Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is no stranger to questionable characters, so perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising to know he is now sticking his neck out for former Baylor head coach Art Briles after he was let go following a sexual assault scandal that rocked the football team, athletic department, and university.
On Tuesday, Jones voiced his support for Briles and even went as far as to say he would want his grandson playing for him. Asked flat out if Briles will be out of football or if the scandal taints him in any way, Jones was emphatic in his answer.
“Well I don’t, no, I don’t,” Jones said. “I think he has such a distinguished coaching career that…
“I will vouch for him as a person. He’s top quality as a person. I’d want my grandson if he had the chance, to play for him.”
Jones also believes that Briles’ football acumen makes him a huge asset to any organization in the world of football.
“It was real good sitting there watching him and listening to him talk about evaluating the quarterbacks and looking at some of the receivers, his perspective on them,” Jones said. “I really enjoyed his evaluation of what we’re doing.”
For that purpose, Jones isn’t wrong, as Briles made Baylor in to one of the best programs in college football on the strength of his player evaluation skills and his overall coaching ability.
He took a bottom of the barrel program like Baylor and built it to one of the best programs on the field in short order, largely thanks to hitting home runs on players who would fit his system best and being able to coach those players to their best on the field. One doesn’t accomplish that without some special abilities as a coach of the game of football.
However, that is just but one aspect of coaching today and as successful as Briles was on the field, he was as big a failure off of it. He has given chances to players time and again, only to seem the fail to live up to expectations. And while second chances are great, it appears Briles missed the mark on evaluating players who were ready to change and make the most of the chance given them.
Someone is bound to give Briles a second chance himself, as he has proven himself a quality football coach on the field. Perhaps that chance comes at the NFL level or somewhere in need of a big boost in college football.
The question is, should Jerry Jones really be the one vouching for the character of anyone these days?
