After the Dallas Cowboys fell to 2-3, losing at home to the then-winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a fan wearing a team jersey went viral on social media for taking the TV he watched the game on, tossing it under the wheels of his massive truck and running over it.
If Jerry Jones saw that video – and knowing his awareness of what fans say about his team, he probably did – he would grin. Maybe chuckle.
Who’s actually winning here?
Every year the NFL has one storyline threaded through all the others: Is this the year the Dallas Cowboys finally get back to winning Super Bowls? That storyline keeps fans like the TV man coming back every year, buying the star-studded Cowboys merch as soon as it’s available, watching the games and keeping Jerry’s team “relevant.”
For the last 30 years, the question of Super Bowls has been answered in the negative. The Cowboys haven’t won that prize in that long.
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For most of the decades from the team’s founding in 1960 to the mid-1990s, such a drought was unthinkable. The Cowboys rose from nothing in the mind of Tex Schramm and the brilliance and character of Tom Landry to become not just any football team, but “America’s Team.” They were built to win, with a sizzling offense and the flex defense, and up to their last Super Bowl win in 1996, were one of just two teams that owned five world titles.
After the Bucs humiliated them at home last week, the Cowboys are facing the likely prospect of missing the playoffs again. Some seem surprised by this, after they came out of a quiet offseason and what seemed to be a successful preseason.
While they’re mediocre on the field, off the field, the Cowboys are walking on sunshine. Despite two whole American generations having never seen them lift the Lombardi Trophy, the Cowboys have become the most valuable sports franchise in the world. The latest numbers put them at $17 billion, according to Forbes.
How? They’re firmly run-of-the-mill. As GM, Jones consistently creates a lopsided team that can score a lot but can’t stop anyone else from scoring more.
But are we all missing the point of the Dallas Cowboys? Jerry Jones clearly has not built a team to challenge for and win titles year after year. They’re not doing that. He has hung his hat on being “relevant” and built one of the most successful businesses in the world.
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Jones gave the “relevant” game away in 2014 when Johnny Manziel entered the draft.
“If we had picked Manziel, he’d guarantee our relevance for 10 years,” Jones said at the time. And, “If we pick the other guy – any other guy – it would be a ticket to parity, more 8-8 seasons.” His son, Stephen, had to talk him out of it, according to Jim Dent.
The “other guy” wasn’t just “any other guy.” It was lineman Zack Martin, who helped the Cowboys to real 12-4 seasons. Manziel turned out to be relevant for about five minutes.
Jones gave it away again when he decided to trade away generational edge rusher Micah Parsons, who wanted $47 million, and then spent more for other players and got less productivity. He’s given that particular tell away multiple times, including by failing to get running back Derrick Henry, who was literally training in Dallas and would have easily fit under the salary cap and given Prescott a ground game to take the pressure off the aerial assault.
Instead, he signed a washed-up Ezekiel Elliott, for less money, but more of the feels from his earlier success. He paid Prescott the GDP of a small country to keep a marquee player around despite his having no record for winning when the playoffs are on the line – and when defense proverbially wins championships.
The fact that it was Jones in the hot seat for all these calls brings up an issue that many Cowboys fans fault: Jerry Jones the owner is also Jerry Jones the general manager. He is the only NFL owner who owns that role. He also owns the longest current GM tenure by more than a decade. Some say he can’t fire himself, but of course he can if he wants to. It wouldn’t even take a phone call.
Any other NFL owner would have fired a GM with a similar record a long time ago. Fired him straight into the sun and moved on. But not Jerry Jones.
Yes, Jones is saving money by not having to pay someone else to be the GM. There are a few million that stay in his pocket. But that’s less interesting than the control he gets from being GM. And being GM keeps him poised to drop quotes and keep the Cowboys in the headlines.
And that’s the point. Stay in the headlines, puff up the brand, whether they’re in contention or not.
To Jones, being a flop of a GM isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. It’s part of the Cowboys’ “Will they win?” storyline. It’s part of the “relevance” Jones wants. It’s a box office that even Godzilla can’t stomp.
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If he wanted to actually win, Dallas would’ve had someone else, or a lot of someone elses, occupy that chair long ago. He would have shored up the defense during the offseason, not after five games.
Yes, ego is a massive part of it. But so is Jones’ strategy of putting the business ahead of the sport.
The Dallas Cowboys are a money-printing machine. According to Forbes, they generate about $1.28 billion in revenue, the most they’ve ever measured for any sports team, and about $677 million in operating income, which is miles ahead of any other NFL team – even the ones that win. The stadium Jerry built was a spectacular World Cup host and is as much a concert venue hosting BTS as it is a home for the Cowboys.
Has Jones hacked the sports franchise business? Business first, on-the-field success a distant second, dollars roll in. Wins and losses matter a whole lot less than the value of the brand, and the five-pointed star, the silver helmets, the cheerleaders and the incredible stadium make for an unassailable brand. Being “relevant” means more than wins and losses. Jones has said so himself.
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America’s Team doesn’t even need to win for Jerry Jones to win. In fact, it could be argued they’re incentivized to lose at this point. A bad season improves their draft position to pick up another “any other guy.” The “Will they win?” storyline gets another sequel.
And somewhere out there, TV man shops for another TV while Jerry Jones grins.
