Henry McKenna
NFL Reporter
All I could think about while watching “America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys” was money. Yes, of course, it’s money — and gravity — that makes the world go around. But in the opening episode of the new docuseries, Jerry Jones made it clear that his every decision begins and ends with finances.
He was and is always looking for opportunities to build the Dallas Cowboys into a bigger brand. But at what cost?
“We’ve tasted success,” Jones said in an interview back in 1993 during the team’s dynastic run of Super Bowls. “We like it. It tastes good. We want some more of it. … The more you get, the more you want. I don’t call that greed, but if that’s what it is, I’ll take it.”
Jerry Jones attends the premiere of “America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys” at The Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles on Aug. 11. (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
That begs another question: What does he mean by “success”?
You’d think he was talking about the Super Bowls. But by the end of the eight-episode Netflix series, I began to think that Jones’ top priority is to keep his team atop the Forbes list of most valuable sports franchises. He hasn’t needed any recent Super Bowls to achieve that goal. His team hasn’t appeared in one since the 1995 season, when Jones’ Cowboys won their third in four years.
For Jones, success is financial supremacy. He suggests as much, in part, by seeking any and all attention — be it through this Netflix series or milking the publicity of a contract negotiation with Micah Parsons, one of the best NFL players.
Because any press is good press.
“I think it could be a soap opera 365 days of the year,” Jones said in the documentary. “I could get the eyeballs and the platform and I could juice it up a little bit. But just as important …” — he’s finally going to talk about winning, right? — “I was dead set on being in business with my children.”
All three of Jerry Jones’ children are co-owners of the Cowboys, including Stephen Jones (right), who is the team’s Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Player Personnel. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images)
Oh, OK. I mean, that’s understandable.
But I guess I expected him to say he wanted to win more Super Bowls.
“Jerry Jones is in the football business, but he’s also in the entertainment business,” George W. Bush said.
Yes, our former president — and the former owner of the Texas Rangers — is a regular voice in the series.
“I’m basically a businessman,” Jones told reporters at his first press conference after buying the Cowboys in 1989 for $140 million. “My family and I have given a big piece of us to be a part of the Cowboys. There will be nobody with the Cowboys that doesn’t give a piece of them.”
The docuseries indicated that Jones was at his best with coach Jimmy Johnson, a man wholly consumed with winning. But after Jones and Johnson parted ways in 1994, the Cowboys couldn’t sustain success on the field. Maybe Jones needed — and still needs, to this day — a coach with a big persona who is considerably more concerned with winning than the owner.
Jerry Jones hugs head coach Jimmy Johnson as the Cowboys lead the Buffalo Bills late in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XXVIII in 1994. It was the second of two straight titles for the Dallas duo. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
Throughout his tenure as the team’s owner and general manager, Jones has fanned the flames on controversies big and small. He likes to keep his Cowboys at the center of the NFL’s stage at all times. Even in years when Dallas hasn’t been good — and of late, there have been a lot of them — the Cowboys stay relevant in the national conversation. And that’s because, throughout the years, Jones has milked every opportunity to generate attention and interest in his team, with holdouts like those of Parsons, CeeDee Lamb, Dak Prescott and even Emmitt Smith.
I was surprised, in fact, to see how similarly the 1993 Smith contract holdout parallels this year’s Parsons dispute.
“Contract negotiations are full of ambiguity. But I have a tolerance for ambiguity because I can go longer than most and not have the answer,” Jones said regarding the Smith negotiations. “He wanted quarterback money and I just didn’t have the money to pay that, because we hadn’t turned the corner financially during those times.”
Stephen Jones, Jerry’s son and a longtime Cowboys executive, added: “Emmitt was insulted. He felt that we’d insulted him, and the tension started to build.”
It was a different time, when player holdouts actually lasted into the season. Smith missed two games, which the Cowboys lost, before he reset the market for a running back. The holdout went on for what felt like forever. And still, Jones lost, in a sense.
Just like he did with Lamb, whose deal reset the wide receiver market.
And just like he did with Prescott, whose contract is still atop the market.
And, in all likelihood, just like he will with Parsons, whose deal should reset the non-QB market.
The owner and general manager clearly still operates the Cowboys like he did when he first took over the team. Back then, he had financial issues, including when he was bleeding $30,000 per day in 1992. (At least, that’s what he told edge rusher Charles Haley when the Cowboys traded for him that season.) But today, everyone can see his $10 billion valuation. And everyone can look up how much the NFL made in 2024: $13.8 billion.
Love him or hate him, Jones has been a big part of building that revenue.
“He came in and disrupted the way the NFL did business,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in the show’s final episode.
The question that hangs over the series — and the Cowboys to this day — is whether they might be better off with a different general manager. It’s an exercise in fantasy, because it’s abundantly clear that will only happen when Jones hands the role to his son.
“I’m often asked the question: ‘Why don’t I hire a general manager?’ I’ve had people that said, ‘Jerry, you subject yourself to so much criticism. You need a buffer.’ I don’t like it like that. I like the pain,” Jones said.
And so Parsons will have to contend with Jones in these contract negotiations, even if that means that the owner’s logic seems confounding to fans and the media. But there was one moment in the series that spoke to Jones’ relationship with Parsons — and, in turn, his mindset. The owner went into the locker room following a one-and-done playoff after the 2023 season. He stood at Parsons’ locker and embraced the team’s star.
“I could not ask any more of you, OK? You’ve got to know that. It’s a disappointment, but it wasn’t because of you,” Jones said after the wild-card loss to Green Bay, when the Packers dropped 48 points on the Cowboys.
“All I want to do is win,” Parsons said.
“I know you do, but I love you,” Jones said.
What about you, Jerry?
Fill in the blank: All I want to do is _____.
Before joining FOX Sports as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.
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