Jerry Jones delivered a Master Class performance at Dallas Cowboys press conference

It may be a coincidence that the Dallas Cowboys pre-NFL Draft press conference in Tuesday lasted the perfect length for six minutes of commercials to fit a one hour window of programming.

The only reason that press conference lasted only 53 minutes and 47 seconds was because the Cowboys PR man ended it; otherwise there is a 101 percent chance Jerry Jones would still be taking questions, and doodling on a legal pad that should hang not in the Louvre but the Museum of Bad Art in Boston.

It is not a coincidence that 53 minutes and 47 seconds of that Dallas Cowboys’ content, the head coach spoke for six minutes or so. Considerably longer than Abraham Lincoln needed to deliver the Gettysburg Address.

Considerably shorter than the amount of time that Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerry Jones and Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones needed to explain not just football but life to the masses on Tuesday at The Star in Frisco.

The media session for the Cowboys’ holy trinity of football terror featured a combined 29 answers, with coach Mike McCarthy delivering six. His first words came at the 11:40 minute mark.

Stephen checked in with seven answers, with Jerry providing the other 16.

The only topics not covered were dinosaurs, brownie recipes, and if the Cowboys will use a draft pick to select Iowa guard Caitlin Clark (they should).

The immediate reaction among those brave enough to still call themselves “Cowboys fans,” and us dumb enough to cover Cowboys press conferences, to this word party was that of disgust, anger, frustration, disappointment and perplexion.

The question is, Why?

Candidly speaking, without being defensive, they weren’t tryin’ to be trite. There’s just a lot of ambiguity here.

It is NFL Draft week, and Jerry and Co. have been working for more than 10 hours a week to make their team better, and to earn your trust. By Saturday night, the draft will be over and we will know what this roster should look like in September.

In reviewing this press conference for a second time, which should qualify for hazard pay, there is nothing that happened in this one hour block of television that we have not seen, or heard, before. Many times. There is no ambiguity here.

Salary cap management? Just waitin’ for the leaves to fall. The starting quarterback surrounded by substandard parts? All part of paying the credit card bill.

This is just the way the Dallas Cowboys do business. They are as much a beneficiary of Jerry’s endless optimism as they are a victim to it.

For Jerry Jones, Santa arrives not just on Christmas morning but every morning. Every new player who walks into the building is destined for the Hall of Fame. Every new season will be filled with victories. Every January will be stuffed with playoff wins.

Yes, Jerry is a little bit older now but he sounds the same as he did 20 years ago.

That inspiring optimism, however delusional, is a root cause of all of this disappointment. That, and we are dumb enough to believe it.

Th.at and watching this team consistently under deliver has become one of the most captivating story lines in all of sports. Watching the Cowboys lose is a narcotic.

One of the other roots of this problem is that they have never been bad enough for more than 20 years to really do anything other than just, as Jerry would say, keep on keepin’ on. Beginning with the 2005 season, with limited exception, they have played competitive football all the way through the final week of each regular season.

“The elephant in the room is the postseason,” Stephen Jones said. “Until we have success in the playoffs that is the biggest question.”

That elephant has been for more than 20 years. That elephant is starting to get old.

The bad news is the average lifespan of your average elephant is about 50 years. That elephant could stick around at The Star for a few more decades before he needs to go into assisted living.

One would think that the law of averages would eventually work in their favor in the playoffs. That all of these good teams would eventually result in one long playoff run.

There is nothing right now that suggests that contends for playoff spot here in 2024. They will probably get in, too.

Should be fun to watch, and we should prepare that Santa is not coming this season.

There is not a lot of ambiguity there.