Twenty-three years ago Jerry Jones purchased the Dallas Cowboys for a clearance sale price of $140 million from H.R. “Bum” Wright. Since thenhe’s become the “Sports Owner of all Sports Owners”.
Sure, George Steinbrenner was that man! But comparing baseball to any other sport is apples and oranges. They have no salary cap in baseball, every other sport does. Imagine the damage Jerry would do with no salary cap in the NFL. The Pittsburgh Steelers, owned by the Rooney family, “should” be America’s team, but they are not. The Dallas Cowboys are America’s team, and that’s because of Jerry Jones. Without Jerry Jones there would be no Dan Snyders or Mark Cubans of the sports owners world — successful businessmen who see a sports franchise as the coolest and shiniest toy they can buy at the tycoon store.
Long hair don’t care, but leaders don’t give a you know what. Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys and did the unthinkable. He fired the face of the organization and the only head coach of the Dallas Cowboys at the time, Tom Landry in 1988. Who the fires Tom Landry? Jerry Jones does. What did Jones do next? He hired his Arkansas teammate, Jimmy Johnson to coach the team. Yeah, teammate — as in Jerry played college ball. He wasn’t a walk-on either, Jerry was an All-American offensive lineman at Arkansas and co-captain of the 1964 championship team. Let’s get back to these questionable decisions. After firing Landry and hiring his buddy as head coach, to make sure that the city of Dallas and the rest of the NFL knew Jerry didn’t give a rip about what anyone thought, he fired longtime Cowboys general manager, Tex Schramm and assumed the GM position himself.
Jerry’s first move as a GM, draft Troy Aikman (Hall of Fame quarterback). The next move for Jerry was to commit “The Great Train Robbery” which was the biggest trade in NFL history. The trade allowed the Cowboys to trade their best player, Herschel Walker, to the Minnesota Vikings and stockpile on draft picks. The eighteen player trade between both teams got the Cowboys five players and eight draft picks. Those draft picks turned into Emmitt Smith, Darren Woodson, Russell Maryland, Alvin Harper, Alexander Wright, and Dixon Edwards — all of which were key contributors to the Cowboys three Super Bowl championships in the 90s.
In 1989, Jerry was a jerk, but three Super Bowl wins later, Jerry was a genius in 1995. Not only did the Cowboys win, but Jerry marketed the team to America. Although the nickname, “America’s Team”, was given to the Cowboys in 1978, Jerry Jones used the ’90s to restore it and own it. Jones was one of the first NFL owners to see the power of Nike and sign a deal with the Swoosh to outfit the Cowboys’ uniforms in the mid ’90s.
Jerry has gotten in his own way in his twenty-three years as the Cowboys’ owner. He got liquour’d up at a bar and said he was going to fire Jimmy Johnson and hire Barry Switzer. Dallas news outlets got ahold of this story and Jerry had to keep his word. Sure, Switzer won a championship, but it was with Jimmy’s players. Jones has gone through head coaches like Nascar tires of late, still not being able find another Jimmy Johnson who will stand his ground against Jerry and deliver Super Bowls. Jones is still the GM and hasn’t come close to his genius of the ’90s. Despite all this, Jerry was able to build the Sistine Chapel of football stadiums in Jerry World in 2009. Cowboys Stadium is the official name of Jerry World, but had this new stadium been built between 1989 – 1995 in the “Crazy Jerry” days then Jerry World would be the official name.
What Jerry has done for the NFL and the city of Dallas is amazing. Will Jerry be more Dan Rooney or Al Davis as his career winds down remains to be seen. The Steelers are and will always be an awesome team because of their culture and infrastructure that Dan Rooney has built. Al Davis built the Raiders up to NFL lore up only to burn them down to NFL laughing stock. Jerry is a young 69 years of age and seems to have invested in the same fountain of youth as Hugh Hefner, but 69 years young is still technically 69 years old. No matter what an NFL player’s mind tells him, his body will ulitmately tell him that he can no longer play. This is different with coaches and executives, because you don’t have your body to give you a reality check. Who’s going to check Jerry Jones and tell him to relinquish control of America’s team?
Remember the final years of Al Davis and Joe Paterno’s lives? Does Jerry know when to walk away? Will the Cowboys win again? Will Jerry Jones the NFL Owner ever fire Jerry Jones the NFL GM? No one knows the answer to these things. We do know if Jones never wins another Super Bowl and his final years as the Cowboys’ owner are as painful as Davis and Paterno’s were — Jones’ legacy as a dope ass NFL owner has been accepted by the masses and will be certified with a Hall of Fame bust.
Nevertheless, happy anniversary Jerry. We wish you continued success as the owner of America’s Team.
That’s all I got,
Ricky Writer – an Oakland Raiders fan