(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Back in the early '90s, the Dallas Cowboys were the team to beat. They had a great coach, great players, and were almost unbeatable. Then the coach left—but the players stayed and continued to win for a few more years. Then came the years without the players, and horrible to mediocre coaches.

But after a decade of mediocrity, Jerry Jones decided to bring in Bill Parcells, who started to restore some shine to the now tarnished star. However, even that ended up being short lived. So what is the one thing that hurts the cowboys more than anything else? The answer is simple, Jerry Jones, who is the root of all problems for this franchise.

Yes, he has been a good owner and has done a lot of great things.  Jerry, though, wants to think he is a football genius and that he can control everything. He has made horrible coaching choices since Johnson and especially after Parcells.

He brings in players who embarrass the franchise and make it a laughing stock. Lastly, he ends up drafting so-so players with an occasional hit.

Jerry Jones is by no means an idiot, and I am sure he knows the game of football very well. But he needs to hire a "football minded" general manager and focus on what he knows: the business end of the NFL. If he fails to do this, the Cowboys will continue to lack success.

In the end, Jerry will have too much pride to ever relinquish his power, which means his team will slowly fall into the same state of disarray that the Oakland Raiders now find themselves in. And for any Cowboy fan out there, a fate like this is worse than death. It is sad for me to see this once great franchise turn into a laughing stock.

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