Blogging The Boys
It is a small thing. To fans of most NFL teams it appears it is a mundane thing when it happens to them.
On Saturday afternoon it was reported that the Dallas Cowboys have informed their defensive assistants, those who worked under previous defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, that they have permission to look for jobs elsewhere and they can interview with new defensive coordinator Christian Parker.
By definition it is an innocuous thing. The staffers who report to the defensive coordinator are not guaranteed to hold the jobs that they did with the new coordinator that they did with the old. Acknowledging that people losing their jobs is never a good thing, and that we wish all of these staffers the best of luck in their future endeavors whatever they hold, this is not an innocuous or mundane thing when it comes to the Cowboys.
Consider that the previous defensive coordinator who we have mentioned in Matt Eberflus partly got the job because of his past relationship with the Cowboys front office. Consider that the current head coach was a holdover from the previous one (who was named the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday, by the way). Maybe you could consider that at one point in time almost 20 years ago the Cowboys hired their offensive coordinator before their head coach and that the OC in question was someone who (gasp!) had a history with the team in having played for them.
The TL;DR of this mess is that allowing a newbie (shout out Scrubs) to join the party and call the shots is not exactly how the Dallas Cowboys have chosen to do business. And yet here we are. Christian Parker hasn’t even been the team’s defensive coordinator long enough to have business cards printed up and he is being given full autonomy to act as he wishes in the position that he holds. What a breath of fresh air sort of thing!
In the initial aftermath of Parker’s hiring, we discussed how the unconventional (as far as the Cowboys are concerned) process of his hiring (being the youngest defensive coordinator in team history now at 34 and that he specifically has no tie to the organization) was a huge sign of confidence. Several have pointed out since that we (myself and the people who agree with the point) are sadly celebrating something that is normal, mundane, and innocuous for other NFL teams.
Without getting too upset and wasting time about (gestures around at everything around us) recent history, these types of things definitely are may be normal for 31 other NFL teams. If only life could be so simple.
That is a separate conversation. The conversation now, the more important and pertinent one, is that the Cowboys are moving in a way that has indeed been foreign to them for some time. We are not here to pretend that this has not been the case or defend that it has. We are simply pointing out...
