"There's an exceedingly good chance that Jerry Jones, as an NFL owner, has turned into [shit]. Year after year, he ruins at least one rug as Cowboys fans shrug their shoulders and say the football equivalent of things like, "Well, we're stuck with him, it's not like we can just drop him off at the pound and start over, right?"
The Cowboys do everything in the flashiest way possible, obscuring their staggering lack of success in recent years. Starting with the 1997 season, they've finished exactly .500 (120-120) and won exactly one playoff game, making all the classic mistakes that a recklessly owned sports franchise makes: using deep pockets to assemble a first-rate front office, then ignoring that front office's input and relying on the whims of their owner; splurging for "name" players, despite a seemingly prohibitive salary cap, and saying they'll figure it out later (then being unable to do so); and most important, steadfastly believing they have to win the draft, free agency, the state-of-the-art stadium battle and everything else that's not actually a game or a season.
When a franchise worries about the perception of what it's doing instead of what it's actually doing, trouble usually ensues. We just watched this happen to the Red Sox. When a franchise underestimates its fans and assumes they're not smart enough to value things like patience and planning, and that it needs to keep them interested with splashy moves the same way a parent would hand a screaming kid an ice cream cone, trouble usually ensues. Again, we just watched this happen to the Red Sox. Which makes me think the Cowboys will be our next big-market flame-out. What's been a safer wager than shorting the Cowboys as a Super Bowl contender these past 15 years, or shorting any of those "Look, everybody, we did something!" teams in general?
Just ask Knicks fans and Redskins fans. When your fans fully expect you to crap on the carpet before it even happens, that's officially the point of no return. We reached that point with Jerry a few years ago. Maybe he's a shrewd businessman, but there's a huge difference between making big-picture business decisions and big-picture football decisions. That's why Dallas keeps having to throw out those rugs. And that's why you can't feel great about Dallas's 2012 Super Bowl hopes, much less their chances on national television tonight.
On the other side, you have the Giants hosting tonight's 2012 opener and flying under the radar as always. Saddled with 2012's toughest schedule and blown off the back pages locally by "TEBOW VS. SANCHEZ!!!!!!!!!!!!," everything has fallen in place perfectly for the defending champs — few coaches play the "Nobody Believes In Us!" card better than Tom Coughlin. They'll scrap their way through the next four months, lose a couple of stupid games to inferior teams, pull out a couple of ballsy victories on the road, somehow pull out another 10-win season … and like always, everyone will be terrified to see them lurking in the playoffs as one of the best single-elimination teams of this generation. They're as predictable as the Cowboys in their own little way. Most football fans don't even know who owns the Giants, just that they have the last name "Mara," and that they're doing a good job. Once upon a time, that was the only thing that mattered."