If you've ever raised a child, you know that there are times when that child acts simply out of desire for your attention.
They don't really want to dump your iPhone in the toilet or throw a tantrum while you're trying to finish that work for the morning, they just want to reassure themselves that they are the center of the entire universe. Every now and then, you have to avoid taking the bait or you'll guarantee that nothing will ever change.
It's about time to adopt that strategy with Jerry Jones. There's no way to silence him, of course, but the fact that he feels the need to wax on and on about anything and everything having to do with the Cowboys doesn't mean you need to take him any more seriously than some other crank spouting off on sports radio.
The final straw in this little corner of the world was Jones' decision to tell Bob Costas that he would have fired the Cowboys' general manager long ago if the Cowboys had a general manager who wasn't also the owner. Instead of taking this to be the posturing that it was, plenty of people thought this meant that there might be a change in operating practices for Jones and the Cowboys.
Optimism is a wonderful thing, but drawing that kind of conclusion takes a leap of faith best left to others. This was Jerry 101, using some obvious mistake from the past and talking about it as if he's learned a single thing that will lead him to conduct himself differently. Less starry eyed Jones watchers couldn't have been surprised when he made it clear that the buck has stopped and will continue to stop with him.
"We are not structured that way,” Jones said, via the Dallas Morning News. “We didn’t structure it that way with my ownership. There’s no way that I would be involved here and not be the final decision-maker on something as important as players, and that is a key area. That’s never been anybody’s misunderstanding. It’s been a debated thing, but it’s just not going to happen. We’ve had success doing it this way and we’re going to have success in the future doing it this way. It eliminates some very serious issues when you look around the league, as to creating an additional layer that you’re continually having decisions, making changes, doing those kinds of things."
Jerry's claims of always making every decision are debunked easily enough -- Jimmy Johnson calls them a crock -- but that's almost beside the point. This is a man running a business saying that the guy responsible for one of the key functions of the business has failed, but knowing that information makes it no more likely that he'll find someone else to do the job.
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This is the way it is and this is the way it shall remain. It's maddening if you let it be maddening, but it seems far easier to just accept it the way you do with traffic jams, air travel and prices of movie theatre snacks.
