NO LEADER, NO TROPHY

What is up Sports Fans? On February 1, 2009 the entire world watched as the Pittsburgh Steelers captured an unprecedented 6th Lombardi Trophy by winning Super Bowl XLIII. On paper the Steelers were truly not the most talented team, there Offense was anything less than boring the only bright spot for the Steelers was the dominant defense that was consistent game by game.

The Defense alone didn’t win it for the Steelers; it was a combination of leaders that kept the team in tact whenever adversities seem to hit. To start you have a Quarterback in Ben Roethlisberger who may not be the flashiest Quarterback in the league, but with two minutes to go in a tight game, I would take this guy to lead my team over almost any Quarterback in the league.

On the Defensive side take the NFL Defensive player of the Year in Line Backer James Harrison coupled with Safety Troy Polamalu and of course you have two of the toughest guys in the league to lead the most dominant defense in the league. The Leadership doesn’t stop there; the biggest and most influential leader was head Coach Mike Tomlin.

Tomlin defied the odds and became the first African American Coach of an organization who has the richest tradition in Football. Even with the odds stacked against him, while trying to follow in the footsteps of legendary Steelers’s Coaches Chuck Knoll and Bill Cowher, Tomlin has reached the same faith that his predecessors have by bringing the Lombardi Trophy back to the Steele City. With all of that said, you have to give a huge thumbs up to the Rooney family by building an organization and surrounding it by leaders on and off the field. The Steelers have the perfect blueprint for building a Super Bowl winner.

You can be the most talented team in the league and still come up short in the big games if you don’t have a few vocal leaders in the Locker Room. Now it’s time to get into the meat of my article and focus on a team who many felt was the clear cut favorites to win Super Bowl XLIII at the start of the season. Yes you have guessed it Sports Fans it is time to talk about the Soap Opera that is the Dallas Cowboys.

Let’s look at the Cowboys on paper starting with the Offense, Tony Romo, Jason Witten, Marion Barber, Flozell Adams, Leonard Davis, Felix Jones, Tashard Choice, Roy Williams, Terrell Owens and I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. On the defensive Side there is DeMarcus Ware, Jay Ratliff, Terrance Newman, Greg Ellis, Ken Hamlin, Adam “don’t call me Pac Man” Jones, and once again I could go on and on about the talent pool that surrounds this once proud Franchise.

Talk about a perfect ingredient for a Super Bowl contender, there is just one thing wrong. Out of everyone that I have listed and as talented as they are, no one has proven to be a leader on this dramatic team. Throughout the season it simply became a weekly show on ESPN and other networks surrounding all of the negativity and distractions that were going on at Valley Ranch. It got to the point where the networks would spend less time discussing how the Cowboys were preparing for their upcoming opponents, and more time focusing on Pac Man fighting with his Bodyguard, or Tony Romo’s relationship with Jessica Simpson, Wade Phillip’s inability to gain respect from his players, and of course the biggest star of the Soap Opera, the new J.R. Ewing of Dallas in Wide Receiver Terrell Owens.

Out of the group Owens has been labeled the biggest distraction of them all and the main reason why the Cowboys can’t and will not ever get over the hump. Is T.O. really the blame for the Cowboys recent failures? I know I will probably get blasted for this, so I will put on my Armored Suit, what I see in Terrell Owens (The Dallas Cowboy) is a player who simply wants to win. He is a proven playmaker and one of the most gifted and physically fit athletes in the league. True enough he complains about not being involved enough in the Offense, and he can be found pouting while negatively nodding on the sidelines whenever the Cowboys are on the verge of a lost, is there anything wrong with those actions? A Cowboy fan should worry less about T.O’s actions and more about other guys who have not step forward to lead this team.

What hunts T.O. is the run ins that he had in San Francisco with Jeff Garcia and the even bigger blowup that went on in Philadelphia with Donavan McNabb, Andy Reid, Hugh Douglass and the entire Eagles Organization. In both those situation Owens was truly in the wrong, but during in tenure in Big D, I think that he wants to be the vocal leader of this franchise but because of his negative past many people in the Cowboy’s Organization and the Media takes his every action and immediately turns it into more than it actually is. So at this point no one really understands if he is trying to lead or add more fuel to a fire that has been burning for the last few years. The one thing about it, despite T.O.’s demeanor he still has the most important Cowboy on his side, in owner Jerry Jones.

If no one will accept T.O. as the leader of this Franchise then at what point do guys like DeMarcus Ware, or Terrance Newman, and even Tony Romo step up to the plate. The Cowboys have the nucleus in place, the only advice that I would give them is to take a page from your rivals in the Steele City and understand that you win Championships as a well bonded team, and not as selfish individuals. It is rumored that Ray Lewis could be headed to Dallas if he can’t work out an agreement with the Ravens, the one thing about Ray Lewis, whether you like him or not, if he lands in Big D, there will be no need to ponder over who the vocal leader will be. Agree or disagree Fam, but do it tastefully.

By: William Terrell