FRISCO - A little over a year ago, Dallas Cowboys COO Stephen Jones sat at the dais here at The Star in Frisco to announce the hiring of Brian Schottenheimer as the head coach.
Jones was asked about "the drought,'' the fact that it'd been 29 yers since the Cowboys had a berth in a championship game, let alone a Super Bowl.
And in his reply, Stephen committed a horrible PR mistake by putting four-fingered air quotes around the word “drought” as though it’s an exaggerated, even erroneous description.
Fast-forward to today. Dallas is 6-8-1 and not only out of the playoff chase, but now facing an uphill battle to close with two wins to become a .500 team.
And now it's 30 years.
Yes, January 28 will mark the 30th anniversary of the last time they played in a Super Bowl. It was a Sunday – Jan. 28, 1996 – in Tempe, Arizona against the Steelers, and if you’re under 40 years old you're likely fibbing about any first-hand memory of watching the Cowboys win, 27-17.
It was so long ago, in fact, that many of the network play-by-play TV and radio voices who called the game are dead.
After Sunday's loss to the Chargers, Jerry was asked about this brutal streak.
“I’ll admit that the Cowboys management has played a big role (in the drought),” Jones said ... but alas, he was being sarcastic, as he added. ...
“But seriously, I’m very disappointed that the way we’re structured and my role puts us here tonight. I’m tremendously disappointed.”
So, he's "disappointed.'' But he's not really taking the blame.
Yes, 30 years ago ...
Dak Prescott was 2 years old. Schottenheimer was a junior quarterback at Florida backing up Danny Wuerffel and playing for Steve Spurrier. Deion Sanders was signing an eye-popping contract paying him $5 million a year. (Compare that to Prescott’s $60 million per season salary!)
And Jerry Jones was 53. The next time he’ll have a chance to see his Cowboys in a Super Bowl will be in 2027; he’ll be 84.