Are the Dallas Cowboys in trouble?

At the start of this football season, the Dallas Cowboys looked like a legitimate Super Bowl contender. After Patriots quarterback Tom Brady suffered a season-ending knee injury, the Cowboys went from contenders to favorites.

But a funny thing happened. They started playing the games.

It seems that Adam “Pacman” Jones may be a tougher guy off the field than he is on the field.

Jones recently made headlines for (allegedly) attacking a member of his security team. According to one report, he followed his bodyguard into a Dallas hotel bathroom, waited until the guy was using a urinal, and jumped him from behind.

As my fictional colleague Borat would say, “Nice.”

If Jones had displayed that kind of foresight Sunday, he and the Cowboys could have beaten the Arizona Cardinals. Instead, they lost in overtime, 26-20, and now share an identical record with the Cardinals, whose name has recently been synonymous with failure.

Pacman isn’t the only cowboy to make headlines. Wide receiver Terrell Owens has been publicly complaining about his role on the Dallas offense. Never mind the fact that he’s by far the most thrown wide receiver on the team, and he’s recently led the NFL in dropouts. He doesn’t feel like they’re using it properly, and damn, he’s going to publicize that fact. Not by pushing away your coach or coordinator and talking about it, but by yelling it from the rooftops, in front of cameras and microphones. Of course, we all know that’s the way TO likes to express himself, in front of bright lights and cameras. Without them, TO would just be Terrell.

Now, the Cowboys have a bigger problem than troubled cornerbacks and loudmouth wide receivers. Quarterback Tony Romo has a broken pinkie and will be out for four weeks.

With the meat of the Cowboys’ NFC East schedule looming, this is not good news. The NFC East is a tough conference, and while all four teams are probably good enough to make the playoffs, only three of them will. At the start of the season, the Washington Redskins looked like an odd team. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the Cowboys turned out to be the team that watches the postseason from their capes and La-Z-Boys?