Two high-profile drunk driving cases in the last two months have the Dallas Cowboys seeking assistance from Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Cowboys Executive V.P. Stephen Jones said team officials had “very educational” meetings with MADD recently. Cowboys defensive tackle Josh Brent was charged with intoxication manslaughter in the death of his teammate Jerry Brown in December, and Cowboys defensive tackle Jay Ratliff was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated in January, and Jones acknowledged that that’s unacceptable.
“At the end of the day we’re all accountable for our actions,” Jones told the Dallas Morning News. “We certainly have to get better as an organization. We all have to get better in terms of our decision-making and our community obviously. The Cowboys, our players, our coaches, our executives are held to high standards and people look up to that. There’s no excuses. We have to get better. We are going to continue to look for ways to get better as an organization in terms of what we do. Obviously, it’s not good enough and until we get to a point that there are zero incidents then we’re not going to rest and we’re not going to be satisfied. We’ll just move forward like that.”
Jones is obviously right when he says the Cowboys have to get better as an organization. But if seeing one teammate killed and another teammate jailed wasn’t enough to scare Ratliff straight, there may be nothing MADD or any other organization can do to keep some players from driving drunk.