emmitt Smith and Troy Aikman to carve a path to the playoffs. But they were never able to resemble more than a collection of artistic pieces, not an entire gallery.

Carolina only made their collapse official, the Panthers looking a little like a confident, fundamentally sound Dallas club that J.J. had assembled quickly.

The Cowboys had difficulty scoring all year behind an aging, brittle line. Then they had trouble tackling the Panthers, although what they really have had trouble even grabbing a hold of is success. Winning three of the past four Super Bowls has sent Dallas spinning out of control. Where it will stop, nobody knows. And that is the sad part.

It has been written that Jones and Switzer run a loose ship, aiding and abetting the Cowboys-will-be-Cowboys attitude that threatens to derail this Animal House in cleats. It all starts at the top - or in the VIP lounge.

When Jones was in Orlando last summer, promoting the ill-fated Cowboys-Oilers exhibition, he said that wide receiver Michael Irvin's drug suspension was merely a franchise aberration, a misstep to be lovingly treated by the Cowboys family. Lovingly suppressed would have been a better description. Jones always has subscribed to a self-destructive theory that grants players inexhaustible leeway as long as they help you win. The only thing that might wake up Jones is if the lucrative advertisers he has acquired through maverick end-runs suddenly vanish, turned off by the dark headlines (Neiman Marcus has pulled its sponsorship).

Dallas players were intimidated by Johnson, careful not to step too far out of line - or at least not enough to get caught and parade their dirty linen. If your misjudgments might cost J.J. a shot at a ring, it was bon voyage.

Now, a few star Cowboys (Irvin and Erik Williams) have thrust their tawdry lifestyles ahead of the team's goals. The hard, embarrassing slide that sickens class Cowboys such as former quarterback Roger Staubach should have been predictable. The turmoil is also suffocating enough to make Aikman, fullback Darryl Johnston and others wonder if they want to play through this sea of chaos lapping at their chins or ultimately abandon ship.

As long as Jones is steering what was once America's Team, it doesn't appear the Cowboys can avoid running aground.

(Brian Schmitz is a sports columnist for the Orlando Sentinel. Write to him at: Orlando Sentinel, 633 North Orange Avenue, Orlando, Fla. 32801)

(c) 1997, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).

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