Dallas Vs. Ex Cowboys: 3 Takes Inside 'Zoo Culture' - Sports Illustrated

FRISCO - There is a truth when it comes to former players who move on to new teams and reflect back on their previous employers: Their immediate view is that the grass really is greener on their new side of the fence.

And there is another truth here, though it takes a bit longer to reveal itself: When that same player eventually gets dumped by that same no-longer-new employer? He'll grouse that the grass wasn't so green after all.

This subject comes up anew as Dalton Schultz offers his hot-take view on his time in Dallas, using the word "zoo'' to describe mostly the weight-room setup here inside The Star ... but allowing the "zoo'' portrayal to take on a life of its own to describe what team owner Jerry Jones wants.

And the FISH PODCAST/the Fish Report is here to make sense of it all with five points ...

Point No. 1 - Schultz is not wrong when he says, "That's the brand that they've built. That's what Jerry Jones likes. That's the way that they run things ...''

He's so right, in fact, that we've coined phrases and nicknames to describe the phenomenon. It is indeed about "#53Brands'' around here. I stand by my increasingly popular take: "Sometimes it seems like the Cowboys are a marketing company that plays football on the side.''

Again, in that regard, Schultz isn't revealing as much here as some think.

Point No. 2 - As a comparison, Schultz said, "The focus (in Houston) is just football, you know what I mean? ... You think (the Dallas setup is) normal, and then you come to a place like this."

Schultz just re-signed for a second season with the Texans with a new deal. Schultz left Dallas for a one-year, $6.1 million pact last offseason, but this time around he gets a three-year pact with a $36 million contract that contains $23.5 million in guarantees.

He has every reason to be happy in Houston. But let me assure you, over the years, "the focus in Houston has not just been football.'' Management ran DeAndre Hopkins out of town because they didn't like his lifestyle. They let an amateur preacher with zero football background serve as interim GM. And is Schultz really unaware of the Texans' culpability in the Deshaun Watson scandal that allegedly involved sexual misdeeds with dozens of female "massage therapists''?

This is how "greener grass'' works. There are dozens of examples, in every NFL city. Here's one: A few years ago, when Cole Beasley left Dallas for Buffalo, he testified that the Bills' facilities are superior to the Cowboys'. (They're not; the Bills are in fact building a new stadium.) 

He spent a great deal of the 2021 season arguing with Bills fans on Twitter who booed him due to his anti-vaccination stand. 

And when he wasn't brought back to Buffalo for the 2022 season, he wrote on Twitter that he was happy to be done with the Bills. ... a sentiment that lasted just a few months, because when the Bills needed to add a receiver, he happily re-signed to their practice squad.

Point No. 3 - And Jake Ferguson, now Dallas' top tight end after having worked under Schultz (with whom he was/is friendly), helps me make this point with a social media post in which he puts up a photo of a locker-room-area wall inside The Star that reads, "It is a privilege, not a right, to play coach and work for the Dallas Cowboys."

Ferguson's message is obviously about his old buddy Schultz. And his message is obvious in general? Did Dalton really get distracted because tour groups walked through the building while he was in the weight room? I bet he didn't.

Was Schultz really unhappy here when in 2021 he got the franchise tag and was paid like a star at $10 million? I bet he wasn't.

In fact, I recall what Schultz told us when he hit free agency before the 2022 NFL season. 

"I want to work out a long-term deal,'' he said, "and I think (the Cowboys) do, too. I hope we can get that done.''

Schultz' view then takes nothing away from what I believe are the facts about "#53Brands.'' But is does take something away from his greener grass, given that had Dallas given him a decent offer (which it did not, opting to hand the job to Ferguson) he would've been perfectly happy signing on again to join "The Dallas Zoo.''