Love him or hate him - Cowboys’ owner influences pro sports
Monday, October 17, 2011
It’s hard for the Patriots and Cowboys to escape the spotlight.
After all, any time two of the highest profile teams in the National Football League (and perhaps in the world) get to play each other, it has the chance to be special. Add to the mix two of the highest profile owners in the league in Robert Kraft and Jerry Jones, who have certainly positioned themselves as leaders among NFL ownership, and you have the lights shining brightly, the cameras clicking and the action ready to roll.
Suffice to say, these guys aren’t exactly wallflowers. Like the Patriots’ owner, Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones is one of only four current owners to guide their franchises to at least three Super Bowl titles. His efforts in the areas of sports marketing, promotion and the development of Cowboys Stadium have forged a vivid imprint on the landscape of the NFL, and even in American sports culture. But while Kraft sometimes chooses to shun the public eye, Jones very much seems to embrace his role as owner, general manager, ambassador – and sometimes villain. That’s where any comparison to the Patriots’ owner might end.
“I wouldn’t want to make that comparison because, well, I guess I can be self-effacing,” Jones said Sunday, just prior to his team taking the field against the Patriots at Gillette Stadium. “Bob’s smarter than I am, he’s better looking than I am, and he’s won more games than I’ve won, but I’m proud to call him a friend.”
Jones initially donned the black hat in the eyes of many Cowboy fans when he purchased the team from H.R. “Bum” Bright in 1989, and promptly fired legendary Hall of Fame coach Tom Landry. Soon after, he also pushed aside long time general manager Tex Schramm and added the title of “GM” to that of owner, making him rather unique in the world of professional sports. But controversy wasn’t all that followed his takeover of the Dallas Cowboys. Super Bowl titles also soon followed.
Championships in 1992, 1993 and 1995 made Jones the first owner in NFL history to guide his team to three titles in his first seven years of ownership. In the last 33 years, 34 different owners have entered the NFL. Of that group, only Jones and Kraft have guided their franchises to more than two Super Bowl championships. Additionally, Jones joins Art Rooney, Jack Kent Cooke, Al Davis, Eddie DeBartolo and Kraft as the only men to have won at least three Super Bowls as NFL owners.
Winning, it seems, has also become a Jones trademark. But while winning games and Super Bowls is an obvious goal, growing the game of football is another priority that Jones sees as ultra-important. That almost wasn’t the case after the recent off-season labor dispute – a dispute that Jones and Kraft both put much effort into ending peacefully. “We didn’t lose any ball games, we didn’t lose a pre-season game,” Jones pointed out. “The Hall of Fame game is really not a part of what I would call the regular pre-season. That’s about as good as you can do time-wise.”
So what’s in store for the future? Where does, and where can, the NFL go from this point forward? “I think we want to grow the pie,” Jones continued. “The labor agreement itself, economically, provides incentives for clubs as well as the league to grow the pie, and I think that it will.
“At the end of the day,” Jones added, “it will be looked back on as a watershed agreement. Not only because of its length of term, but because of how it took advantage of the opportunities that are sure to be ahead of us in the NFL.”
Within the league, Jones serves as a member of the Management Council Executive Committee, with an active role in the recent labor negotiations that resulted in the new collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and its players. In addition to the CEC, Jones is currently the Chairman of the NFL Network Committee, and he is a member of the NFL Broadcasting Committee, the Pro Football Hall of Fame Committee and the NFL Player Dire-Need Committee. Jones also served on the committee that was charged with overseeing the search for a successor to retired NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue - a search that successfully landed current NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in September of 2006.
That’s power. Yet, rather than rest on his laurels, Jones – as you might imagine – is currently concerned with the fate of his present-day Cowboys. “I would hope that we could make a good accounting of ourselves here against this fine Patriot team,” Jones said. “If we can do that, it will help us build a foundation. I’ve been a part of games that were against outstanding teams like this, and when we’ve played well and won them it’s really launched our season.”
Love him or hate him, Jones knows he can’t be successful in this game by sitting on the sidelines or staying in the background. Call him whatever you must – brash, arrogant, outlandish and even selfish, as many people have – but perhaps you might have to throw the words “leader” and “winner” into that mix as well. “I think personally we all like to be appreciated or loved,” Jones said. “Just the nature of things, I know why you’re not.
“I seem to be funnier, wittier when we’re winning, than when we’re not,” he added. “I think that goes along with a lot of us being liked.”
And thrust into the spotlight, whether he likes it or not.
Images courtesy of the Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots
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