DA: Cowboys’ Big D Stands for Drama

By Damon Amendolara 

There’s never a dull moment in Dallas, which is exactly how Jerry Jones likes it. “Big D” stands for drama, and just like the soap opera by the same name, Dallas is usually must-see TV nationally. The problem is Jerry tries to write a “Who Shot JR?” episode every week.

On Monday night against Washington, star quarterback (and lightning rod) Tony Romo takes a nasty shot to his already balky back. He has to leave the game. It’s obvious this is a delicate situation. Romo is crucial to a deep playoff run, he’s limping around the tunnel, and team PR staff is trying to keep him at bay.

And after much national conjecture amid a game hanging in the balance to a division rival, Jerry makes his way down from the luxury suite to the field. On the sideline he says something to coach Jason Garrett, and lo and behold, a damaged Romo limps back onto the field and finishes the game. Cowboys lose. Romo looks like a senior citizen hobbling through Denny’s. The country has its weekly Dallas theatrical play.

So what did Romo’s ensuing MRI turn up? We don’t know. The Cowboys have only said it’s not season-ending, his status is dependent on Romo’s pain threshold. Will he play this week against Arizona. Yes. We think. Unless the pain is too much. Was Jerry on the sideline to overrule the medical staff and allow Romo to return? Maybe. But Jerry also said it was to “inspire” the team by looking them in the eye. Oh brother. What is this, Mr. Burns running the Springfield softball team?

“Guys, I don’t know about you. At halftime, I was worried about them cats across from us. They’re real tough. But I just looked into Jerry’s eyes, and now I think we can pull this out! On three!”

But does it even matter? Are we just wasting breathless hours debating and arguing over something as trivial as an attention-seeking billionaire? On my show I asked Dallas-based Ian Rapoport, NFL Network insider, if Jerry sticking his face-tuck in the middle of the Romo situation was kosher.

“You can say, ‘Well, he’s an owner. He should never be on the sidelines.’ Well, he’s also the GM. He’s also not like any other owner. It’s different. Owners are on the sidelines all the time. (Houston Texans owner) Bob McNair spends time on the sideline. (Falcons owner) Arthur Blank spends time on the sideline. It’s not that rare. It’s just with Jerry Jones and national TV, everything is really magnified.”

So there’s a different set of rules for Jerry? “Well, yeah,” Rap said. Back in Jerry’s younger days, the hysteria was ratcheted up to 10 and the Cowboys still won three Super Bowls. But you wonder if this type of weekly chatter inherently derails the team today. In the early ’90s, there was no Twitter and Facebook. Sports media wasn’t stuffed cubicle-to-cubicle with screaming debate shows. Fans didn’t have cell phones to call, text and tweet their annoyances with a team. Most of us were still dark to the internet.

There’s always been a dull roar surrounding the Cowboys (well, maybe outside of the cricket-filled Dave Campo years). Jerry revels in the attention because it means business, revenue, tickets sold, and headlines written. But does it undermine winning? The easy answer to all the busted draft picks and wasted free agent money is simply that Jerry’s not that savvy at building a football roster. And this year, for the first time in a long time, he seems to have built a much better one.

The Cowboys block. They run. They play instinctive, efficient defense. They don’t let Romo throw a million passes behind a shaky line which would inevitably lead to painful interceptions. Dare we say, they… look like… a real football team.

But after a relatively quiet, drama-free first two months the normal Big D theatrics are back. Maybe it’s just a blip on the radar, Romo’s back holds up, and the Cowboys just continue winning. If it’s the other side of the coin? A weekly “Real Housewives of the Metroplex” saga, with spotty medical updates, an injured star, a belligerent owner, and questionable organizational decisions? Then the Big D will stand once again for Derailed.

D.A. hosts overnights across the ever expanding universe of CBS Sports Radio Network. He has hosted The D.A. Show (aka “The Mothership”) in Boston, Miami, Kansas City and Ft. Myers, FL. You can often catch him on the NFL Network’s series “Top 10″ opining on Zubaz pants, Tecmo Bowl and Andre Reed’s HOF credentials. D.A. graduated from Syracuse University in ’01, and immediately started looking for ways to make a sports radio show more like a quirky 1970’s sci-fi television series. Follow D.A. on Twitter and become one with the Facebook page experience. D.A. lives in NYC, and is a native of Warwick, NY – a sleepy town existing somewhere between the suburbs and the sticks.