Big Hats, No Cattle: Dallas Cowboys Undone By Loquacious Locker Room?

There's an old saying in Texas for folks who talk the talk but don't walk the walk:

"Big hat. No cattle."

Big Hats, No Cattle: Dallas Cowboys Undone By Loquacious Locker Room?

It is usually reserved for blowhard, wanna-be cowboys who dress the 10-gallon part but don't actually own a ranch or even know how to herd cows. It also, however, applies to the Dallas Cowboys, who are in the headlines every single day for this or that but ... never in the Super Bowl.

It starts at the top, of course, with owner Jerry Jones boldly boasting that this offseason his team would be "All in!" and then proceeding to have a lethargic free agency that most analysts consider to be one of the worst in the NFL.

Recently, Cowboys "big hat" players have also made news.

Dak Prescott for his constant contract chatter. His brother, Tad, for incessantly reminding fans how worse off they'd be without Dak. Now comes safety Malik Hooker publicly ranking receiver CeeDee Lamb's contract urgency over linebacker Micah Parsons, who is the main Cowboys' culprit that will never say "No" to a camera nor microphone. Like clockwork, here comes Parsons' rebuttal to Hooker.

Micah is one of the most menacing defensive players in the NFL. But he's killing his aura, one syllable at a time. If mystery is power, Micah is unmasking himself by commenting on seemingly every single topic under the sun. And in the locker room.

We're not advocating a vow of silence, just a commitment to more walking and less talking.

The Cowboys have been yapping and preening and self-promoting and marketing and podcasting and commenting on podcasts since 1996 without a sniff of even playing in a Super Bowl.

At this point they can keep either remain focused on getting fitted for a larger hat, or perhaps - for a change - start learning to tend to their own cattle.