NFL needs to look at how to deal with owners that are losing it

Jerry Jones and Al Davis when they were younger helped put together impressive dynasties in Dallas and Oakland. 

Then they got older and the game changed and they changed and they went from presiding over winning dynasties to presiding over .500 dynasties, teams that regardless of money thrown at them never seem to go very far. 

Now that Al Davis is out of the way, Oakland can start rebuilding and raiding Green Bay’s top scout as the new GM is a promising starting place.

But what to do with Jerry Jones?

The Dallas Cowboys were at one time the most valuable sports franchise in the world and for all I know might still be. 

Jerry Jones is 69 and he looks like a tough old bird who could live to 100.  That could mean 31 more years of crappy Cowboys football and increasing embarrassment on the part of the league as his decisions become more random or incoherent.

Anybody but an owner can be fixed by firing if they lose their edge.

But what do you do if the owner’s brains are fermenting?

According to wikipedia he is one of two owners that also retain general manager powers, the othe one being the Bengals owner Mike Brown.  Mike Brown made some of the same mistakes as Jerry Jones but seems to have become disillusioned this season.  Mike Brown seems to have had an epiphany like Bill Beene in baseball that sometimes your star players can make everybody around them worse.

It is not in the interest of the NFL or Jerry Jones and his family for Jerry Jones to be the most publically known case study on cognitive decline with age.  

The much maligned Tony Romo needs to bail and go somewhere where he will have a chance to hit his full potential and get a Superbowl.  It isn’t going to happen in Dallas any time soon and we’ll never know his potential until we see him somewhere else. 

I wouldn’t be surprised if Dallas does have many of the right pieces in place.  The long timers may need to restart somewhere else so the emotional baggage or recent years is behind them.