Given the reported release of T.O., my status as lifelong Cowboys fan, and self-acknowledged T.O. expert here are a few thoughts about the whole situation:
The wicked witch is dead...
The scapegoat is gone. Because of his polarizing persona, T.O. made for an easy target when things went wrong with the Cowboys. In addition, Pacman Jones and Roy Williams are also gone. Over the past 3 years the most popular people to blame for the Cowboys failures are Jerry Jones and whoever the Cowboys head coach is (this will never change), Owens, Williams, and Pacman. Now when things go wrong with the Cowboys, other people will be square in the sights of those who enjoy (and many who get paid handsomely) to play the blame game. Here are a few butts that are on the line now that T.O.'s gone:
- Tony Romo - the convenient excuse for his poor play has become that he's too busy trying to force the ball to T.O. Given this theory, he now has the mental freedom to scan the field and just find the open man. If he doesn't, he better grow some even tougher skin because the sharks are beginning to circle.
- Jason Garrett - T.O had one great year in his offense and T.O. had one average year in his offense. We have a small sample size of Garrett's offense without T.O. (Garrett's first year when T.O. got hurt at the end of the year) and it wasn't pretty. The offense ground to a halt. Remember, T.O. put up numbers BEFORE Garrett came in as offensive coordinator. It can be said that the biggest thing missing with the Cowboys offense last year was Tony Sparano. Even with the small sample size the Cowboys were DESPERATE to get him back for the playoff game against the Giants in January '08. I didn't hear these people who are glad T.O. is gone saying they didn't want him back for that Giants game. The idea of T.O. being gone is easier to digest than the reality of him being gone. Garrett not only has to prove he can do it big without T.O., but also how to implement the other weapons he still has at his disposal. His lack of use of Felix is comical in light of what Chris Johnson did at Tennessee. If I played with this offense on Madden, I would be unbeatable, yet he didn't do much with all that firepower. His clock is ticking loudly.
- Witten - Life with T.O. on the field is easier than life without T.O. on the field. Can he produce without a beast on the edge opening stuff up for him over the middle and underneath.
- Roy Williams - I think he has much more than what he showed this year, but it's now even more imperative that he has a big year. If not, he will have to deal with the Joey Galloway comparisons - got big money, Cowboys gave up a lot in the draft for him, yet very little ROI (get it ROI/Roy, hehehehehe)
- Wade Phillips - dude was on the hot seat after going 13-3. His butt will be glued to the hot seat as long as he's the head coach of Dallas.
Revisionist history
Media pundits will attempt to lump this Cowboys situation into T.O.'s history with the Eagles and with San Francisco. These are 3 distinct situations. The one that is most different than the others is the 49ers situation. T.O. did not get cut from the 49ers. T.O.'s agent screwed up and didn't file his paperwork in time for him to become a free agent (thus he fired his agent and hired Drew Rosenhaus). The 49ers didn't cut him after he feel back into their laps. If they were so determined to get rid of T.O., why didn't they just let him walk, even after his agent screwed up??? They did subsequently trade him because he was pretty much hell bent on becoming a free agent (the player's union and an arbitrator eventually got involved). I think the biggest domino that led to T.O. becoming the most polarizing figure in the NFL today was his former agent screwing up his bid for free agency. T.O. was not a high draft pick, so his route (which is the route that all non-first round draft picks take) to get paid is through free agency. The whole debacle in Philly was over money. T.O., because he was in a poor negotiating position with the Eagles due to his agents gross negligence, had to take what the Eagles were offering because if not he was going to be stuck in San Fran or traded to a team where he didn't want to go. T.O. was traded to the Eagles from the 49ers with his sub market level deal already in place. After having a big year he wanted to renegotiate the deal, the Eagles did not and the drama ensued. He did not tear up San Fran's locker room, however he did have issues with coaches Steve Mariucci and Greg Knapp. He was integral in the divide in Philly's and in the Cowboys locker room though in both other cases. I don't think T.O. was totally wrong in his position in any one of the situations (San Fran, Philly, or Dallas). However, being right and negatively affecting team chemistry is still net-net a bad outcome. Holding on to a position of right to the detriment of the relationships cannot be excused and is an indefensible position, especially in the ultimate team sport such as football.
The question of leadership
Last year (and for the past couple of years) the Cowboys have had a void of leadership. Parcells was the unquestioned leader while he was here (there are varying opinions on whether it was good or bad leadership). Before Parcells, the leadership was Jimmie Johnson and the Triplets. The Cowboys for the past decade, minus the Parcells years, have had a void of leadership. Removing T.O. does not address this issue. The lack of leadership allowed the Cowboys situation to blow up in the media like it did last year. As much as people didn't like Parcells when he was here, there weren't these types of issues when he was around. Giving a pregnant women medicine to help combat nausea does not do anything about the root cause of the nausea. T.O. in this analogy is nausea (no pun intended), but the Cowboy's are still pregnant with a lack of leadership. You cannot make Tony Romo a leader by removing somebody who will test his leadership. Absence of conflict does not a leader make. Eli Manning is no greater a leader because of Jeremy Shockey leaving. Dude still is not a leader. Tom Coughlin is the leader of that team. The on the field leaders of the Giants (Tiki and Strahan) are gone now. Eli didn't step into that void. Coughlin assumed total control. Coughlin butted heads with those veterans (which speaks to his asserting himself as leader) initially, went on to make peace with them and now that both are on TV, Coughlin is the unquestioned leader of that squad. Wade isn't that type of leader. So far, Garrett isn't that type of leader. Romo isn't. Now that T.O. is gone. Who???? The Steelers don't have a questions of leadership. The Patriots don't have a question of leadership. The Colts don't have the question of leadership. The Giants and Eagles don't have the question of leadership. The Ravens don't have a question of leadership. These are the best teams in the NFL over the past 6-7 years. As much as I love the Cowboys, they still have a GAPING hole in this area. Until somebody, some coach, some player steps up and assumes the mantle of leadership the Cowboys will have a difficult time winning a Super Bowl, even with all that talent they have.
T.O. post-Cowboys, post NFL
I am concerned about T.O. in his post Cowboys and his post football life. First T.O. is going to find the marketplace to be full of tumbleweed. He's an aging receiver with significant baggage. He was to make 8 million this year if he stayed with the Cowboys. He probably will be lucky to make 3 million with most of the contract being laden with incentives. The sad thing is there will not be many teams lining up to sign him. It's interesting to me how in sports with hall of fame talents like Bonds and Ramirez we left dangling in the market with nobody really willing to step up to pay them. Aging talents with baggage are persona non grata in today's sports landscape. Owens' wallet will be much lighter this year. I really hope he has his money in order. He never signed one of these Albert Haynesworth, McNabb, or Mike Vick type 100 million dollar contracts, so missing out of 5 million could be significant. His house in New Jersey (back from his time in Philly) is still sitting on the market. Second, what is T.O. going to do after football? He won't get a position as an analyst on TV. A radio show??? Maybe, due to his needle moving personality he would work out on the radio, but in what city? I hope he has thought about what life is like minus the spotlight. It's obvious that he desires attention, even if though he has consistently characterized much of the negative that such attention brings him as being unfair. I hope for his sake that he has some hobby that he really enjoys because the public's attention will move on and he will find himself unable to make anywhere near the type of money he made in the NFL. That's a scary cocktail from my perspective.
Overall assesment
The Cowboys still have talent, but have a lot of questions to be answered. It will be interesting to hear sports talk radio in Dallas now that the usual suspects have left town. I guess it will just morph into more Jerry and Wade bashing. Until they get the leadership question answered, I still have questions on how far my 'Boys will go. I can hope as a fan that they make a deep run next year, but as an analyst I'm still quite skeptical. Now, don't get it twisted, I remember 3 straight years of 5 and 11. I don't want to go back there. I much prefer the underacheiving Cowboys versus the Cowboys that are just trash.
