Jean-Jacques Taylor of the Dallas Morning News raised the question of whether or not Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is broke in his latest column. Then in the first couple paragraphs, he detailed how Jones wasn’t actually broke, but is just tightening his spending in a bad economy.
Wow, what a concept. I guess a lot of Americans are considered broke in Taylor’s eyes.
Taylor then went on to list examples of Jones being more thrifty than usual, but none hold enough water to suggest that the Dallas owner is actually broke. (Or is making decisions solely based on financial reasons.)
DeMarcus Ware is negotiating an extension with the club that should make him the NFL’s highest-paid defensive player. Albert Haynesworth, who signed with Washington in March, currently owns that title with a seven-year deal that guarantees him $41 million, including $32 million in the first 13 months of the deal.
Ware’s deal will and should surpass that. Maybe, Jerry can’t commit to that type of expenditure right now, which is why negotiations are dragging.
If everyone got a nickel every time negotiations dragged out between a team and a player, then we’d all have beachfront property. It’s not a huge surprise that Ware and the Cowboys have been slow to reach a deal in a bad economy.
Releasing T.O. not only made Tony Romo’s life easier, but now Jerry doesn’t have to pay him the $6.5 million he was scheduled to earn. Miles Austin, who will likely move into the starting lineup, is scheduled to earn $1.5 million.
Yeah, and T.O. was also an amazing pain in the ass and many in the organization wanted to oust him from the locker room. The decision to cut T.O. was more about his cancerous attitude and less about money.
When Greg Ellis is officially released, the Cowboys will cut him a check for $1.5 million instead of having to pay him the $4.1 million he was scheduled to earn this year. Anthony Spencer, who was 72.5 fewer career sacks, is scheduled to earn $480,000 this season.
Ellis is also getting up there in age and the Cowboys want to see what they have in Spencer, who is a former first round pick. Not to mention, Ellis was also another poor locker room guy who often bitched and moaned about his role on the defense. Again, the decision to release him wasn’t all about saving money – there were other factors that were considered.
Then there’s the curious decision the Cowboys made on draft day to drop out of the second round and into the third round, where the contracts are typically shorter and less expensive.
It’s curious that a team would decide to trade back into the third round of a weak draft, instead of reaching for a player in the second? Come on.
Add to that the big deal Jerry made about not wanting to trade into the first round because of the financial risk involved and you’re within your rights to wonder whether he’s making decisions based more on money than winning.
Even if Jones was basing decisions more on money, the above examples that Taylor listed could all be explained for reasons that have nothing to do with money. Plus, the NFL could be without a cap next year, so it would make sense for an owner/GM to try and save as much money as he/they could this year so they’re prepared for next year.
But Taylor failed to even bring up the upcoming uncapped year in his article. Instead, he threw out a couple of weak examples to support a half-baked idea and slapped an eye-catching title on it in order to attract readers. Taylor could have done better than this. (I think.)
