Boys May Self-Destruct Jones’ Response To Coach-Qb Feud Will Trigger What Happens Next
A day after Super Bowl XXX, a team that could end the Dallas Cowboys’ domination boldly stepped forward.
This team could ensure that the Cowboys, who have won three Super Bowls in four years, do not match the legendary Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s by making it four in six.
This team could ensure that the Cowboys’ late-night Sunday promise to “See you in New Orleans,” the site of next year’s Super Bowl, will ring as hollow as a monologue by Michael Irvin.
This team could alter Nate Newton’s D-word into something that sounds more like dumbfounded.
The San Francisco 49ers with a new running back? The Miami Dolphins with Jimmy Johnson? The Pittsburgh Steelers with two fewer passes?
Nope. The team that could make the Cowboys history, is well, the Cowboys.
Bleary-eyed and short-sighted, their owner conspicuously missing after spending all night at his star-studded party, their quarterback somewhere cleaning up after his own private party, the Cowboys behaved as if they had no idea where to go from here.
NFL champions for one day, and already looking like a team in transition.
“The good news is, we won the Super Bowl,” coach Barry Switzer said with a smile. “The bad news is, I’m back.”
And that is merely one of the potential problems for a team that has already won one title in spite of itself.
Here are some others:
The quarterback still doesn’t like the head coach. While Switzer celebrated in his hotel suite, listening to son Doug bang out tunes on a grand piano, Aikman threw a ritzy bash that included an appearance by country music star Reba McEntire.
Expect them to get together this spring and agree on at least one thing: If one of them doesn’t change, the other must.
“We’re both adults,” Switzer said. “We’ll do what is necessary.”
That will be whatever it takes so Aikman can win a Super Bowl and not say, “This is more of a relief than anything.”
Added Aikman, “We’ve gone through more distractions this season than in any other year. We’ve had to face more things inside our locker room than ever before. That’s what makes this so gratifying.”
And makes it so important that it doesn’t happen again.
Aikman is not retiring. Any such thoughts disappeared with the final snap Sunday, when suddenly he was one Super Bowl ring away from tying Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw.
The problem is, Switzer says he’s also not retiring.
“We’ll take it from year to year, as long as Jerry believes in me, and I, in him,” Switzer said of Jerry Jones, the Cowboys’ owner.
What happens next?
Aikman meets with Switzer and Jones and formally asks that Switzer get tougher.
Jones, so wearied by his team’s shenanigans he seemed to have little fun this week, will look at Switzer and agree.
And if Switzer doesn’t have the energy to suddenly become a disciplinarian, not just with the players but himself, he might suddenly quit. Stay tuned.