Former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson got into a tiff with owner Jerry Jones last year about Johnson’s claim that the Cowboys are run like “a country club where everybody’s buddies.” Jones still says that assessment is false.
Jones spoke to Cowboys season ticket holders on a conference call today, and he said the players are working far too hard for anyone to think it’s a country club.
“I don’t think that we do have a country club atmosphere around here,” Jones said, via the Dallas Morning News. “There’s too much competition.”
Jones also said that head coach Jason Garrett has the right leadership style to get the Cowboys to take the next step.
“We’ve got as good or better leadership than my experience in 24 years with the Cowboys has seen. I think the stage is set with the attitude, the personnel, what Jason Garrett is doing relative to his leadership. All of those things will come to bare. We just need to win a couple of games that we didn’t win, let’s say each of the last two years, get in the tournament and go from there,” Jones said.
Jones said he has studied the last two Super Bowl winners, the Ravens and Giants, and he doesn’t see any reason the Cowboys can’t get where those teams are.
“Baltimore and the Giants are really encouraging. It’s hard for me to say, but we know how the Giants got there and won the world championship, we know how Baltimore [did it],” Jones said.
Those teams didn’t get to the Super Bowl by treating training camp like a country club. And Jones insists the Cowboys aren’t doing that, either.