Panther's Perspective: Media taking full advantage of opportunity to pounce on Jerry Jones

One of the biggest disappointments of the NFL season thus far has been the Dallas Cowboys and their 1-7 start to the season. There is no doubt that the Cowboys have a lot of people scratching their heads after they were pegged as one of the preseason Super Bowl favorites in the NFC.  Dallas, at times, has looked lackadaisical on defense and anemic on offense.  But as the season has progressed, major sports media outlets such as ESPN and Fox Sports have taken this opportunity to bash Jerry Jones and the way he has run the team.

There is no doubt that there is a lot of blame to go around in Dallas.  The players deserve blame for quitting on their coach (Wade Phillips), the coach deserves blame for losing control of his team; and yes, even the owner (Jerry Jones) deserves blame for not addressing some of the team's glaring needs in the past couple of drafts.  But watching the so-called "experts" on ESPN such as Tom Jackson, Cris Carter, and Keyshawn Johnson; one would think that Jerry Jones is a football novice that just stumbled into the league and has no clue how to run a team.

Sure the Cowboys are disappointing this season, but Jones does not deserve to be blasted the way he has been.  A lot of the criticism of Jones has been unfair and has been a knee-jerk reaction to a single season.  Analysts on ESPN are making it out to seem like Jones is the problem in Dallas.  They say that Jones needs to stop "meddling" with the team and give full reigns to the head coach.

In case some of you have forgotten, I should remind you that Jerry Jones assembled one of the greatest football dynasties in NFL history during the 1990's.  During that decade, Jones won three super bowls during a four year stretch after he drafted hall-of-famers Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin.  After an five year rough patch when Aikman, Smith and Irvin were all on the down-sides of their careers, Jones resurrected the franchise yet again when he hired Bill Parcells as head coach during the 2003 offseason.  And since that point, the Cowboys have been a perennial playoff contender (up until this season).

What I find unfair and intellectually dishonest from all these analysts on ESPN is that they never said a thing about Jerry Jones and his "meddling" with team affairs during the 90's when they were winning super bowls; and they never said a thing about Jones' "meddling" when he brought in Parcells and made the team a perennial playoff contender from 2003-2009.  If you honestly don't agree with an owner sticking his nose into team affairs, that's fine; but as an analyst, don't turn a blind eye to it when the team is doing well and then pounce on the owner when the team is struggling.

Where were Tom Jackson, Cris Carter and Keyshawn Johnson (Who have a combined zero super bowl rings between them) when Dallas went to the NFC semi-finals last season?  All we heard then, was how great of a team Jones had assembled and that they were going to be super bowl contenders for the next few seasons.  Now, after a 1-7 start, it's apparently all Jones' fault and that "he needs to sell the team;" and that "Dallas won't ever be a contender again as long as Jones is the owner."

To me, it seems like the exact same way the media treated George Steinbrenner during all his years as the owner of the New York Yankees.  The few years that Steinbrenner's Yankees didn't win the World Series, it was all George's fault because "he was too involved with the team, and that he didn't let his manager's do their job."  But when they won a string of World Series', Steinbrenner is suddenly a genius.  

To me, sports outlets such as ESPN and their analysts have become nothing more than mere fans.  They have a knee-jerk reaction every time anything happens and they're willing to say whatever is deemed as the sexy thing to say at the time.  Next season, if the Dallas Cowboys rebound and win their division and make it back to the playoffs, ESPN and its analysts will suddenly deem Jerry Jones as a genius acting as if what they're saying now never actually was said.