Is It The Cowboys Or The Yankees?: How Jerry Jones Is Building An Evil Empire

Defense wins championships.  That's the phrase you hear all the time when the topic of winning at any sport is brought up.  But, what about the other most important there is in winning.  Team chemistry.  Unless you're playing golf or tennis, any sport is a team sport, and it takes a collective effort from a group of players to win each and every game.

And the Dallas Cowboys don't have any team chemistry right now, with the blame of that resting squarely on the shoulders of owner Jerry Jones.

The Dallas Cowboys have become the New York Yankees of the National Football League.  Just a group, not a team, of players assembled together because of the name on the back of their jerseys.  Jerry Jones seems to act more and more like the way George Steinbrenner acted for the Yankees in his years prior to his resignation as owner.  They both just go out and try to build the best team that money can buy.

A championship caliber team isn't built that way by adding stars to the roster, it's done through scouting young players coming up and by signing free agents accordingly, depending on team needs.

Take this example for instance, Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys went out this off-season and acquired Adam "Pac-man" Jones via trade with the Tennessee Titans.  Huge mistake.  As if Terrell Owens isn't enough headaches for one team Dallas goes out and gets a player who is coming off a year long suspension, because it seemed as if he was in trouble with the law every other week.  And what was the reason for signing Jones, because his name is "Pac-man"?  Or is it because he said he's matured and wants to be referred to as Adam Jones and no longer as "Pac-man".  Well, a nickname doesn't effect the way you act, as it only took six weeks into the season for "Pac-man" to go out, get drunk, and start fighting with his bodyguards, earning him a four-game suspension.  He is an unproven, overrated cornerback coming to the league, rusty, after having a year off from football.  The strongest aspect of his game is probably his kick and punt return skills, but the Cowboys barely utilize that as they send many different people back as return men, such as Miles Austin, Patrick Crayton, and Felix Jones.

This is very similar to the way Steinbrenner and the Yankees have handled business for many years.  And it all traces back to the Alex Rodriguez trade.  Since the acquisition of Rodriguez, the team chemistry that was there during the championship years during the turn of the century, just hasn't been there.  Those Yankee teams had unsung heroes, such as Paul O'Neill, Tino Martinez, Scott Brosius, and Orlando Hernandez, all guys who made names for themselves while in New York.  Not guys who were brought to New York because of their name, such as Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon, Randy Johnson, and the before mentioned Rodriguez.

In the trade for Rodriguez the Yankees gave up probably the best young player in baseball at the time, in Alfonso Soriano.  Soriano was a fresh new player out of New York's farm system making a name for himself in baseball's biggest and toughest media market.  Given up for a few more home runs, RBIs, and a lot more money.  And since the trade happened in 2004 the Yankees have been progressively worse each year, including missing the post-season for the first time since 1993 this past season.

Another similarity between the Cowboys and the Yankees has to do with not focusing on the needs and weaknesses of the team.

The Cowboys just made a transaction that had most of the football world scratching their heads at the decision about a week ago when they acquired wide receiver Roy Williams from the Detroit Lions in exchange for a first, third, and sixth-round pick in the next spring's draft.  Dallas already had one of, if not the, best offenses in the league, and Tony Romo

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?