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Tuesday, December 23, 1997

Cowboys desperately need to find a professional coach

By Randy Galloway

Dallas Morning News

(KRT)

DALLAS -- To the football coaching community of America, congratulations. Your importance and your worthiness has hereby been defended, and certainly in Dallas restored to its proper lofty status.

The very best thing to happen to anyone who has ever answered to "coach" lies buried in the wreckage and the disgrace of the Cowboys' once-great dynasty.

There is a valuable lesson here, and locally, also a sad lesson. That little sideline tear rolling down Michael Irvin's cheek Sunday symbolized what can, and better yet, what should happen, when there is a total disregard for strong leadership in the team concept.

Jerry Jones defiantly declared four years ago that the Cowboys could win with any one of 500 coaches, such was the talent level and the tradition. Frankly, Jones could have said any one of five million coaches and he might have been correct.

But it only takes one - the wrong one - to bring down the entire house. Head coaching is about being strong, about creating respect, about having a work ethic, about leadership, and most of all, about setting the right example. Claiming to have had a pool of 500 to choose from, Jerry handpicked the very one who could deliver none of that.

Even worse, Jones will now be making the next coaching hire, but this time with the entire future of the franchise at stake. And this time with Jerry's reputation among those in the coaching profession now having shrunk to the lunatic level.

Once the search for a new savior starts, the Cowboys' coaching job will become a paradox for all candidates. Still a lot of talent available, and the next guy will be following Mr. Weak, which is always a plus. But on the flip side, the next guy also will have to work for Jones, a man who obviously has no respect for the coaching profession or he wouldn't think he could be one.

Jerry, of course, knows his reputation. And in that regard, an attempt at fence-mending started last week. It says here that 6-10 this season, and a 16-16 record the past two seasons, has finally convinced Jones to find a real head coach. But this search will become a case where Jones has to sell himself to the right man, rather than vice versa, simply because of Jones' reputation.

And what does this sound like, coming from Jones:

"Remember one thing - I played the game when a coach said, 'run through that wall,' you ran through that wall. I am a coaching believer. Any time it has seemed I have a diminished regard for the profession, that is misleading. This team needs as good a coach as can possibly be found."

Got you, Jerry. But what about the infamous "any one of 500" comment?

"What I was really saying was, there were several ways and approaches to having success in the business. And although one coach might differ from another, they both can end up being right. I more than anyone understand the value of good coaching, and I've certainly tried to hire good coaches and a good staff."

Why then the last hire, except to prove the "any one of 500" point, and to spite everyone who knew immediately it was a bad hire?

"No. 1, I thought that with the new free agency system in place in the league, that this would be like recruiting. I thought he was someone who could sell players on coming to Dallas.

"No. 2, he had a reputation as being able to communicate with players. No. 3, he had visibility and a stature that were important to me at the time. I didn't want a no-name coach. And No. 4, I knew I could work with him. That is a vital element, but it doesn't mean he (the head coach) has to compromise any other element."

But given all that, what, I wonder, could a real coach be thinking about the Dallas job if he saw Jones in action on the sideline during Sunday's game. Jerry was on TV giving his current coach a lecture and also wandering the bench, addressing several players during the game. Plus, there were reports Jones stormed the press-box roof, harassing assistant coaches up there. Jerry denies the harassment part.

And besides, there was nothing any coach could do Sunday. The players had quit. This was a disease that started long before Sunday. Try four years ago.

What happened in Dallas is enough to make a grown man cry. And one did Sunday. But how many more tears will fall as the digging out process now begins?

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