Life is short, but Jerry Jones makes being a Dallas Cowboys fan feel endless

Roger Staubach. That is the answer to the question: “Why do you pull for the Dallas Cowboys? Yes, Mr. Staubach won the Heisman Trophy before I was born. It is true I never watched him play a down of college football except in highlight films.

If you don’t remember his first four years out of college playing professional football, do not feel badly. No one else does either, because he did not play professional football upon graduation from the Naval Academy. He served his country in uniform. We are now in an era where great baseball players skip college altogether, great basketball players are one and done, great football players leave for the draft as soon as they are eligible. Mr. Staubach was drafted in a different kind of way, and he opted for Vietnam when he may well have been able to stay stateside had he chosen to do so. First, it was Mr. Staubach and then Tom Landry, Jethro Pugh, Mel Renfro, Bob Lilly and Cliff Harris. I could name all the Cowboy players as a kid.

I can still tell you where I was when Mr. Staubach threw that famous touchdown pass to Drew Pearson to beat the Minnesota Vikings. Yes, it is possible Drew Pearson pushed the defender down before he caught the ball, but let’s don’t get caught up in technicalities.

COWBOYS LEGEND DIGS DEEP INTO THE TEAM’S MISSING ‘FIBER’ THAT’S RESULTED IN SUPER BOWL DROUGHT

Dallas is the only professional football team I have ever pulled for. Lately I have been wondering if life is too long to be a Cowboys fan. Our daughter loves the Cowboys so much she named her dog “Dallas.” Other family members gave up on Dallas when Jerry Jones bought the team and unceremoniously fired Tom Landry.

Yes, it was an egregious way to treat a legend, but perhaps not as egregious as his continued ownership of the franchise. That daughter who pulls so hard for Dallas has never seen them play in a Super Bowl. Not because she was doing something else or otherwise engaged on Super Bowl Sunday, but because Jerry Jones has managed something almost impossible. Dallas has not made the Super Bowl game in over 30 years. 25 different NFL franchises have played for a Super Bowl during this slough of despondance, but not Dallas.

If you truly love something and value what is best for it, at what point do you do, as the old idiom commands, and “set it free?” Dallas has gone from winning three Super Bowls in four years and being a near constant threat to play for a division title to being unwatchable.

It may well be the most valuable franchise in all professional sports. Their budget is no less and probably more than any other NFL team and yet, under Jerry Jones’ leadership, they have hit rock bottom. The primary reason to watch these days is to see the new and creative ways they can blow leads or watch a defense that is apparently worried about being charged with assault and battery. [Free legal advice. It is not a battery to hit someone in a football game. The other team has consented to the touching.]

COWBOYS HIRE LONGTIME NFL COACH OUT OF RETIREMENT TO ADDRESS TEAM’S BRUTAL DEFENSIVE START

It isn’t bad luck in the NFL draft. Dallas drafts well. Micah Parsons literally fell into their laps. That was before they decided to draft the best defensive player in football, of course.

Dallas currently has a more than adequate quarterback and two of the best wide receivers in all of football. What they do not have is a good owner who knows anything about winning championships or even competing for them. Boston University has won a national championship in football just as recently as Dallas has played in a Super Bowl. [Note: Boston University discontinued its football program in 1997.]

JERRY JONES HAS NO ‘SUCCESSION PLAN’ FOR COWBOYS LEADERSHIP: ‘JUST WON’T BE HERE TO TOSS MY TWO CENTS IN’

I am too old to find another NFL team. I do not have 30 more years to wait for Jerry Jones to right this ship. The ship is not even headed in the right direction. Heck, it’s not even in the water at this point. I would buy them myself but for two things: they are not for sale, and I do not have 10 billion dollars (although I might could get Sean Hannity to loan it to me).

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I tell all the young people I know: “Life is short, it goes quickly, relish every second.” What I should tell them is watch Dallas play football. Life moves much more slowly. The penalties and defensive lapses mimic eternity. Mr. Jones, I, alongside many others, have pulled for Dallas all our lives. You are proving life may be too long.