Dallas Cowboys Need a Hoss To Roundup Super Bowl Promise

Leadership is an Under-appreciated Key to Championships

There is a palatable air of uncertainty in Dallas concerning this year's Cowboys, who maintain Super Bowl aspirations despite two recent losses leading to a 4-2 record.

With 13 returning pro-bowlers, and the additions of Zach Thomas, "the other" Roy Williams, and a more focused Tank Johnson, the expectation is that the Cowboys saunter into the playoffs, turn it up a notch and trot into history by winning an NFL record sixth Super Bowl.

Somehow out of the gate, the wagon has become unhitched, and inspection reveals it's not a problem with the carriage, rather with the driver and the man riding shotgun.  Simply, the Cowboys don't have the leadership needed to win a championship.

Strange that leadership and other intangibles are not much mentioned by the talking heads that tell us all the things we already know about the NFL.  But great teams always have great leaders.

This Cowboy team doesn't, on either side of the ball.   There is no Troy Aikman, no Roger Staubach, no Leroy Jordan.  On the "O" side, Tony Romo is likely a top 3 NFL QB, but he is not a natural leader of men.  Marion Barber is a quiet destroyer, T.O. a petulant diva.  Defensively, DeMarcus Ware is a star, but not a leader, Greg Ellis is a solid player but a constant whiner, and Roy Williams (the original) has confidence issues.  Zach Thomas was a leader of the Dolphins, but as a new arrival and nearing retirement, he hasn't been the kind of leader he was in Miami.  Meanwhile, the head coach Wade Phillips is a low key, unemotional, nearly transparent figure.

The closest the Cowboys have to a leader is their owner and GM, Jerry Jones.  But although Jerry stalks the sidelines when he wants, that's not enough to get the full effort from a talented but under-performing lot that is screaming silently for real leadership.