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Jerry Jones is usually one of the owners I respect the most in the NFL. He is smart, understands football and knows how to keep his Dallas Cowboys as a cash-making machine, which is the most important stat in all of football.
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| Wade Phillips claims he's not looking over his shoulder, yet Jason Garrett seems to be Dallas' front-runner for '09. (US Presswire) |
Except when it comes to Wade Phillips.
The Cowboys' current coaching situation just isn't right. Nor is it fair. Phillips led the Cowboys to the best record in the NFC last season, only to fall short of the Super Bowl when the Cowboys were upset on their home field by the New York Giants.
For that, he's now looking over his shoulder at a coach-in-waiting in offensive coordinator Jason Garrett. Any misstep by Phillips, such as a slow start, and you can bet Garrett will take over -- despite denials by Jones that very mechanism is in place.
"I don't pay any attention to all that," Phillips said. "There's stuff said all the time. I found if you listen to everything, then you'll let it get to you. I just go do my job. I don't listen to it."
He must have some damn good earplugs. The get-rid-of-Wade chorus rings louder from Cowboys fans than the disdain they have for Jessica Simpson, if you can believe that.
The Giants went on to win the Super Bowl after beating the Cowboys, and Phillips took the heat even more when a team the Cowboys beat twice in the regular season won it all. He took more grief for the loss than his celebrity-dating quarterback who bolted to the sun of Cabo the week before the game instead of focusing on football.
Some blamed Phillips for Tony Romo soaking up the sun with Simpson the week before the Giants game. They said he was too lax. The players should have known better. Just because he gave them some time off doesn't mean they needed to abuse it.
That led to talk that Phillips would get fired after only one year on the job, the sting of the playoff loss too much for Cowboys nation, and Jones, to handle. Here he was taking the Cowboys somewhere Bill Parcells -- the man who invented the game of football -- never did in his four seasons in Dallas, and yet Phillips was called out by the media after losing to the Giants.
One Dallas columnist said the loss "represents abject failure." He openly wondered if Phillips was the man for the job.
It turned from bad to worse for Phillips when Jones basically made Garrett the coach in waiting. Garrett came close to becoming the head coach in Baltimore, but passed on the chance when the Cowboys upped his salary to stay as offensive coordinator.
Reportedly, Garrett will make $3 million a year, close to what Phillips gets as the head coach. Garrett said he hasn't been promised the coaching job if Phillips falters, but why would he stay if he wasn't?
