Yup, The Ball Hits The Ground, And It's 44-6

As noted by Matt Mosley on ESPN and Jimmy Shapiro on sportsradiointerviews, former Cowboys DE Greg Ellis appeared on Michael Irvin's radio show yesterday and spoke rather candidly about his time in Dallas, and specifically last year's team.  

Predictably (for these are proud men), Ellis is still in a bit of denial about last year's Cowboys team.  That is, he believes that they actually were better than the rest of the league:

I think talent wise still, when you look at that team last year on paper, it was there. It was bar none compared to the talent, compared to the other 31 teams in the NFL. But I think sometimes we show up and anticipate hey, we got this game. We're the Dallas Cowboys. But it's human nature a lot of times when you are that underdog and fighting for it, the ball hits the ground, that underdog team, they often come up with the football. Sometimes that team that's supposed to win kind of feels like, "Oh well, that's okay, we'll catch it on the next one.” 

Hmmm.  So maybe the Cowboys did have a lot of talent.  Who knows.  But it takes a special kind of suck to get humiliated 44-6 in what was essentially a playoff game.  Can't blame that on the underdog being a little hungrier.  20-14?  Maybe.  44-6?  Not so much.

Of course, the headlines will be about Ellis's claims that DeMarcus Ware would intentionally hide on the sideline so that Ellis -- a respected veteran -- could get more playing time:

On spending so much time on the bench last year:

"It's a disgrace but DeMarcus Ware comes off the field just so I can get in the game and the coaches tell him to come on the field. He tries to hide so I can play. You tell me we're trying to win a Super Bowl? Guys don't buy into that and I can't be a leader if you play me that way. Guys are not going to receive what I'm saying when I'm stuck on the bench and I understand that from guys.”

Demarcus Ware did this on his own?

"On his own, he would say, "G, come on,” and I would tell him, "No, Marcus. Go ahead man, you're coming up on your contract, don't mess this up. You go ahead and be you and we're just going to do what the coaches they want to do, that's what we're going to do.”

As Mosley points out, having the best defensive player in the division (and maybe the league) hiding behind the bench is not an optimal strategy for success -- the FO guys even did a chapter on it.  That must be why Jerry Jones fired Brian Stewart, right?  He couldn't find DeMarcus Ware?  ("Which number again?  Oh right!  94!  I'm always thinking 78.  My bad.")  When Wade Phillips took over the defense, I bet that was one of his big priorities: making sure DeMarcus Ware didn't cover himself with extra towels behind the Gatorade.  As a result, Phillips can proudly claim that he knew where Ware was standing at least 64 percent of the time!  That's leadership! 

As an Eagles fan, well, this is just about the coolest thing I've ever heard.  Sure, we thought the Cowboys were disorganized and poorly coached, but the only evidence we had was the big pile of quit they delivered in Week 17.  Now we've got radio interviews with disgruntled former employees.  More, please.  And the best part is that the Cowboys didn't really make any major changes.  Nope.  One more year of Jerry, Wade and Tony.  Awesome.   

(BTW, an intrepid local reporter really needs to corner Brian Stewart on this.)