Jerry Jones is pathetic

Let’s take our trip around the NFC East as half the division tripped over itself on Sunday.

Philadelphia Eagles (4-1)

Last Week: Steamrolled the Cardinals 34-7.

This Week: Visit the Panthers on Thursday Night Football on NFL Network, CBS, NBC, ID Discovery, Oxygen, BBC America, and TruTV.

Eagles blowout wins: terrific for the site, terrible for this column. I got nothing.

Washington Redskins (2-2)

Last Week: Bye week

This Week: Host the winless 49ers

The Redskins didn’t play or do anything embarrassing off the field so just enjoy this photo of Jay Gruden thinking about catching up on DVRed episodes of Kevin Can Wait.

Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports

Dallas Cowboys (2-3)

Last Week: Let’s just review what we said last week:

Last Week: Jared Goff and the Rams scored on five straight possessions as they beat the Cowboys 35-30

This Week: Aaron Rodgers

Nailed it.

This Week: Bye week

For the stick to sports crowd:

Ouch.

For everyone else:

In 2003 Barbara Streisand attempted to have a photo of her mansion removed from an archive of pictures documenting California coastline erosion. Only four people who weren’t her lawyers had downloaded the photo, had she done nothing no one would have known about it. Instead, she filed a $50 million lawsuit that would eventually get dismissed, and the photo got a lot of attention. A few years later the inadvertent action of bringing something to attention by attempting to quash it was coined “the Streisand effect.” To see it in action today, look no further than the NFL’s attempts to stop players from kneeling during the anthem, specifically the actions of Jerry Jones.

Prior to Week 3 games, Donald Trump said that players should be fired for protesting during the national anthem. Owners took what appeared to be a stand against him that Sunday by kneeling or locking arms with their players. It was celebrated as an important gesture. It was, but for other reasons. Then on Monday Night Football, Jerry Jones showed that it was a transparent PR stunt by making sure to look at the cameras as he kneeled alongside Cowboys players.

Over the next two weeks, owners protesting with players has been exposed as a fraud. Last week the Saints took a knee prior to the anthem then stood for it, an empty gesture. And now Jones, who didn’t even have an American flag in the stadium when it opened, and supposedly kneeled with players to stand up to Donald Trump saying that teams should take action against players who kneel, is threatening to bench players who protest during the anthem.

"If there's anything that is disrespectful to the flag, then we will not play. Understand? We will not ... if we are disrespecting the flag, then we will not play. Period.”

This was the NFL’s goal in looking like they were showing solidarity with their players, they hoped that by doing it once with them, they wouldn’t do it again.

Because apparently it’s in the best interest of players to be subservient to owners.

Jones himself is just being subservient to the guy he supposedly protested against.

Which is, as Trump likes to say, fake news, just like Pence’s own tax-payer funded PR stunt of leaving the Colts game on Sunday.

After pretending to show solidarity with players, the owners are trying to silence them, using any means necessary.

Pathetic. Unsurprising, but still pathetic.

But Jones is no fool, he knows it will work for his team. Who is going to rebuff Jerry? Dak Prescott just got Cam Newton’s yogurt money, he’s not risking that. Dez Bryant is surrounded by babysitters Jerry assigns him, he’s been neutered. Ezekiel Elliott? LOL. Tyron Smith is probably the best bet. Jason Witten, Travis Frederick, Zack Martin or Sean Lee? Only a handful of white players across the league protested alongside their black teammates prior to Trump’s comments, none of whom were those four, why would they do it now?

Had Jones said nothing, the story lines leading up to the Cowboys return in two weeks against the 49ers would be about how the Cowboys are looking to bounce back after two late game collapses. No one would really care about what the Cowboys will do during the anthem. Instead, Jones has made it all about the anthem. The attempt to make the protests go away have only drawn further attention to them.

New York Giants (0-5)

Last Week: Extended their streak of not scoring 28+ points to 14 games (the defense has given up more than 28+ just once during that span) and lost to the previously winless Chargers 27-22.

This Week: At the Broncos, who are coming off a bye, so good luck with that

Being 0-5 is only the beginning of the Giants woes. Odell Beckham is done for the year with a broken ankle, Dwayne Harris is done with a broken foot, and Brandon Marshall is also out for the year with an ankle injury. Sterling Shepard also suffered an ankle injury but unfortunately for him he isn’t out for the year, so he’s going to have to endure some more of this season.

Still accurate:

Tweet of the Week Summer

Counting has never been his strong suit.