By Gil LeBreton
glebreton@star-telegram.com
Compromised again by the team's owner, who insists upon reminding people how important he is, Jason Garrett was paraded naked into the town square last week.
He wasn't really pantless, of course. But during his 53 minutes at the podium, the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys may as well have been.
Was he going to call the offensive plays or wasn't he, inquiring minds wanted to know?
Was it Garrett's decision to replace all those assistant coaches or not?
Every stammer, every hesitation was weighed and tagged by the prying media, CSI: Valley Ranch.
Garrett, as it turned out, did not fare well at all under the prying microscopes. He was evasive. At times, defensive.
His inability to control the scene was telling. Normally cordial and robotically unforthcoming, Garrett came across as a mid-level manager forced to give a progress report at a meeting he didn't want to attend.
We scoundrels in the media have latched onto this play-calling thing, even though we know Garrett will be scourged no matter how he tries to answer.
If he publicly buys into the notion that Bill Callahan -- or somebody -- needs to be dictating the offensive plays next season, Garrett will be viewed as bowing to owner Jerry Jones' latest whim. If he tap-dances around the issue... well, we all read what CSI: Valley Ranch will conclude then.
Forget, I suppose, the obvious question: Is who calls the plays for Tony Romo really that important?
As tight end Jason Witten told the
Star-Telegram's Charean Williams on Friday, the plays are not the thing. It's the execution of those plays.
Chronic missed blocking assignments and a running game that ranked 31st in the NFL can make any play-caller look like he was just drawing up plays with sticks and bottle caps.
Some head coaches have a flair for it. But Tom Landry had Roger Staubach to run his plays. Sean Payton has the gifted Drew Brees.
Let me suggest the obvious. There is nothing wrong with the Cowboys' play-calling that better run blocking and pass protection wouldn't cure.
But that involves too many moving parts for some people. Garrett's neck, sweatier and more squirming by the week, makes a much more convenient target.
Some of us are old enough to have met Garrett when he first joined the Cowboys as a backup quarterback 20 years ago. He had already been to the brink of his playing career and back, having spent time in the World League, the Canadian league and as an undrafted free agent in the NFL.
It was likely obvious to Jason even in 1993 that Canton wouldn't one day be calling. But he played the role of Troy Aikman's understudy well, even coming off the bench to beat the Green Bay Packers one memorable Thanksgiving Day.
He appeared to have no self-esteem issues. I was with him one night when he "apologized" at a banquet to Arlington high schoolers for not being "the other guy" (Aikman).
But I guess working for Jerry Jones can change a coach. It made even two great coaches, Jimmy Johnson and Bill Parcells, want to run.
Now it's got Jason Garrett squirming uncomfortably at the microphone, forcing him to listen to questions that he probably doesn't know how to answer.
Sometimes I look up and see the old Jason Garrett. Sometimes, like last week, I don't.
If he's still trying to please Jones, Garrett should now realize the futility in that.
It isn't the plays. It's the execution.
And there's a whole room of suspects at Valley Ranch to blame for that.
Gil LeBreton, 817-390-7697Twitter: @gilebreton 
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