Tully Tuesday's Volume 34, Is Jerry Jones trying to kill me?

I had a great weekend in Dallas with my dad and my brother. We ate like kings, played some golf, and watched my two favorite teams lose in two very different ways.

I thought about how I was going to recap my weekend, and I think we’ll start with that before the spark lights, and we burn some small forests at the end.

We had a nice dinner Friday, hit the hotel and woke up to play some golf at The Nelson in Dallas at the Ritz Carlton. The facilities were ridiculous, range, and practice area were impeccable. We warmed up for our round next to Lions and NFL Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson, which was pretty cool. The guy is massive, and seems like a nice guy, which set us up for a great day. The course was sweet, lot of history there as the former host of the Byron Nelson provided a great challenge and fortunately some cool winds because other than that it was hot as hell.

I don’t think I could live in Texas. As much as I enjoy it down there, 97 degrees in October is foul, it’s just too damn hot. However, we were able to hit the cold plunge after which should be a must have at all golf courses, particularly ones sharing the price point of this particular course.

We went by Jerry World to check out the Pro Shop and headed up north for some barbecue and to watch Ohio State Oregon at COSM in Frisco. It was unbelievable.

It’s hard to capture in photos because of the size of the screen, but if you don’t have tickets or live far away it’s by far the next best thing to going to a game in great seats. The crowd was a good split of fanbases, and you really do feel like you are at the game, without the elements. Obviously the game didn’t end the way it should have, but I’m encouraged about OSU long term after how Will Howard played in the first 59 minutes and 45 seconds. The 12 man on the field at the end of the game was bullshit, as playing with 12 men is “Illegal Participation” and should result in 15 yards and a first down. But the B1G refs gonna B1G refs and that should be expected in your gameplan.

Onto Sunday. We kicked it off with maybe the best Bacon Egg and Cheese I’ve ever had, and brother let me tell you I’ve had plenty. We went to Shug’s Bagels at SMU and thankfully ordered ahead to dodge the hour long wait that the hungover students were gathered in. The Bagels were as good as any New York/New Jersey Bagel I’ve had and the sandwich was absolutely dynamite. I’m normally tapped at half a sandwich in the morning but I could’ve had 3.

Then we headed to the Red Wedding at AT&T Stadium and this is where we’re going to get serious.

What Jerry Jones has done right is create an experience that makes you want to take the trip that we went on. You have 2 days of anticipation, bring a bunch of business in to the area, buy all the gear, eat all the food, and enjoy a weekend away from home.

The Problem is Jerry Jones has created this not only for his fans but for all fans, and when his team sucks, the stadium very quickly turns into a road game. And let me tell you do the Cowboys suck. Granted they had their top 4 defensive ends out, 2 of their top 3 corner backs out, as well as their starting Middle Linebacker, Number 2 WR, and finally their Left Tackle out, but there is no excuse for getting clowned on in your own stadium they way the Cowboys have now 4 games in a row.

The Lions are very good, and I had an expectation of probably a pretty unfavorable ending to this game. But the game was over about 5 minutes in when the Cowboys failed to score on their first drive because their Big Dumb Coach insists on being the only coach in the NFL who takes the ball to start the game. Despite that the Cowboys lucked their way down the field and ultimately failed and settled for their first of 3 field goals and 33% of their total scoring for the day. Then Detroit took the field, went straight through the middle of Mike Zimmer’s defense and it was very apparent that this was a 4th consecutive home ass kicking coming down the pipeline. I cannot explain to you how bad the vibes in the stadium were after that Lions drive. It was funeral-esque, and the Lions fans were the only cheers you’d hear for the rest of big Jerry’s super birthday party!

A younger version of myself would sit their despondent, saying it’s not fair and calling out ghost penalties on every play. But on Sunday I didn’t, I sat there thinking about how it was fortunate that if this was going to happen it was happening on Jerry Jones’ birthday, and that was good enough consolation for me.

Sunday was exactly what Jerry Jones has created, an amusement park with all the rides, and concessions, and the same emptiness walking out of the stadium that you feel after a long day at Disney World, exhausted, and scared to check your phone banking app.

But the problem is I do give a shit about football. And I do give a lot of shits about this backwards ass team that Jerry Jones has managed to keep profitable for 28 years of bullshit in my lifetime. I knew the Cowboys were going to lose and I was still very excited to go. I was happy to have a great time with my Dad and my Brother and we’re still going to go back next year and do it all again like we do every year.

But something has to change, and it probably won’t. If you had the misfortune of watching any of that game Sunday you saw two very different teams and coaching staffs. You saw the Lions, already one of the best teams in the NFL, who in 1 year lapped you in terms of playoff success, lined up ready to beat the living shit out of you. The Lions had a gameplan that probably by Thursday they knew they were going to be able to run all the school yard bullshit they wanted to in the second half because they were going to run the same crossing patterns, inside runs, counters, flea flickers, and literally whatever the f-ck they wanted to all day because the Cowboys haven’t been able to defend an above average offense since 2007.

It won’t change because the other side has young innovative coaches and personnel teams that build a culture and foster it, spend what they need to spend and address their holes to build for today to win on the football field. They don’t spend on art museums in their stadium or extra pro shops or innovative pretzels in the concession stands.

It won’t change because once Jerry Jones scape goats another coach out of town for his miserable performance as General Manager, and he won’t bring in a coach like Ben Johnson who just ripped his stadium in half in front of 93,000 suckers who paid to go to the game. No, he will bring in another version of Mike McCarthy, another retread who hasn’t had success in years, another guy who he can blame his failures on and maybe the last guy who will be able to take the blame for Jerry Jones’ noted shortcomings.

The Jerry defenders will point to the TV Deals and the Marketing growth and blah blah blah. I would like to point to the football field, the only aspect of the organization that should matter and simply ask if all the resources available have been exhausted on making that product as good as it should be. By the way, here's his Tuesday morning hit on 105.3 in Dallas this morning where he threatens to have the hosts fired TODAY

https://x.com/jonmachota/status/1846181901184159753

If the Cowboys to me were not about family, which is non-negotiable, I wouldn’t have made it this far as a fan. I would’ve probably just grown up a Ravens fan in Maryland, and moved to New England with that cemented in me. I would’ve seen them win a Super Bowl and I would’ve seen them actively trying to do that again.

Instead I’m forced to look beyond football and enjoy the time I was able to spend with my Dad and my brother, and that truly is good enough for me.

And to Jerry Jones, you are a loser. Sure you won 2 Super Bowls with Jimmy Johnson, and one last one with Barry Switzer and a great roster that you were able to build off of trading Herschel Walker away. I won’t take that away from you, there’s no reason to, because if that didn’t happen I think I could give you credit for trying to win in the last 28 years. But that hasn’t happened, and it hasn’t been close. Every single year there are teams doing more, scheming better, building rosters that don’t handicap them for years, and if they do have that situation, they figure out how to improve year over year. Well the rebuild since 1996 has now turned 28, and it’s not getting any action until someone throws some pity its way, and when you’re the kid in school who brags about how big his daddy’s house is, good luck. Good Luck with that.

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