The song was actually written by Bruce Springsteen. It was made famous by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band way back in the 1970s. The most emotional part of the song includes the line,
“Mama always told me not to look into the eyes of the sun. But Mama, that’s where the fun is.”
It is called “Blinded by the Light.” With all due respect to The Boss, there are many Cowboys and former Cowboys players who would beg to differ with that poetic lyric. The truth is, there is nothing fun about running a pass route, turning around to catch a pass, and being, well, blinded by the light.
CeeDee Lamb is the most recent victim. Last month he turned to catch a short touchdown pass, a pass he can catch in his sleep, a play he has practiced millions of times. But as he came out of his route, the ball fell harmlessly to the ground. After the game he was asked what happened, “I couldn’t see the ball, couldn’t see the ball at all,” he said.
The follow-up question was obvious, “Why not?”
“The sun,” Lamb said.
”Would you be in favor of curtains?” he was asked.
”Yes,” was the emphatic response. “1000 percent!”
When Cowboys owner and General Manager Jerry Jones was asked the same question about the curtains he got angry, petulant, and sarcastic, “Well let’s tear the damn stadium down and build another one,” Jones said. “Are you kidding me?”
Less than two weeks later the eyes of the world were on Arlington for the Mike Tyson/Jake Paul fight and there on the west side of the stadium were large, black, room darkening curtains. Jerry would not even need to buy new curtains, much less tear the damn stadium down. All he would need to do is approve the use of the curtains that are already there.
Now the question forming in your brain is obvious, “Why won’t he?”
It is a good question, short and to the point but man is it loaded. The armchair psychologist in me would explain it like this, there is a fine line between determination and stubbornness. Jerry Jones will tell you that he got to where he is by equal parts of skill, luck and determination.
He has often told the story of being so broke that a clerk at a department store cut up his credit card in front of his eyes and told him, “Young man you need to pay your bills.”
He has also told the story of driving a used Ford Explorer for a year or two after he had purchased the Cowboys because he could not afford a new car.
Those two stories provide anecdotal evidence of a person who was determined to overcome the financial challenges that almost all of us have faced at one point in our lives. I have heard Jerry tell both of those stories with my own ears, but not lately.
Have the billions of dollars Jerry is now worth clouded his memory? Has he forgotten the humility and determination that were key cogs in the wheel that led him to where he is today? Or is it that Jerry has crossed the fine line from determined to stubborn?
The Harvard Business Review did a study that concluded that people become more stubborn as they age. The study suggests that the root of all stubbornness is the fear of letting go of your own ideas, convictions, decisions, and identity.
Author and poet James Baldwin offered up this advice for those who have crossed that fine line, “Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it. Yet it is only when a person is able, without bitterness or self-pity, to surrender a dream or privilege that they have long possessed that they are set free for higher dreams, for greater privileges.”
In other words, let it go, Jerry! Not just the curtains but the stubbornness about doing everything from the socks to jocks. The stubbornness about not hiring a GM, the stubbornness about not admitting when you are wrong. Higher dreams are possible, dreams like winning another Super Bowl.
For now, though, Jerry remains blinded not by the light, and not the sun, because his suite is on the south side of the stadium, so the glare does not blind him. Still, it is pretty obvious that he can’t see the forest for the trees.
Sports columnist John Rhadigan is the host of
The Rangers Podcast on DLLS Sports.
