FORT WORTH, Texas — PacRat Jones was told on Wednesday by the Cowboys to hit the door, and on a rare positive note, I'm briefly thinking Jerry Jones finally wised up and decided to stop being a tool for this fool.

Or even better, in admittedly a lengthy imagination stretch, could it have been the first personality transformation, as promised by Wade Phillips, who has pledged to become Chuck Norris instead of Barney Fife?

Think of that daily double. Jerry finds football religion and Wade gets tough, all in a single day. I don't know of any church that could save that many sinners in one dunking.

Of course, if you wanted to get outrageous, and go with a 100-to-1 long shot, suddenly punting on PacRat also could have been a sound and professional football decision by Jones and Phillips. The guy is KP. Kan't Play. So for no other reason than talent evaluation, the rodent was eliminated.

All of the above sounds good. But, of course, all of the above is also mere fantasy.

There was nothing noble, or nothing sensible, in the release of Pacman. The Cowboys did it because they were forced to do so.

ESPN had informed the NFL and Jerry Jones an hour earlier on Wednesday that a Sunday report would present never-before-released information of Packie's involvement in another 2007 nightclub dispute that led to a shooting.

Las Vegas, you remember. But this incident had occurred in Atlanta while the player was serving a season-long suspension for his role in the fight and shooting in Vegas.

According to ESPN, there is security-camera video and allegations that the luvable PacRat directed a gang member to carry out the shooting.

And get this:

Jerry is now whining, according to ESPN, that NFL security never informed him of this second incident before the Cowboys acquired PacRat from the Titans in a trade last April.

Still being a tool for the fool, Jerry has no gripe coming, since he's the same guy who ordered Pacman to be reinstated to the roster in December after he had already flunked the first probationary period after a fight with his bodyguard at a Dallas hotel. Six weeks of league suspension, and despite ample knowledge that Pacman had been mocking both him and commissioner Roger Goodell with his off-the-field visitation of banned establishments, and Jerry still allowed the guy to return.

The original acquisition of Pacman was questionable (do note I agreed with it in print at the time), but there was no reason to bring him back in December, other than the Cowboys have an owner who won't admit a blunder and a head coach who is silly putty in that owner's hands.

Even if we can thank ESPN for forcing Jerry to make a needed move, the fact he was forced does nothing to suggest the owner or the head coach are prepared to address the single most pressing team issue during the off-season.

The locker room is a toxic chemistry disaster, with no leadership, no accountability and no direction from Jerry, Wade or any player. It was a given that in attempting to solve this situation, the first three players who needed to go were Pacman, Tank Johnson, and, most of all, Eldorado Owens. Jerry talks of salary-cap ramifications if he releases Owens, but there are none that amount to anything remotely serious.

Plus, there are a collection of Eldorado parrots in that locker room — I mean you, Patrick Crayton, among others — and they also should be eliminated.

The Cowboys are going nowhere with this current cast of misfits, but without changing the atmosphere and chemistry of the locker room, and with Wade still being allowed to hang around, making his lame excuses, then there will be no T-E-A-M, and no chance to reverse an ongoing slide.

But just briefly on Wednesday, I admit to thinking Jerry had stumbled on to the right path, as in confessing his PacRat mistake, and dumping him for the good of the team. Tank would definitely be gone in free agency, and then maybe, just maybe, Eldo Owens would depart. OK, I was stupid.

But please, I was only joking with the comment about maybe this was a revelation on Wade, that he had toughen up. No way that's a serious consideration.

Another joke was believing Jerry and Wade had teamed up to make a solid talent evaluation in releasing PacRat. I do believe in miracles, but let's not get carried away.

If nothing else, getting rid of a bad guy and a bad player turned out to be a bad day for the Cowboys. Jerry did it for all the wrong reasons.

The season is over, but the Valley Ranch stupidity is forever.