America’s team sits at 3-3, coming off the bye this week, and they look to right a ton of wrongs. Cowboys Nation has grown uncharacteristically dejected with its leadership for various reasons. It’s not just the blowout home losses, the one-legged run game, the gutless defensive line, or the turnstile they have playing right tackle. For the first time in 30 years, Cowboys Nation seems to be experiencing a very real lack of tolerance for the man who will go down in NFL history as arguably the greatest franchise owner of all time.

Let’s be clear! Dallas fans are not new to the NFL’s most famous emotional rollercoaster. The annual hope-filled heights of a fresh start, coupled with big, bright reasons why a Super Bowl is imminent, only to be followed by the depths of disappointment only another Cowboys fan can understand, is a rite of passage. Sure, you might say that’s the experience of every team’s fan base, but you would be wrong. The Dallas Cowboys are a singular experience, backed by a brand that only one franchise can own. It happens to be owned by a man who is highly regarded as a master salesman, business tycoon, marketing mastermind, and honest-to-God football guy. Jerry Jones answers to no one on paper, but he is not tone-deaf by any means. He can’t possibly be both an owner who has seized every opportunity to embolden his brand with its fans, not just in Texas but worldwide, and be unaware of the extended finger of blame being pointed squarely at him. Jerry feels the pressure, but only when it affects the bottom line. The problem with the larger conversation is that the currency Jerry Jones is interested in doesn’t truly seem to be wins and losses. He will never lose money as the owner of America’s Team. A pitiful protest of fans not showing up to minicamp practices won’t move a needle, least of all in Jerry Jones’ office.

The growing conversation—and frankly, concern—is that the old man is losing it. Jerry Jones has always been charismatic, and being the only owner who played the game at the Division 1 level has lent him an oddly accepted label as uniquely qualified. Qualified to be not just the owner but also the operator. Qualified to be both the seller and the buyer. Qualified to ask the questions and give the answers. Maybe that was true 25 years ago, but it doesn’t look intellectually honest now. The NFL is a copycat league for a reason. Jerry has not copied the damn cat! No unanimously significant free-agent signings have been made since Terrell Owens in 2006! What cat is Jerry copying? The trend of NFL general managers becoming more aggressive in collecting championship talent has been refreshing and fun for fans—unless you’re a Cowboys fan. Jerry seems to have no interest in evolving “his way” into something that at least adopts what works now.

Frustrations are high, and usually, the fanbase in Dallas is mostly in favor of Jerry, defending all things Cowboy. But this time, it feels different. This time, there is a silence from the fans that can only be described as excruciating and cautionary. The trademark response to criticism by Cowboys fans has always been to roar back, unyielding and borderline delusional. Full of hope and always citing legacy, the Cowboy faithful have never been shy about their defiant defense of Jerry Jones or the players who don the Star on their helmets. Today, though, something is different. Something is missing. Could it be that the old tricks can’t be taught to these new dogs? Has the Southern charm worn out?

I think it’s a very simple explanation, best illustrated using a term that Jerry Jones the businessman surely understands: supply and demand. The actual difference between “America’s Team” and every other franchise is that the Cowboys and their star represent a kind of heart and belief that is devout. Every year is their year, and every time they say it, the fans truly believe it, even absent any evidence that the front office has done something different than in prior years. This draws a line in the sand that wasn’t as clearly defined as it is now. The thing is, an expectation without any prior behavior serving as evidence that the expectation is likely or reasonable is, in fact, not an expectation. It is a hope. Jerry Jones has been a successful hope dealer since his Super Bowl win in 1996, making him a very rich man. But now, the supply is running low. Jerry isn’t cooking up anything in the offseason to re-up on hope. His responses to questions from the media don’t inspire hope, and most importantly, the product on the field is not producing hope! Nobody believes Jerry anymore when he walks around with the swagger of a man who knows something nobody else does. We don’t think he has it figured out, even when the Cowboys are winning on Sundays. We, the people, haven’t seriously expected the Cowboys to win the Super Bowl in a very long time, and now we don’t even have hope. Once you remove hope, you have no heart, and lately, the Cowboys have played like they need a transplant.

Hopefully, the bye week has given Dak Prescott and the coaching staff the chance to discover new opportunities and a new source of hope. If not, a loss to the 49ers could have a catastrophic impact on the fanbase previously known as Cowboy Nation.

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