Dallas Cowboys: Can Jimmy Johnson's Advice Make Jason Garrett Next Best Thing?

For most Cowboys fans, the Super Bowl pregame in Dallas held more meaning than the game between the Packers and the Steelers.

Out of all of the tragic occurrences of the 2010 season, which ended with the Pittsburgh Steelers having a birth in the first Super Bowl to ever be played in Dallas while the 6-10 Cowboys played golf, there were a couple of silver linings that made the day just a wee bit more bearable:

With the Packers jumping out to a big lead and then holding on to defeat the Steelers 31-25, it saved Cowboys fans the humiliation of being forced to watch as the Steelers accepted the Lombardi trophy in Cowboys stadium.

The main event of the day for most was the pregame session with Troy Aikman, Daryl Johnston, Michael Irvin, Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson sitting around, discussing the Cowboys dynasty of the 90's and, for a brief time, allowing the Cowboys fans to bask in the glow of the last great team to play in Dallas.

At least Jerry was kind enough to arrange that meeting, making the day a bit more bearable for Cowboys fans aching from the torment associated with the idea that in just a few hours the Pittsburgh Steelers might earn their seventh Lombardi trophy in eight trips to the big game—with this one being held for the first time ever in Dallas.

And in that conversation, a glimmer of hope appeared for 2011.  Perhaps Jimmy Johnson really did love the Cowboys still and he might be around to give advice as needed to one Jason Garrett if the 2011 Cowboys begin to struggle under his first reign as head coach.

The irony of the meeting was that there were four Hall of Fame members of the dynasty of the 90's sitting there discussing the successes of that era, while the Cowboys of 2011 are actually led by the one-time third-string quarterback from those great teams.

It was a grim reminder that the Cowboys of today are only a shell of what was and what should have been.

Still, there remains a glimmer of hope, as Jimmy Johnson talked passionately about his Cowboys and how he has given Jason Garrett advice since he was named the interim head coach of the Cowboys midway through the 2010 season.

It offered a ray of sunshine into the gloom that haunted Cowboys fans as the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers were about to take the field for Super Bowl XLV in Cowboys Stadium, on the home turf of a Cowboys team in disarray.

Since that time, Johnson has spoken praises for young Jason Garrett, but also acknowledged the sloppy play of the Cowboys and the turnovers that killed this team in 2010.

It was the offensive turnovers in their own end of the field that ended any hope for the playoffs by the eighth game of the season. In games that the Cowboys were losing by seven points or less, it was an undisciplined offense that was often out-of-sync that would repeatedly give their opponents the advantage in those games.

But, as the shadows of the 2010 season fade and the Cowboys and their fans begin to look to 2011 with hope that Jason Garrett's promise of returning to a more physical approach will bring a return to glory, the hope must be that it will in fact be the words of wisdom that might come from Jimmy Johnson that could make a difference.

While it is apparent that neither of Garrett's former teammates will openly be critical of him, one can be assured that Jimmy Johnson would have given birth to a fully matured calf on the sidelines if one of his teams performed the way Garrett's offense did in the first eight games of 2010.

It is this glimmer of hope that Cowboys fans should hold on to dearly as the 2011 NFL Draft transpires, and training camp ultimately begins.

If Jimmy Johnson still loves the Cowboys, as I believe that he does, Cowboys fans can only hope that his insides will be stirred at the memory of how the 2010 Cowboys were destroyed early by an undisciplined offense that more resembled a flag-football team than an NFL-caliber offense.

One can only hope that the memory of a call for a pass from their own 37 with four seconds left in the first half of the opening night debacle in Washington,or the repeated interceptions deep in their own territory that repeatedly put the Bears, Titans, Jaguars and the Vikings in position to reap those easy scores that gave them the advantage in games that were needlessly lost, will keep Jimmy Johnson from sleeping at night when he thinks of his former third-string quarterback trying to coach this team.

One can only hope that it will be Jimmy Johnson who is picking up the phone, using a tone of voice expected from a mentor to a student,and helping an otherwise immature offensive coordinator become the head coach we all hope he will be.

The Dallas Cowboys cannot afford another display like the fans saw in 2010 and it is obvious that the desire to coach the Dallas Cowboys does not equal the qualifications needed in order to do so.

For the Cowboys of 2011, it might well be a voice from the past that is their only real hope of avoiding disaster.

Hopefully it's the voice of one Jimmy Johnson in the ear of Jason Garrett. It might be the only thing that saves them from their own immaturity.

That's the bottom line.