Aikman calls out Jones's coaching decisions in the owner's leadership of the Cowboys.
ARLINGTON - "Frienemies.''
That's the best way I can characterize the relationship between Dallas Cowboys icons Jerry Jones and Troy Aikman, who are each devoted to their belief in how an NFL team should be run.
Aikman is now a fixture in the entertainment business, but thinks football management should be done in an orderly fashion.
Jones is now a fixture in the football world, but ... well, as I've phrased it often, "Sometimes Jerry's Cowboys seem like a marketing business that plays football on the side.''
Aikman, who shares with Jones possession of those three Super Bowl rings from the '90's and immortality with a bust in the Hall of Fame, recently directed his ire at the owner over the franchise's handling of the future of defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus
Jones essentially put Eberflus on notice before the final three games of the regular season for the Cowboys.
“The adjustments we should be making defensively should be with these next three games in mind,” Jones said. “With three games left and the short time we have to play them in, that will affect any adjustments regarding coaching with the time frame we’re dealing with.
"That (the possibility of firing Eberflus) is a valid question.”
Aikman's problem with all of this?
“As for Matt Eberflus, the only one I’ve heard comment is Jerry Jones,” he said via The Ticket. “I’d like to hear what Brian Schottenheimer has to say about it. I’d prefer that it be Brian Schottenheimer discussing how we’ll evaluate the coaching staff over the next three weeks, not just the defensive coordinator, and then decide on what to do, instead of what the general manager wants to do.
“So, that’s concerning to me. It’s not a surprise to anyone, but I’d rather hear from Brian Schottenheimer as the head coach regarding what his staff might look like a year from now.”
Of course, Aikman goes all the way back to 1989 and "jocks and socks.'' ... so Jerry being hands-on (at least when he wants to) is nothing new.
In fairness to Jones, Schottenheimer has indeed addressed the issue as he decided this week to move his coordinator from the sideline up to the booth.
At the end of the day,'' Schottenheimer said, "we all understand we need to play better on defense. That’s not a secret. Nobody has shied away from that.”
The Jones family's response to all of this?
Said COO Stephen via The Fan: "I would say 99 percent of the time we go with what coach Schottenheimer and his staff want to go with. I mean, anytime you have ownership in anything, you obviously, if you’re keeping up with anything in a responsible way, then you certainly want to know what’s going on. But at the same time, you’re also supportive of the people you put in place to make those decisions.''
It's not a secret that Jones is the one who hired Eberflus - though that's not to say that it was against the will of the head coach. So maybe Stephen is saying that's the non-99-percent of the time?
The truth is, that fact serves another indicator that the Cowboys under Jones often make moves and comments in what Aikman, for 20 years a lead voice in NFL TV, would surely characterize as "disorderly fashion.''
Aikman is portrayed by some as being "anti-Cowboys'' or "anti-Jerry.'' Neither suggestion is true. He works to be unbiased on the air in his "Monday Night Football'' role, but he love Dallas and the Cowboys ... and he has an affection for the Jones family.
But ...
“Whether it’s Dallas or any other team, you just don’t hear general managers talking about the coaching staff beyond the head coach,'' he said. "It’s the head coach that makes decisions as far as who’s going to be on his staff. ... There will be a fall guy for sure.
"I mean, that’s the way it works, and that’s the way it’s always worked in Dallas.”