Jerry Jones Q&A: Cowboys Owner on Greg Hardy, Roger Goodell and State of the NFL

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Updated: August 11, 2016

OXNARD, Calif. — A year removed from having both his hips replaced, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is as spry as ever. The 73-year-old shows no signs of backing away from the dream life he has built. When Jones was in college, he wrote his thesis on doing sales under the umbrella of a football team.

By his mid-20s, Jones was already trying to buy the San Diego Chargers. It took another 25 years for him to achieve his goal of owning a franchise, but he has turned a $140 million investment in 1989 into a $4 billion empire, according to Forbes. The Cowboys are the most valuable team in the NFL and quite possibly the crown jewel of sports the world over.

For his part, Jones has parlayed his expertise into becoming one of the most powerful owners in the league. USA Today recently named him the most influential person in the NFL, and there is little evidence to dispute that point. At the same time, Jones is craving another Super Bowl title after more than 20 years without one. He recently sat down with Bleacher Report to talk about the state of both his team and the league.

Bleacher Report: You’re moving a lot better than a year ago at this time when I saw you after the first hip-replacement surgery.

Jerry Jones: Oh, that was a piece of cake. Really, it’s an amazing thing. You have the procedure, and after 45 minutes, you’re up and moving around, and it goes from pain to no pain just like that. I never went to sleep. The doctor said I talked to him all the way through the surgery. I don’t want to take up your time talking about this, but in both times, I got into surgery at 7 [a.m.] and was walking around by that afternoon. The doctor came in and dismissed me the next day. It was amazing. Just amazing.

Have you been through Dallas since we opened The Star [the team’s training facility in Frisco, Texas]?

B/R: No, I haven’t seen it yet, but I plan to be there soon.

JJ: We’ve moved the whole operation out there now, and it’s a city. That’s the big thing—it’s a city, and it’s really about…the underlying thing it’s highlighting is the high school. Frisco area, that’s the boomingest place in the country. So when [Tony] Romo is walking off on Thursday or Friday, you’ll see a high school team coming on and playing a game. It will look just like we’re joined at the hip.

B/R: That’s good for football.

JJ: That’s the point. As much as anything, this was an opportunity to keep it while Texas football has something to say. But it’s really about pro and amateur joined at the hip. We’re building a hospital that adjoins the facility. We’re building a wellness [center] that adjoins the facility. We’ll have an emphasis on orthopedic safety, brain safety. Anyway, the bottom line is that it’s got a lot to say, and it’s pretty impressive, just the structures.

B/R: You made me think about something here. I understand the criticism that is directed at football. But people want to challenge themselves, and there is a glory in challenging themselves. I think sometimes in the frenzy to criticize football, we lose sight of the fact that challenges have danger. Whether it’s climbing the face of El Capitan in Yosemite or stepping on a field to play football, I think we’re losing sight of what it also means to chase that accomplishment.

JJ: I can tell you, I grew up with great coaching, and it had nothing to do with sports. I had great parents. I really got some great input from there. They were entrepreneurial, middle-class business people. Around that breakfast table, I got all kinds of that. In addition to that, they let me, encouraged me, and I wanted to be involved in sports. There’s no question that the striving, the stuff that you got out of [sports]. The depending on someone right beside you. Sitting here and calling on yourself when you’re tired or getting through something painful, watching your teammates do the same. Everybody feels good when you first walk out there.

I had a college coach that used to say, “Everybody is pretty good in the first quarter. Second quarter, you have a little bump or two on you coming into the half. By the time the third quarter comes around, you’re tired, you’re laboring. When you come to the fourth quarter, it calls on your character.” We’d hold our fingers up to indicate it’s the fourth quarter. Well, in life, that’s true. You look at anything I’ve been a part of, it’s when the laboring, the fatigue, when some of those things happen, that’s what shows what you’re going to be. That’s real hard to get, and in most sports, you get that fatigue. But being there with that number of people and not letting them down, standing up and getting that feeling. I promise you that during my life, I was more concerned about not letting people down, about doing my part, than I was ever into what it did for me. That is one of the great things about sports, and frankly, football really does instill that.

It doesn’t have to be just for the fraction of a fraction of people who get to go into pro ball or the fraction that go into college. But you get to experience that with the right type of people—and 99 percent are the right type of people, the coaches and influencers—you get to do that and it makes a contribution. We should always point that out. Now, anything above that is too high a price to pay. With that much on the line, with some painfulness that’s involved, fighting through some fatigue or some physical things. More than that, that’s war, and that’s too high a price to pay to teach people something.

B/R: So there is a limit.

JJ: That’s it. That’s what I’m saying. That’s war. So you talk about the [armed] service teaches you how to depend on each other, the service makes you aware of the common good and strips that down. Guys who go into service get to have that. But that’s a high price to pay in this day and time with going into service.

B/R: So you’re saying there is another place to get that.

JJ: There’s another place to get that, and it’s football. In my mind, and I don’t think we should back up from that, and I don’t think we are. We’ve all got to get on the same page. Fortunately, I get to sit on that National Football Foundation board and as a group of people who honor the student-athletes. But the whole point is that we should understand that. Jeff Immelt of General Electric has a great little piece he says. He stands up there and says, “I’m Jeff Immelt, I’m a football player,” and then he goes into it. Of course, he’s [the chief executive officer] of General Electric.

B/R: So before he identifies himself with GE, he identifies himself as a football player?

JJ: Yes, he says, “I’m Jeff Immelt, I’m a football player,” and then he gets into what his background is and what he does. The idea being is that it does bring something meaningful. Is [football] for everybody? Of course not. But it is a meaningful contribution beyond, I think, other alternatives. You don’t see young men walk out and say, “Hey, let’s go knock the [stuff] out of each other.” You say, “Let’s hit some grounders. Let’s play catch. Let’s shoot some baskets.”

But the part of football you don’t see with all the buddies I ever had, we might have gone out and thrown some passes, but we never went out to knock the hell out of each other just to do it. You do that when the time comes to push the ball downfield or keep it from going down the field. That’s why I think football has a great place. That’s why it’s a great example of what the NFL can be, vicariously, for some of those people who don’t participate can see it. So I take a good feeling away from what football brings.

B/R: Along those lines, you have maintained an incredibly high work ethic over the years and taken a significant role in the NFL, such as in guiding the return of the Rams to Los Angeles. That’s left the Raiders and the Chargers still trying to solve their situations. How will those two situations play out?

JJ: First of all, on the way to where we have gotten today, I gained a real and greater appreciation for how good the markets are of Oakland and San Diego. They are really top markets relative to the NFL. They have great futures, and so the point I’m going to make is that, first and foremost, I don’t want to dismiss that both teams could find an alternate answer and ultimate answer by staying in their own markets. That’s, to me, not to be dismissed, and certainly, because there are two, one of them could find that solution.

B/R: But it has been hard.

JJ: And it’s always hard, and it’s gut-wrenching. It creates serious considerations and, obviously, the idea of leaving behind a market as well as the consideration of the politics of looking at a new market, all those things have all kinds of sensitivities around them. And I completely am one of the most sensitive in that area as far as the NFL is concerned.

However, it also has shown us, by virtue of the Las Vegas opportunity, which is very viable under the right circumstances, there’s the potential for one of those clubs to be in Los Angeles. But it is not inconceivable—and I know I’m not only talking out of both sides of my mouth; I’m talking about four ways out of both sides of my mouth—it is a very feasible possibility …

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