Dallas Cowboys Need Psychology 101

At dictionary.com, psychology is defined as “the science of the mind or of mental states and processes”.  The mind is a powerful tool that can be easily persuaded.  When I watch the players for the Dallas Cowboys, I see men who are in love with the idea of playing professional football, but guys who cannot commit their focus on developing their minds.  Of the 53 man roster, many players are happy just to wear the star on the helmet.

One of the most popular and valuable franchises in all of professional sports is the Dallas Cowboys, according to Forbes.com.  Owner Jerry Jones has been trying to do everything in his power to win a championship since his Cowboys won Super Bowl 30 in 1995.  For a franchise that has appeared in eight (8) championships since Super Bowls began, the Cowboys have faltered heavily in the last 17 years winning only one playoff game.  Not one Super Bowl, but one playoff game.  8 appearances is an accomplishment of its own and the Cowboys have won 5 of their 8 Super Bowls.  Only 1 other team has appeared in as many and has won the most Super Bowls in history at 6, is the Pittsburgh Steelers.   

3x Champion Troy Aikman

The old cast of Cowboy's champions consisted of names like Roger Staubauch, Tony Dorsett, Troy Aikman, Deion Sanders and Emmitt Smith.  Their head coaches were the great Tom Landry, the famous quoted “How ‘bout ‘dem Cowboys” Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer.  The current breed of Cowboys carry names like Tony Romo, Jason Witten, Demarcus Ware and Dez Bryant.  I believe the current breed of Cowboys needs to study the old cast of characters to understand the mindset of what it takes to be a champion.

#9-QB Tony Romo bobbles snap

Many television announcers and sports writers feel the Cowboys current members will never be able to assemble enough victories to win a championship.  Maybe they are right, but one thing that needs to be studied is the mental make up of the new brand of Cowboy's players.

The Dallas Cowboys began the 2012 NFL season by beating the reigning champion New York Giants 24-17 in the Giants home stadium on opening night.  The Cowboys were not even favored
to beat the Giants due to a recent history of meltdowns versus the Giants over the past few years.  After the first victory was over, the media and sports writers gave praise to the Boys for finally getting it right.  Just one week later, the Boys were beaten badly by the Seattle Seahawks 34-7. 

Since overcoming the Giants in week one, the Boys have fallen into a world of just walking through life.  It seems like the Cowboys were only interested in playing the Super Bowl champs and uninterested in playing other teams.  After beating the Giants, nothing else mattered.  So far this season, watching the Boys is like listening to an old record player that plays a record with a scratch on it.  You know when the favorite part of your song comes on the record will keep playing the same part over and over and over again.  Fans continue to see the same scratched film every other week.  One week, it is the best team on their way to a Super Bowl.  The next week, it is the over talented and under achieving team who seems undisciplined.  

To most fans of the Cowboys it makes no sense.  To me it makes perfect sense.  The boys need psychological help.  Players need to evaluate what is important to each of them about football.  They also need to allow the old Cowboys champions to sit in as psychologist to ask the question.  Each current star player will receive a set of verbal questions from previous Dallas stars.  This will allow a one on one direct session for new players to get whatever negative feelings off of their chests.  The session would be titled 'Past Player to Current Player' confidentiality and no one outside of the room would know what was said. (This is a make believe phrase for this blog only). 

Right now there are too many past players publically criticizing the current players and it does not seem the current players were cut from the same cloth.  Yes, these are very talented players, but talent lacking mental toughness and a will to study your opponent week in and week out leaves fans with the current roller-coaster status.

I have heard that college kids always assumed Psych 101 was an easy class and I have often heard that Psych majors were easy; I am here to tell you that psychology is why we do what we do as humans.  And the current psychology of the Dallas Cowboys is a mental mess that needs fixing.  As soon as the past doctors (players) are available, please seat the current players on the couch for Psychology 101 counseling. 

As a lifetime Cowboy fan, these players need to be fixed and fixed fast.

Ivan