Jerry Jones has allowed the Dallas Cowboys to turn into Team Dysfunction

IRVING, Texas --- Set aside Dez Bryant’s lengthy, profanity-laced locker room tirade. Set aside Greg Hardy’s sexist, flippant comments.

Forget for a moment Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett’s repeated attempts to address these issues, or the team’s media relations department’s inability to rein in either player.

The credit for these 2015 Dallas Cowboys – Team Dysfunction – goes to one man.  Owner Jerry Jones sets the tone for the entire franchise.

When Hardy offered sexist comments in reference to Tom Brady’s wife in his initial locker room interview with reporters, how did Jones respond? He rubber-stamped Hardy’s appraisal of Brady’s wife, telling Sports Illustrated “when I saw him marry her, Tom went up in my eyes 100%. She’s very, very attractive.”

When Hardy shoved teammates and knocked the clipboard out of the special teams coach’s hands toward the end of the loss at the New York Giants, how did Jones respond? He called Hardy one of the team’s “real leaders” and has talked openly about a desire to extend Hardy’s contract.

And when Bryant unleashed his vitriol at reporters on Thursday – his second locker room tirade this month – how did Jones respond? He said in part that he understood Bryant’s response.

When a once promising team has a 2-6 record, frustrations will be exacerbated. And when that team is the Dallas Cowboys, the scrutiny is magnified.

But the locker room scene with this Cowboys team – where at times tension is palpable – goes beyond that. It’s not everybody. Tight end Jason Witten, defensive lineman Jeremy Mincey and several others are always professional and accessible to the media.

But with Hardy, who has given just two non-game day interviews since returning from his four-game suspension, and Bryant, who has become increasingly confrontational with multiple reporters, no one is able to control them or help them control their message.

“Every locker room is different,” Witten said. “You create a standard and you get guys that kind of live out that standard … That doesn’t mean you’re not going to have things come up. That’s okay. Any good football team has that. When you have that standard and you have players that kind of demand it and control it and police it, I think it’s a lot easier to have success.”

Witten said that Hardy, whose comments have veered from the sexist to the bizarre, has not been a distraction. And when Bryant’s tirade on Thursday disrupted Witten’s interview with reporters, the tight end politely excused himself briefly to walk over to Bryant in an attempt to calm the situation.

But Bryant kept yelling at reporters, the team’s media relations director and then at Garrett, when the coach made a rare appearance in the locker room.

Bryant exudes passion and at times rage, and that often works on the field. In the locker room, even when he has valid points – such as when he felt he was unfairly painted as insensitive in light of Ricardo Lockette’s injury – he expresses it in bad form. After the 13-12 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Nov. 1, Bryant began hurling expletives at reporters, loud enough that it was heard across the entire locker room.

Both Garrett and Stephen Jones, the team’s executive vice president, said Bryant needed to handle the situation on Thursday differently.

“It’s certainly not acceptable,” Stephen Jones said on local KRLD-FM radio. “We have to do better than that.”

Jerry Jones, however, said that because of his own personal relationship with Bryant, he “understands his responses.”

With how the elder Jones has responded to all of the drama this season, there should be no surprise why it’s the NFL’s best soap opera.

Follow Eric Prisbell on Twitter @EricPrisbell