The Dallas Cowboys are the NFL's highest-profile team. They are "America's Team." They are the most valuable franchise in the league, according to the various outlets that determine franchise valuations. They get the highest ratings on TV. They anchor the most segments on sports talk shows, and they generate more online discourse than anyone.
And yet, they are not the most successful franchise in the league, or even close to it. They infamously have not even been to the NFC title game since the 1995 season, after which they won their third Super Bowl in four years. They have the 11th-best regular-season record during that time, but the fourth-worst postseason record.
The last 30-plus years have shown that the Cowboys do not know how to win when the stakes are highest. And yet, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones refuses to change how he does business.
He is the "general manager" of the team, and that will not change. He runs the team his way, and that will not change. He gives interviews to the local media following the game, even before the head coach or players speak to the press, and that will not change. He goes on the radio multiple times per week, and that will not change.
And he doesn't even attempt to hire the best coaches for his team, because he doesn't think that doing so it worth it from a financial perspective, and that will not change. Just ask Jones himself, who attempted to justify that stance during a radio interview on Tuesday.
"There is zero correlation (in the NFL) between how much you pay a coach or how many coaches you have as to winning," Jones said on 105.3 The Fan, via The Athletic. "There is no correlation. And that's a random sample of years and all 32 teams involved. So put that in your hopper and smoke it."
Coaching salaries, for the most part, aren't made public, so we can't actually find out whether there is a correlation between coaching salaries and winning. What we do know is that good coaches tend to win more games than bad ones, all else equal, and that good coaches generally cost more to hire than bad ones.
And now we know what we have long suspected: Jones simply isn't willing to pay for the best candidates. It's no wonder the Cowboys haven't done much winning since Jerry unceremoniously parted ways with the best coach he ever hired, Jimmy Johnson.
Jones famously fumed that Johnson got more credit for the Cowboys' success during their early-1990s heyday than did Jones himself, and drove Johnson away from the franchise amid their feud. Jones quipped at the time that "any of 500 coaches could have won a Super Bowl" with the roster the Cowboys had, and he has been trying to prove it ever since.
Jones has barely pretended to run coaching searches the last few times the Cowboys have had a coach opening, stacking the deck for candidates like Jason Garrett, Mike McCarthy and Brian Schottenheimer — go-along-to-get-along types who would let Jerry by Jerry and not rock the boat too much.
The Cowboys had an opening two years ago, when Ben Johnson — who was considered arguably the best coaching candidate in years and who has since revitalized the Chicago Bears — was available, and they did not even request an interview with him. At the same time, Mike Vrabel — a renowned culture-setter, despite this past offseason's indiscretions — was available, and they did not even request an interview with him. At the same time, Liam Coen — an offensive innovator who has taken the Jacksonville Jaguars to new heights — was available, and they did not even request an interview with him. At the same time, Brian Flores — arguably the best defensive coach in the league — was available, and they did not even request an interview with him.
The list goes on and on, and the Cowboys interviewed candidates that, for the most part, nobody else in the league was interested in at the time. (Only two of the six publicly-revealed candidates were interviewed by other teams that offseason.)
Jones does not care to hire the best coach available because he does not want to pay what it takes to hire the best coach and he does not want to share credit with the coach if the Cowboys ever manage to win anything substantial. And it's a big part of the reason why they won't.
