Give Jerry Jones credit. He's still sticking to his guns with Roy Williams.
The latest evidence by his laughable attempt to find something about Williams to compliment. Double J offers a pat on the back for the way Williams has handled criticism which is sort of like complimenting BP for the cleanliness of their gas stations.
Well, not really. The BP oil spill is serious business while Williams is simply a receiver that was wildly overrated by Jones at the 2008 trade deadline. It still rings awfully hollow, though. Jones attempts to portray Williams as some kind of a sympathetic figure who is victimized by expectations that go far beyond those of any other player on the team, a school of thought well represented in Charean Williams's article for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Patrick Crayton and receivers coach Ray Sherman offer similar sentiments in the piece and it almost works. After all, Williams didn't decide to spend three draft choices and $20 million in guaranteed money on himself. Whatever criticism gets thrown at him should be dumped tenfold on the head of Jones and anyone else in the Cowboys front office who thought this was a good idea.
It was a terrible trade at the time because it shook up the offense in the middle of a season and it has remained a terrible trade because there aren't more than 10 or 15 players in the entire league worth that kind of ransom. Williams has earned criticism with his play and his sorry excuses about not knowing his role in the offense but, nearly two years later, the expectation game should be adjusted based on the facts of the situation.
At least Jones was right about the accepting criticism thing.
"It's fair," Williams said. "I mean, I'm not an established guy. Jerry gave up so much for me, yada, yada, yada. There are so many high expectations for Roy Williams, and he hasn't panned out. He had a very average year for an average wide receiver last year. For me being who I am, that's very mediocre and unacceptable."
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Just when you thought it was safe to feel bad for Williams, he pulls out the third person.
This whole thing can be solved rather easily. If Williams has four good games in the first half of the season and the Cowboys find themselves with a 6-2 record, you won't hear a peep of criticism of the wide receiver. To revisit the BP comparison, this isn't a corporation acting callously and causing a catastrophe that will linger for years.
Williams is always a week away from being everybody's darling, something that makes it hard to take his critics particularly seriously.
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