A Jim Gazzolo Article: Doomsday in Dallas

By Jim Gazzolo

It is becoming a post-holiday tradition, like fresh resolutions, joining health clubs, and returning unwanted gifts.

It’s the collapse of the hopes and dreams of every Dallas Cowboys fan alive.

They have spent the previous five months believing in the hype, of falling for the same old gag that this was to be the year. No more waiting, no more losing.

This winter would be a glorious return to greatness for America’s Team.

Instead, it always ends in a Dallas nightmare. This season proved no different.

Despite having everything at their fingertips, the Cowboys fumbled it away during a disastrous performance in the playoffs.

The Cowboys were tossed into the offseason last weekend by the seventh-seeded Packers in the first round. Green Bay needed to win the last game of the regular season just to make it into the postseason. That only made Dallas fans more cocky, if that’s possible. 

No way a team that snuck into the playoffs during the weekend with the youngest team in the league could knock off the mighty Cowboys. They are the best.

Instead, we all saw what happened. The young Packers ran over, around and through the great Dallas club and had a four-touchdown lead before the Cowboys finally found the scoreboard. 

The good people of Dallas were shocked…Again.

It has been since Barry Switzer coached the team in the mid-90s that the Dallas Cowboys won, or even really mattered. The franchise that dominates the national media and lives in the past, has been nothing more than a punch line when it comes to playoff talk.

Super Bowl trophies are three decades in the past, yet every year the talking heads of pro football treat the Cowboys as if they are a dynasty about to be unleashed on the game.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Since Jimmy Johnson was run out of Dallas by Jerry Jones, the Cowboys have been lost. Switzer was able to somehow lead the team to a title in his second year, but that was still Jimmy Johnson’s team. 

Once Johnson was gone even Bill Parcells could not save Jones from himself.

Owners own. Coaches coach. Players play.

It is a simple formula that has worked for ages. Jones doesn’t believe it. In his mind, he owned, coached, and played for the Cowboys when they were last great. 

A modern-day Goeore Halas if you prefer.

What Jones really does well is market his team. He convinces not only the die-hard Cowboy fans but his media friends that this is the year Dallas delivers on all his promises.

But it’s just more smoke and mirrors from the ultimate football magician. Or maybe Jones is more con man, promising his public what it desires most knowing all too well he can’t deliver.

He has stars, he delivers flash and he loves the attention, but in the end, there is no rabbit in his hat, just empty space, like that he has reserved in his trophy case for unwon Lombardi hardware.

After their latest postseason debacle, the Jones gang seems further for their next championship than ever before. They look trapped between their world and reality.

What Jones and his faithful have yet to learn is you can talk the greatest game possible, but that only puts a target on your star. You have to one day back it up or the only thing you get is humiliation. 

Maybe it is our fault for believing the hype, for listening to Jones and those who told us to forget what we believe and trust them it is different this time. 

If so shame on us and not again.

And next time when the holiday season comes to a close, we will remember it’s just a matter of time before the Cowboys’ season ends as well.

Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers McNeese athletics. He is the host of Poke Nation on CBS-Lake Charles.