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 sounds like Adam “Pacman” Jones may be a tougher guy off the field than he is on the field.

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

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

Had Jones shown that kind of foresight on 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 making headlines. Wide receiver Terrell Owens has been publicly complaining about his role in the Dallas offense. Never mind the fact that he is by far the most thrown receiver on the team, and that he has recently led the NFL in dropped passes. He doesn’t feel like he’s being used properly, and damn it, he’s going to make that fact known. Not separating the coach or coordinator from him and talking about it, but shouting it from the rooftops, in front of cameras and microphones. Of course, we all know that’s the way TO likes to express themselves, in front of cameras and bright lights. Without them, TO would just be Terrell.

Now the Cowboys have a bigger problem than troublesome cornerbacks and noisy wide receivers. Quarterback Tony Romo has a broken little finger and will be out for four weeks.

With the meat of the Cowboys’ NFC East schedule fast approaching, 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 seemed like an odd team. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the Cowboys turned out to be the team watching the postseason from their capes and La-Z-Boys?