Cowboy latest sequel two thumbs down

By David Mullen

If NFL Football is entertainment, Dallas Cowboys owner and General Manager Jerry Jones is — indirectly — involved in the entertainment business. It is a role that Jones embraces. He is an entertainment mogul. He is the James Cameron of professional football. Jones’ productions make lots of money every year.

But if Jones was a movie producer instead of in charge of building a football team, despite boffo box office revenue, Jones sequels would have trouble getting greenlit in Hollywood. They are the same old scripts.

Since 1996, Jones has been trying to match his award-winning hit, “The 1990’s Cowboys: Triumph of the Triplets.” But instead of turning out successful sequels like “The Godfather Part II” or “Top Gun: Maverick,” the best Jones can come up with has the industry impact of  “Madea’s Big Happy Family” or “Boo 2! A Madea Halloween.”

On the bright side, if Jones copied the script from “Madea Goes to Jail,” and replaced “Madea” with “Another Cowboy,” he might have a Best Documentary winner at the Academy Awards.

In many ways, Jones resembles Tyler Perry, the actor, director and producer behind the “Madea” film franchise. Both are self-made billionaires who have built entertainment empires. Like Jones, Perry owns a state-of-the-art facility. His Atlanta studio is “The Star in Frisco” of production houses and Perry continues to crank out predictable and unsatisfying vehicles that people pay good money to watch, only to end up disappointed.

Every year, despite a different cast, the end result for the Cowboys has the same stale ending. Jones can use movie superlatives like “must see” and “what everyone is talking about,” only to disappoint audiences everywhere, year after year. Perry has made 10 Madea films. Jones has had at least 10 iterations since the last Cowboys smash nearly 28 years ago.

It’s as if Jones uses the Perry sequel formula and has QB Dak Prescott star as Madea without the fat suit. Prescott looks into the camera and, like Madea, says, “Hellur! I ain’t scared of nothing, I ain’t scared of nothing.” People still buy tickets. For decades, Jones has tried to replace Troy Aikman as the Cowboys leading man, most recently with Prescott. That is like swapping Marlon Brando for Mr. Bean. 

The reviews are in on the latest Cowboys sequel. The 2023 version was another bitter disappointment. Another Jones flop. Two thumbs down.

But Jones is not in the movie business. He is in the football business. This year’s 12-5 Cowboys team was supposed to be a hit. They have a potential MVP in quarterback Prescott, rising young superstars in CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons, great special teams and an aggressive defense that scores touchdowns.

But on January 14, the Cowboys game was a horror show. The 9-8 Green Bay Packers, with the NFL’s youngest cast of players, jumped out to a 27-0 lead on Dallas’ home turf and thoroughly trounced the supposed camera-ready Cowboys 48-32. The three-hour debacle was over 45 minutes after the opening credits.

Prescott (pictured), a player only Jones would pay $40 million a season to perform, came out against the Packers with stage fright. He threw key intersections. He tossed errant passes to his receiver corps. Prescott, 2-5 in postseason play, flubbed his lines in the leading role.

Current Cowboys and former Packers head coach Mike McCarthy was decidedly outcoached by the 44-year-old Packers HC Matt LaFleur. McCarthy has not proven that he can multitask. Giving him responsibility for the Cowboys offense is too much for McCarthy to handle in big situations. Beating 2-15 Carolina by more than three touchdowns does not earn the right to command Dallas against a young and adaptive Green Bay team looking for greater achievement.

Instead of a trip to Las Vegas on Sunday, Feb. 11 for Super Bowl LVIII, Jones and the Cowboys ended up on the cutting room floor. Dallas is “Leaving Las Vegas” before they even came close to getting there. The team was misdirected by McCarthy and miscast by Jones, and their play when the cameras were rolling was a miss-mash. In Hollywood, studios replace the director. In football, teams replace the head coach.    

In the NFL Wild Card Weekend, which began on January 13 and ended January 15, five of the six home teams won. Dallas, sporting an undefeated record at home since September 11, 2022, was the only home loser. Seven of the top eight NFC seeds advanced to the NFL Divisional Playoffs. The No. 2 seed Dallas were the only team top seed not to advance. They thought that their legacy was enough to win the game. It was not.  

The 81-year-old Jones now faces his next project. He must find a new director and new leading man. Sticking with McCarthy and Prescott will only lead to the same, old unsatisfying sequel. Jones also has to give up the reins. And while son Stephen is at his side as the producer in waiting, remember that “Mask” was a great film and “Son of the Mask” was filmmaking at its worst. Jones needs to find the Steven Spielberg of GMs.   

The 2023 season is over after a limited run. Instead of an ending like “The Natural” or “Miracle on Ice,” the Cowboys season looked more like “A Madea Family Funeral.”