Monday night’s NCAA championship game featured a Texas-style full house in Jerry Jones’ private suite -- three Cowboys and a pair of presidents.
Joining Bill Clinton and George W. Bush in the box were Cowboys coach Jason Garrett, quarterback Tony Romo, and tight end Jason Witten.
Former Cowboys defensive lineman Marcus Spears, who recently retired from the NFL to take a job with the SEC Network, thinks the coach’s decision to hang out with Romo and Witten sends a bad message to the rest of the team. Specifically, Spears believes that including Romo and Witten and not anyone else from the team puts them above the rest of the team.
“You understand in this league that your star players are going to have things come their way that most guys don’t,” Spears told 105.3 The Fan in Dallas/Ft. Worth. “I’ve had opportunities that some guys didn’t have. . . . The team aspect has always been first to me. That’s just the bottom line. I don’t know if it sends the right message when your head coach is hanging out with one particular guy.”
Spears admits he doesn’t know whether other players were invited. Then again, it would have been hard to cram many more football players into the North Texas version of Hollywood Squares.
“When you have that type of situation in the locker room, possibly it causes problems,” Spears said. “That was my point. It wasn’t to make anybody look bad or say Jerry is doing something wrong or anything like that. I just wondered if any of the other guys felt like they should be there or if they ever were invited to any other events. . . . When you’re building a team, when you’ve got a team concept -- as many young guys as the Cowboys have on the team right now -- I just felt like it would have been a good situation for all of them to try to get together and hang out and build that team camaraderie with the guys.”
In the grand scheme of things, this is a blip at best. But it could be a symptom of a broader problem, with some players enjoying special status within the organization. Beyond, you know, their salaries.