On the Dallas Cowboys and organizational rot
Who in their right mind would even want to coach this team? Those who pass through Jerry's World see the vicious cycle repeating itself.
The Star at Frisco, by design, is a blinding spectacle. There’s no separation between football and business so there’s no need to even speculate whether the Dallas Cowboys are more concerned about making money than winning championships — you quite literally see that this is the case every day. One former executive on the football side of the operation laughs at the suggestion of a debate. When Jerry Jones cut the ribbon on this team’s new 91-acre, $1.5 billion headquarters in 2016, it was obvious that visions of Lombardi Trophies were not dancing in his head.
This team’s owner/president/general manager does everything in his power to turn his iconic blue star into green. So much green. And to his credit? Nobody in sports does it better. At a valuation of $10.1 billion, Forbes ranked the Cowboys as the most valuable sports franchise in the world for a ninth consecutive year.
Stick around long enough, however, and you quickly see why this team hasn’t been to a conference championship in 29 years. Players are always flabbergasted by that thin, blurred line between football and entertainment. As fan tours glide on by, they often feel more like museum exhibits. This exec describes the scene as a total “circus.”
“It is almost like football is an afterthought,” he says.
During a football season, coaches typically have a quick 10 minutes to devour lunch before pinballing to another meeting. But inside the cafeteria here at The Star, you’re standing in line behind 12 people for your food, one source explains, and half of those employees work in the marketing department. They’re yucking it up for a full hour while your head’s spinning on that week’s opponent.
Over the offseason, Go Long noted that head coach Mike McCarthy was growing “fed up” in Big D. As this 2024 season careened off the rails, I reached back out to a source for more on why specifically McCarthy was growing so frustrated and this exact cafeteria scene was referenced. Distractions all around him, this person says McCarthy turned toward one of his co-workers and said he never would’ve taken the job if he knew it’d be like this.
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