Cowboys’ camp focus? Ditch ‘me-first’ attitude
Dallas dismissed T.O., Tank, Pacman, but it’s unclear if it’ll result in winning
 Lm Otero / AP Dallas coach Wade Phillips hasn't ensured his team lived up to expectations the last two seasons. Unless he can help the Cowboys transition from their "me-first" attitude, he may not be the coach much longer, writes Tom Curran. |
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Texas Stadium, one of the NFL's most hallowed and recognizable stadiums was closing down.
The franchise wanted to kiss their revered home on the forehead one last time. The Cowboys luminaries that made her famous — 12 members of the Ring of Honor, including Roger Staubach and Emmitt Smith and about 100 former players — had gathered. A dignified salute to all things Cowboys would start once their game against the Ravens ended.
Celebration turned into humiliation.
In a game critical to Dallas’ playoff hopes, the Cowboys allowed Baltimore to score on fourth-quarter touchdown runs of 77 and 82 yards. Both Ravens touchdowns directly followed Cowboys scores and that dynamic — hopes rising then being crushed — made the 33-24 loss even more painful.
A pall hung over the postgame event, televised on the NFL Network.
“'I hope they enjoyed their little ceremony,” chortled Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs. “I guess we were kind of like the dynamite.”
“It wasn't a homecoming game. It was more like a mock funeral,” said Ravens running back Willis McGahee said.
In the season finale, that Cowboys team that had Super Bowl expectations, called in disinterested. They lost to the Eagles, 44-6 and missed the playoffs.
Suggs and McGahee were ultimately right. It was a funeral for that particular Dallas Cowboys incarnation. The one that owner Jerry Jones insisted during preseason could glorify the individual and embrace the chaos. The one that believed style — not substance — needed cultivating.
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It’s a cultural exchange program. Gone (so far) is the public discussion of Super Bowl appearances — a training camp habit of past Cowboys teams that seemed a bit presumptuous since the club hadn’t won a playoff game since last century. Replacing it (so far) is a humility that’s uncommon for this franchise.
“Every year people think we are a Super Bowl team,” said Pro Bowl linebacker DeMarcus Ware. “We haven’t won a Super Bowl or playoff game yet. At the end of the day, you can put a team on a high pedestal, but you have to earn that. I feel like we haven’t earned that. We have the guys to get there, but we have to get there before people start putting us up there.”
That kind of locker room leadership bodes well for Dallas’ defense. But what’s been a greater focal point in this offseason is the leadership on the Cowboys offense. The release of Owens — which reportedly was spurred by Stephen Jones, not Jerry — was done with an eye on letting Romo spread his wings without T.O. usurping, second-guessing and gum-flapping on a seemingly weekly basis.
“It’s hard to take over leadership when you've got a strong personality like Terrell,” Stephen Jones told Yahoo! Sports. “A lot of our players thought the world of Terrell — they still do. They loved the way he prepared and how hard he played, and everybody respected his skills and what he'd done in the league. And with him here, I think he was always going to carry that kind of weight.”
Despite the fact Owens is still lobbing bombs at the Cowboys and Romo from western New York, the T.O. Era is done in Dallas. But, interestingly (shockingly?) the Wade Phillips Era is not.
Can the Cowboys really change their personality with Phillips as their coach? The fact Owens was allowed to be such a distraction, the fact that this team has lost its edge the past two Decembers, the fact it’s underachieved should land at the feet of the likable but tone-deaf head coach.
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In May, he told the media, “I think we’ve tried to do the right things. We’ve tried to do them the right way, but we haven’t done them exactly right.”
In other words, “good enough” has been fine for Phillips for two seasons. Now he is indicating he’ll demand perfection. But will the Cowboys respond to a more exacting Phillips knowing it’s not his nature? Can he even will himself to be more demanding?
The simple reality is, all the excuses and distractions have been removed. The Cowboys enter their 2009 training camp with the focus on football, not sideshows. They are in a position now to earn attention based on how they play, not who they are or what they say.
This year we’ll find out if the “me-first” Cowboys are really gone and if dignity can make a comeback in Big D.
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