I understand the temptation, giving the fact that in recent days David Irving and Terrance Williams have fallen -- Irving tripping over his own disorganized promises and T-Will flipping drunkenly over his own electric bicycle -- to giggle at the hypocrisy of Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett's "Right Kind of Guy'' mantra.

But a history of hypocrisy should be enough to cure your case of the giggles.

My friend R.J. Ochoa writes, "Defenders of suspended Cowboys have dwindled over the years. Previously people would decree that non-Cowboys NFL players were suspended, too, it was just a matter of Dallas being a brighter stage than most. The thing is, this is a startling trend. It’s not even a trend, it’s a rite of passage.''

I've shared a couple of lemonades (ah, those Garrettisms!) with R.J. on this topic. And I'll suggest that:

1) I'm not a "defender of suspended Cowboys.'' Nobody is, really. Staying eligible is good. Being suspended is bad. This is a universal sports truth. "The best 'ability,''' Jerry Jones has taken to saying, "is 'avail-ability.'''

2) The Dallas stage is undeniably brighter than it is for most sports franchises. That's not an excuse for a series of Cowboys defensive starters over the last five years earning suspensions. But is it the reason that suspensions of relatively-obscure Cowboys names draw headlines for misbehavior. (Related case-in-point: Last year, Demontre Moore served a DUI suspension while in the Cowboys' employ -- as a result of a DUI earned while he played for the Seahawks. Which team gets the demerit for the devilishness? Dallas, of course.) It's the same klieg lights that can make, say, Tony Romo be remembered by millions as both "underrated'' and "overrated.'' That phenomenon, in this volume, happens nowhere else in American sports.

3) The suggestion that this is "more than a trend'' is correct -- but it's not a five-year trend or a Garrett-related trend. It's Garrett/Jerry Jones. It's Parcells/Jerry. It's Jimmy/Jerry.

And yes, it's Tex Schramm/Tom Landry, too.

R.J. tweets: "Landry wasn’t constantly preaching a RKG philosophy. Again, there are definitely RKGs on the Cowboys, but when it’s your fight song and things like this happen, it is a bad look.''

And this is where we tumble off the path of "winning-is-everything'' realism, like T-Will going ass-over-tea-kettle on our bikes, and onto the path of mythical righteousness.

The Cowboys, under the God-fearing Landry -- who inarguably wore his faith-based convictions on his sleeve just as Garrett wears his "RKG''-type embossed hoodies -- dealt with an incredible collection of Bob Hayeses and Duane Thomases and Hollywood Hendersons and Harvin Martins. "Incredible'' due to their talent, their demons and their sheer volume in occupying this NFL roster.

Was coach Landry interested in helping them turn their lives around as men? I enjoyed my early-1990's one-on-one conversations with Landry and only knew him for a brief time, but I surely think so. But he was also interested in touchdowns, interceptions and sacks.

Garrett's record as a coach is not in any way reflective of Landry's; those sorts of comparisons ("Jerry wants Garrett to be his Landry!'') are insulting to the Hall-of-Fame coach's accomplishments. But Garrett's position on troubled players (and Jerry's position) is virtually identical to those of Landry (and Schramm).

Should Dallas cut Irving for failing/missing drug tests? As a practical matter, there is no football advantage to doing so at this time. Therefore, as I write this, the Cowboys' plan for David is to help him be able to jog 160 feet without puking, and then in Week 5 of the NFL season to debut with a couple of sacks against the opponent.

Should Dallas cut Williams for being arrested for public intoxication and for the foolishness that's come since? As a practical matter, there is no football advantage to doing so at this time. Therefore, as I write this, Terrance is returning from a weekend in New Jersey during which he spoke to and coached kids at a football camp.

Jason Garrett's "StarFish Foundation'' football camp.

"Right Kind of Guy'' is what every team wants. But as Jason's own late father Jim Garrett said in 1998, when he served as a scout trying to convince Jerry's Cowboys to not pass on drafting Randy Moss:

"Men, this is not the Boy Scouts we’re dealing with. This is pro football. Draft him.”

Jim Garrett was a fine, moral, ethical man. But he was also a football guy. You think his son hasn't absorbed the lessons and applied them?

Down the street from The Star, the NBA's Dallas Mavericks are greatly influenced by head coach Rick Carlisle. Rick -- who took over the Mavs in ..., the same year that Garrett took over the Cowboys -- doesn't call them "Right Kind of Guy.'' His phrase is the essentially-identical "Our Kind of Guy.''

And yet, Carlisle will also tell you, "You can't have an entire team of milk-drinkers.''

Forget about "the good-ol' days.'' All of this isn't representative of a "new'' concept. Packers coach Vince Lombardi used to tire of playboy receiver Max McGee drunk-stumbling into training camp after curfew. First he fined him $250. Then he fined him $500. Eventually, Lombardi told McGee, "The next time it'll be $1,000. And if you find anything worth $1,000, let me know and I may go with you."

McGee would later win the MVP of a Super Bowl despite playing with a hangover, the result of breaking curfew again staying up partying in L.A. until just hours before kickoff.

Lombardi. Jim Garrett. Bill Parcells (who knew his Giants' Lawrence Taylor was getting "sacks on crack.'') Jimmy Johnson. Rick Carlisle. Jason Garrett.

All essentially the same moral compass.

And yes, the sainted Landry, too. ... or don't you know the Lance Rentzel story?

Short version: The late-60's Cowboys needed a receiver. They traded with Minnesota to bring in Lance Rentzel. He was terrific, except for one problem. ... In 1970, he positioned himself in front a front yard in University Park and exposed himself to a 10-year-old girl.

Some twisted historians want to give credit to the "moral'' Cowboys for trading him away the next spring. (Why did the Rams bother to trade for him? Well, I guess they needed a receiver.) Truth is, though, when Dallas made the trade for Rentzel it came after he'd screwed up as a member of the Vikings.

What had he done?

He exposed himself to a little girl.

You want a "trend''? You've got one. It's a 58-year-old-plus trend. In Green Bay. In New York. In Dallas. Everywhere.

Jason Garrett has a mantra that his players too often don't live up to. (Be careful, by the way, in naming names of the Cowboys of today "who would never do that.'' Feet of clay. All of them, just like all of us.)

Landry had a mantra that his players too often didn't live up to. And it was, essentially, the same mantra. And the only way the public quits giggling or cursing about the team's hypocrisy is ... when the team wins.