Make no mistake, the Dallas Cowboys aren’t America’s Team. They’re just Jerry Jones’ team
Despite the fear, and the threat, of the coronavirus, nothing stops Hall of Famer Jerry Jones.
Other than Rolling Stones’ guitarist Keith Richards, Jerry Jones will outlive all of us. Despite our our quarantined world he just showed that he’s still got it.
Gotta hand it to Jerry. While the rest of the world takes this opportunity to better themselves, such as learn to play the flute, clean the gutters or do pushups, Jerry keeps on Jerry’n.
He is the 77-year-old man who can still act like the 17-year-old kid who has learned nothing from previous mistakes.
Because this is another mistake.
Aldon Smith, welcome to the Cowboys. You fit right in.
Mike McCarthy has been on the job since January 8, and he just learned the lesson that every previous head coach not named Landry of the Dallas Cowboys experiences. An unwritten requirement of the job includes soul selling.
Clarence E. Hill Jr. of the Star-Telegram insists this move is McCarthy and D-line coach Jim Tomsula, who worked with Smith in San Francisco.
No sale. Jerry has done these types of moves too many times to believe otherwise.
Jerry often humbly says he’s but a steward of America’s Team, and he’s just holding the keys. What happened on Wednesday is a reminder to his new head coach, and the rest of us, the Dallas Cowboys belong to no one else other than Jerry Jones.
Only Jerry Jones would sign Aldon Smith.
Message to parents: Teach your kids how to sack quarterbacks. As America set a new unemployment record, the Cowboys gave Smith a one-year, non-guaranteed $2 million contract. He could make an additional $2 million incentives.
This ain’t gonna work. We know it because they never do.
Despite Jerry’s wealth, he can’t help himself for shopping in the Manager’s Special rack. Jerry has enough money to buy the entire chain of stores, but he shops with 50 percent off coupons.
The reward from the risk of stealing the Trojan Horse Charles Haley from the San Francisco 49ers decades ago still motivates Jerry to try again. And again. And again. And again.
Pacman Jones. Greg Hardy. Tank Johnson. Terrell Owens. Dimitrius Underwood. Alonzo Spellman. Randy Gregory.
All so talented. All so much trouble. More than they were worth.
In case you are keeping track, two of the Dallas Cowboys top pass rushers are currently applying for reinstatement to the NFL.
Like so many of these previous acquisitions, Smith is a former first-round pick who one time was a monster on the field. And off of it.
If you believe the reports on him, he’s battled addiction but has been clean and sober for years.
He is 30, and has not played since 2015, when he appeared in nine games for the Oakland Raiders before they dumped him.
Smith was arrested five times in a three-year stretch. According to police reports and accounts of the incidents, the infractions include:
1/29/12: Arrested on suspicion of DUI in Miami. Reduced to reckless driving.
6/30/12: He is reportedly stabbed twice trying to break up a party at his home in San Jose. Two others are shot at the same party.
9/20/13: Arrested on suspicion of DUI and weed possession after he crashed his car. Voluntarily enters rehab.
10/9/13: Stemming from the house party gone wrong, Smith is charged with three felony counts of possession of an assualt weapon. A civil suit alleges he shot into the air a firearm he owned illegally.
10/29/13: Smith surrenders to the cops in advance of a November court day on the weapons charge. He eventually pleads not guilty.
4/13/14: Arrested after making a false bomb threat at L.A. International Airport. Taken into custody after he reportedly became irritated about being selected by TSA agents for a second screening through security.
5/21/14: Pleads no contest to felony weapons charges, and two counts of DUI.
7/18/14: Sentenced to 24 days in jail, three years’ probation, 235 hours of community service, and fined $4,000 for his various charges. He is prohibited from drinking or entering a liquor store.
8/7/15: Arrested in Santa Clara, Calif., in an alcohol-related case. Arrested on suspicion of DUI, and hit and run. The 49ers release Smith shortly thereafter.
9/11/15: Raiders sign Smith to one-year contract.
11/17/15: Nine games into the 2015 season, the NFL suspends Smith for one year for violating its substance abuse policy.
7/29/16: Four days after denying he was in a viral video where he appeared to be smoking marijuana, Smith checks into a treatment facility.
12/30/16: NFL denies Smith’s request to be reinstated.
2/13/17: Under investigation by the San Francisco police, he and his accuser reportedly are cooperating with officials.
3/9/17: Detained by police after the car in which he is a passenger hit a police car in San Francisco. He is detained and released after he is sober.
9/22/17: Smith’s lawyers cut a deal with prosecutors on the DUI charge from August of 2015. He pled no contest to the hit and run, and the DUI charge was dropped.
3/4/18: Smith is alleged to have fled the scene from a domestic violence incident. He reportedly had been drinking. Two days later, he turns himself into San Francisco authorities and is booked on domestic violence charges.
3/12/18: Pleads not guilty to all charges in the domestic violence case. Eleven days later he is arrested for violating a court order when he contacted the alleged victim.
Little disappointed to see that among Smith’s transgressions was he didn’t own any exotic cats.
Even in the best of circumstances, guys who miss this much time and come back under ideal conditions struggle to regain their former form.
Now add Smith’s well-chronicled struggles with addiction, and this feels a lot like a waste of time.
This doesn’t have the look of something Mike McCarthy would do.
In his time with the Green Bay Packers, he didn’t run a halfway house the way the Cowboys do under Jerry.
A notable exception is defensive lineman Johnny Jolly. Jolly was a player, and a starter, for the Packers under McCarthy from 2006 to ‘09.
Jolly missed the following three seasons because he violated the NFL’s substance abuse policy. The NFL reinstated Jolly in 2013, and he signed with the Packers. It would be the last year of his career.
At least, in that instance, McCarthy knew the man and the player. And he trusted him.
The Cowboys don’t know Smith quite like that, although defensive line coach Jim Tomsula was with him when they were in San Francisco.
That’s the voice the Cowboys will say they used. We know better.
There are many voices with the Dallas Cowboys, including a new one in Mike McCarthy.
There is one voice that matters, and not even the coronavirus can slow down Jerry Jones.
This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
