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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Who’s In Charge In Dallas? Apparently, It’s Wrong Duo

Diane Pucin Philadelphia Inquire

No, it’s probably not possible to kick out the man with the money. And it’s not possible to tell the man with the money who he can have as his coach.

But if there is a way, any way, that the NFL can ban Jerry Jones and Barry Switzer from the league, now would be a good time to do it.

On what should be a gloriously fun weekend of watching two toddlers, Carolina and Jacksonville, try to take away the toys of the big brothers, all focus now will be on Michael Irvin and Erik Williams.

All discussion will be about sexual assault and prison terms, about second chances and last chances, about arrogance and stupidity, about treating the conventions of society with hateful disdain.

Some will want to talk about innocent-until-proven-guilty, but this isn’t about innocence. Maybe the 23-year-old woman in Dallas is making the whole thing up, making up the gun and the assault, making up the names of Irvin and Williams, but it is hard to believe that her whole story is false.

It is hard to believe because Williams and Irvin have given us every reason to believe they are capable of holding a gun to a woman’s head and demanding sex. But maybe the woman participated freely and has changed her mind now. That could happen, too.

But guess what? That doesn’t make Irvin and Williams innocent. It makes them arrogant and stupid. It means they still think they are bulletproof, excuse the term, that they can continue to live life by having whatever they want, whenever they want it, and, you know what?

Who can blame them?

As owner of the Cowboys, Jerry Jones has made it clear: His players are special creatures, men to be paid outrageously well and allowed the freedom to behave any way they want.

Jones hired the perfect coach, too. At Oklahoma, Barry Switzer fostered an atmosphere in which his players fired guns in dorms and attacked women and generally treated the campus as some private and dangerous playground.

Now the city of Dallas has become the private and dangerous playground.

Let’s imagine. Imagine if you were Michael Irvin. Imagine you had just escaped one horrible ordeal, an ordeal that involved drugs and prostitutes and a courtroom and probation and suspension from the job you claim to love and untold embarrassment to the family you claim to respect and adore.

Would you (a) breathe a sigh of relief, go quietly back to work, go home every night after work to your wife, watch a little television maybe, go to sleep, get up the next day, go to work? Or (b) continue living the same way as you lived before police and handcuffs and lawyers and courtrooms were introduced to your schedule? But, then, Irvin and Williams have shown that they consider themselves very special people. Jones could have taught them a different lesson. Jones could have cut Williams or Irvin loose many times.

Jones could have sucked it up, said, hey, even if I’m liable for their salary, even if it costs the Cowboys many wins or playoff games or trips to the Super Bowl, I don’t want these people working for me. I can’t have a coach whose idea of right and wrong is that winning is right and losing is wrong, period.

Jones could have done that, but Jones seems to believe that winning is right and losing is wrong, and that is a values system. Tuesday, Switzer said it was “business as usual,” and that’s what’s scary. Business as usual in Dallas seems to mean: “Anything goes.”

Things don’t have to be this way. If a coach, or an owner, said “no,” then things would change.

It is hard to fathom that Ray Rhodes would allow a team to be so out of control. It is hard to imagine that Rhodes would keep around players who couldn’t stay out of the police blotter. And don’t say that letting Ricky Watters act petulant sometimes is the same thing.

If something more than nebulous accusations against an unnamed Eagles player turn into substantial and valid sexual assault charges against a specific player - on the official team roster or not - it is hard to imagine that Rhodes would allow that player to stay around long.

People have rights, certainly, even pro athletes. And being innocent until proven guilty is one of those rights. But society has rights, too, and society has the right to expect that its citizens, even pro athletes, conform to some standards of behavior, standards that say assaulting women is wrong, using drugs is wrong, carrying weapons to enforce your own standards of behavior is wrong.

There seem to be no standards with the Dallas Cowboys.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Diane Pucin Philadelphia Inquirer