I am done with the Jerry Jones era of the Dallas Cowboys. Here is why, after 43 years, I have given up on this bunch of over paid losers.

I have been a Dallas fan since my college days in Dallas, beginning in 1968. I began my sports journey through life as a Green Bay Packer fan and I intend to return to the fold, as of immediately.

I am hardly a "sunny day only" fan. Understand that Jerry Jones, a football moron, has been owner of the Cowboys since buying the team in 1989 for a paltry 140 million dollars. In that year (1989), he fired Tom Landry, the Cowboy's only coach and general manager and replaced Landry with, well, himself . . . . . who else !!

He then hired Jimmy Johnson, coach of the National Champion University of Miami. That first season saw the Cowboys win just one game; seven games in 1990 and 11 in 1991. During the early days of that first 1989 season, Jimmy Johnson helped work out a, now, famous trade with the Minnesota Vikings.

He traded running back Herschel Walker to Minnesata for five players and eight future draft choices. In 1990, 1st round draft choice, Emmitt Smith, 1991, 1st round defensive tackle, Russel Maryland, 1992 1st round cornerback, Kevin Smith and 2nd round safety, Darren Woodson, all among the best to have played the game at their given positions. All in all, it was the largest sports trade in history. In the end, Dallas came out far ahead. It is this trade that laid the foundation for a long time hatred of Dallas by folks from Minnesota.

Micahael Irving (drafted in 1988), Hall of Fame wide receiver and Troy Aikman (1989), Hall of Fame quarterback, were already in Dallas when Jones and Johnson came on board.

In 1992, and 1993, Jimmy Johnson took the team to the top of the Mountain, winning two consecutive Super Bowls. There was talk of a decade of dominance. All was well. But before anyone could ask, "Why?" -- Jerry Jones announced the firing of Johnson and the slide into a never ending, fan-based hell, began.

I remember that day. Jones stood before a shocked media, and made the claim that "my grandmother could have won with this team," as if whoever coached the team was unimportant. In 1994, the team, without Johnson, lost to the 49's in the Conference Championship game.

Jones had hired Barry Switzer (before the 1994 season), the foul mouthed head coach of the national champion, Oklahoma Sooners, to replace Johnson. In 1995, under Switzer but with the Jimmy Johnson Dallas Cowboys, the "'Boys" won their fifth and last Super Bowl. It has all been downhill since then.

Switzer, a man Aikman despised**, was fired after the 1997 season. The team has not won a single playoff game since and including 1996. 15 years without a post season victory. In only three of those 15 years has Dallas even gone to a post-season game.

Most of the past 15 years has seen a Cowboy team as talented as any, in the league. The problem is with the coaching staff, but, even more than that, with the General Manager and Owner; a man who, perhaps, still believes that a coach was not the critical factor in the success of a team.

As long as Jerry Jones is the owner of the Cowboys, there is no chance of this team becoming what we all thought they would be, 16 years ago.

** Aikman so disliked Barry Switzer, that he transferred out of Oklahoma to UCLA. Imagine the disappointment of Aikman, having played under Johnson, and, then, having to deal with his old coach - a man he moved across the country to escape.