Despite what he might have said Sunday, Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones isn't going anywhere. When he was asked by NBC's Bob Costas if Jerry Jones, owner, would have fired Jerry Jones, GM, here was Jones' reply:
"Well, I think so … because he was there to dismiss," he said. "I've always worked for myself, and you can't do that. You basically have to straighten that guy out in the mirror when you work for yourself. But, certainly, if I'd had the discretion, I've done it with coaches and certainly I would have changed a general manager."
Funny story: Hypothetical Jones and Real-world Jones are two different things. Turns out, just because Jones theoretically would've fired his general-managin' self doesn't mean a whole lot.
“We are not structured that way,” he said during his weekly Tuesday morning interview on KRLD-FM radio, the Cowboys' flagship station (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," Jones continued, "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."
Look, hiring a general manager doesn't magically make an organization competitive, but hiring the right GM certainly goes a long way. Just look at the Falcons and Thomas Dimitroff or the Bucs and Mark Dominik, two young execs who have had success. At the other end of the spectrum: Scott Pioli, and blasts from the past like Vinny Cerrato and Matt Millen.
Even less effective, it seems: having the owner serve in that role. Jones can talk all he wants about the "success doing it this way," but the reality is that the Cowboys are currently 3-5, were 8-8 a year ago and 6-10 the year before that. Since 1997, they're 123-124.
ESPNDallas.com's Calvin Watkins hits the lowlights of some of Jones' personnel moves:
* Trading three draft picks, including a first- and third-rounder, to Detroit for WR Roy Williams;
* Trading for CB Pacman Jones;
* Big-money contracts for S Ken Hamlin, RB Marion Barber, G Marco Rivera, S Roy Williams.
Whatever, Jones isn't changing.
"It's real clear," he said. "I was asked the question, 'If you were an owner and you had a general manager, would you make a change?' Under those circumstances, I speculated that I would probably have made a change. But that's not our situation. To change, I'd have to change myself. People don't do that."
Put another way: get comfortable, Cowboys fans, because Jones ain't going anywhere.
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