When it Comes to Accountability, Wade Relies on “Peer Pressure”

When it comes to accountability, Cowboys’ head coach Wade Phillips doesn’t believe in yelling, or cursing, or fining players. In his mind, the mere idea of peer pressure will be enough to clean up the myriad mistakes that have been so prevalent in the team’s first five games--of which, it’s worth noting, they’ve lost four.

"Some of them respond to money. Most of them respond to peer pressure,” Phillips said, per the Dallas Morning News. “You're hurting the team. That's really where you get to a player more than anything. More than cussing him out, more than fining him.

“Overall, it's really the team itself and bringing it out and being accountable. That's why we always talk about that. Everybody is accountable to each other.''

That is, the Cowboys might make a lot of inexcusable mistakes. They might then repeat those mistakes again the next week. They might even lose a game or two as a direct result of these mistakes, and ride the mistakes-train right out of postseason contention--but we can take solace in that, after committing such a mistake, the guilty party will have to look his teammates in the eye.

We’re pretty sure this system of self-governance is similar to the one used by Vince Lombardi--if by 'Vince Lombardi,' we mean that parent at the grocery store who allows his or her children to run amok through the store with impunity. We won't completely indict Phillips' leadership abilities--we actually get what he's saying, kind of--it would seem that at 1-4, this particular approach should be reconsidered by Phillips and co.

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