Jerry Jones is in the Hall of Fame

Jerry Jones has been selected (or is it elected) to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I have to admit that this is most distressing to the side of me that still cares about sports. The irony of my detachment (as compared to my youth when I was devouring biographies about legendary sports figures and watching any football game regardless of who was playing) is that Jerry Jones is the primary cause; him and atrocities such as Penn State and Baylor (and watching how their fans arrogantly attack people on the internet) along with the rampant cheating that goes on (PED's, recruiting violations etc).

For me, Jerry Jones' egotistical destruction of the Cowboys on the field for the twenty some odd years after the departure of Jimmy Johnson must somehow be acknowledged. The fact that has been inducted is a testament to power and money. I don't see how twenty years of terrible personnel management decisions can be so easily ignored. It was infuriating to me as I watched horrible drafting and coaching hires pile up year after you and it literally made me grow up in some ways. I finally realized that I was being played a fool by people such as him who charge top dollar and so brazenly throw their weight around.

I read somewhere that humans have a hard time believing things that are overwhelming to them. And when you think about how long it's been since the last Cowboys Super Bowl then you should be overwhelmed by the absolute fact of total failure. And it's all his fault. He did it. People want to credit him for hiring Jimmy Johnson; ok, good job on that. But Jimmy won those Super Bowls and built those teams. Then Jerry grabbed the wheel and proceeded to run the car into a wall year after year; all the while grinning and lying to us with his used car salesman act during press conferences. It is well known that he undercuts his head coach and scouting department because of his pathological ego. And he should have been fired; not immortalized.

And now he is in Canton. Well, not for me. Whatever accomplishment there may be concerning the business of the league is totally irrelevant to me. That has nothing to do with my love of the sport because I loved it when Vince Lombardi, Don Shula and Weeb Ewbank were coaching. Everybody did. We loved the stars such as Bart Starr, Johnny Unitas, Lenny Moore, Jim Brown, Dick Butkus, Ray Nitschke, Gale Sayers, Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor and all the rest of the legends of my youth. These were the people we worshiped. Not the owners. They were faceless and invisible to us all.

Jerry Jones devalued the Cowboys and the sport on the field as far as I'm concerned because it became a toy instead of a legacy that should have been treated as holy. I didn't go to UT but the legacy of the football program is the same around here and the way it has been allowed to flounder is a travesty.

That's what Jerry Jones did.

But as Geddy Lee sang:

"Big money got no soul"

 

You do realize that the Cowboys has been one of the most valuable sports franchises in the world for several years.

Jones the owner deserves the Hall. Jones the GM should have been fired multiple decades ago.

 

No, I had no idea the Cowboys were worth that much...



Man, everybody knows that. I doesn't mean anything. If that is the criteria then it only bolsters my argument.

 

They are the most valuable sports franchise in the world, having passed Manchester United. I worked for a company that was part of a group that attempted to buy the Cowboys from Bum Bright in 1988-89. The Dallas Cowboys Football Club, the worst team in football with a 3-13 record, was hemmoraging cash at an astounding rate, and there was no comprehensive plan in place to address that. The fact is, the three primary groups attempting to buy the Cowboys were only interested in one asset, Texas Stadium Corporation, whose singular asset was the lease with the City of Irving for Texas Stadium.

One of our first meetings at conference room at the stadium was a shock. It still had all of the original carpeting from the opening in the 1970's. It was what you would refer to as "runied finery". Tattered furniture, banks of lights that had clearly been burned out for months if not years. In other words, what you saw on the floor of Texas Stadium playing, was what the entire organization was. There are those who have wanted to bash Jerry for his treatment of Landry, but in his ownership years, Bright had only spoken to the man a handful of times and stated he had only been to a 3-4 games in that period. Hardly the steward of American's team.

While few will admit it now, when Landry left the Cowboys, if he had announced his retirement after the 1988 season, no one would have thrown themselves in front of the door and screamed "Oh Coach, please don't go". It was not simply the record, the franchise was no longer competitive. They had become the Saints. The agreement had been that Bright would tell Landry that a change in ownership was happening and the new ownership wanted to bring in their new staff.

Bright was as good to his word as any lifetime aggy would be and did not tell Landry. Tex Schramm was told to do it, and Jerry said no, he would go to Austin and speak to coach Landry himself. Frankly many of us of have been fired from jobs. But I doubt the owner of the company got on a plane, flew 200 miles to an Austin golf course to explain what was happening. Frankly, I think Jerry doing that when he had a 100 lackey's on the payroll who could have done it, speaks well of Jones.

In his tenure as owner, Jerry Jones has never made a decision that was not in the best interest of Jerry Jones. But they were also in the best interest if the Cowboys. Jones biggest error was he gave the masses too much, too soon. If he had started winning Super Bowl in 1999 instead of 1992 he would be much more appreciated. As for why he is in the HOF, there are many reasons: what he did to a franchise that was on its back with it's legs kicking, the new stadium, and the new TV deal that literally put millions of dollars into the pockets of each NFL owner, free of any revenue sharing.

It is clear at this point that Stephen and Chaorlatte are running the franchise Jerry Jones my be a man that you love to hate, but he will be remembered for the same Legacy as the Rooney's in Pittsburgh.

The Rise. The Fall. And the Return of America's Team.

 

Thanks for the inside info. I'd heard that Bright offered to fire Landry, but Jerry said he'd do it.

I was living in Dallas at the time of the sale to Jones. I'd been a Cowboys fan since I moved to Texas in 1970 and really jumped on board when I moved to Dallas in 1982 (I moved to Austin in 1994). I do recall the climate in Dallas near the end of Tom's tenure. I listened to Norm Hitzges every morning and the callers were saying the game had passed him by (especially the famed flex defense). I thought Paul Hackett was hired on as a coach in waiting but that Landry resisted the plan that may have been in place to retire gracefully. And I hope you can believe me when I say that I was not upset at Landry's firing; I was only shocked like everyone else that it was happening. It hit the city like a ton of bricks.

I have long contended that Jerry was the best thing that could have happened to Tom back then because overnight Tom transformed from the stubborn out of touch old man to "OUR TOM THE LEGEND!" It's probably a bit similar now to how people feel about Mack. You can now sit back and focus on the overall level of achievement versus how do we get this guy out of here so we can win again.

Here's how I view it all besides what I said; Jimmy Johnson is why the Cowboys won those Super Bowls. I will argue that point till the day I die. Yet Jerry gets credit for those Trophy's along with whatever business accomplishments he has on his resume that propelled him to this honor. Jimmy is not even in the Cowboys Ring of Honor. That is the travesty of Jerry's ego.

I don't care if he turned the Cowboys cash flow around. Many other owners did the same thing over the years. I don't care that he used a loophole back then to sign up Pepsi and other corporate sponsors because he owned the stadium. That's just a guy who read the contract with his lawyer and did what he did. Not hall of fame material in my book. Many business people over the years do the same type of thing: "How can I get around this contract?"

It's been how long since the last Super Bowl? How many playoff victories? Even this year with the miracle of Dak (nobody can tell me they saw this coming; they waited until the 4th round and drafted a linebacker that everyone knew couldn't play this past year despite Jerry acting like he knew better) it was one and done.

As I said, I appreciate what you said about your insight but it's not that I truly hate Jerry; it's more that I never want to hear his voice because I do not listen to hucksters and charlatans. Fooling people and taking their money is part of the problem with the world and Jerry is part of a world that I want nothing to do with.

 

bystander,

Jimmy Johnson had plenty to do with the Cowboys success. He is one of the most focused human beings you will ever meet. As an 18 year old HS senior, he threatened to kick everyone's *** on Buckshot Underwood's Port Arthur team after they lost the State SemiFinal game in (I believe) Corpus. It was that drive and focus that caused Bill Michael to call Frank Broyles and tell him the Hogs needed this guy. If Jimmy had gone to Texas, he would have been able to control Kyle Haines, and that name may be in The Longhorn Hall of Honor rather than the answer to a trivia joke.

I would ask you to consider what would have been JJ's fate if it had not been for Herschel Walker. That trade helped Jones and Johnson rebuild the Cowboys far more quickly.

Dawg.

Standard joke has always been that Bum Bright destroyed two professional football teams - The Dallas Cowboys & The Texas A&M Aggies.

 

Right on Jimmy Johnson. I think I said that. I give Jimmy all the on field credit. Personnel decisions and coaching. 100%.

Yes, the Herschel trade was the key moment. They picked up six players or so but had a draft kicker that they would collect draft picks if the players weren't on the roster at season end which of course they weren't. I think they ended up with 2-1's, 2-2's and 2-3s...

 

Jones has been the most influential, active owner in expanding the NFL brand behind the scenes over the last few decades.

One example is he was the driving force behind the creation and implementation of the NFL Network. He's also led several NFL committees.

Call the man a bad owner all you like in terms of fielding a consistent, winning product, but he does have 3 championships. However, as an entrepreneur for his own team and the league, he's the best owner out there.

The HOF nod is not just recognizing his accomplishments as owner of the Cowboys, but also what he's done for the NFL product.

 

He lost me with the Landry firing, I came around while JJ was the coach. But I have not been a fan since Jerruh fired JJ and hired Switzer. I also made a statement at the time, that the cowboys would not get to another SB until Jerruh was dead and gone. So far, so good, only 3 playoff wins in 20 years...no SBs. Why they elected him to the HOF is beyond me. Seems like for at least 15 of the last 20 years have been the Jerry Jones Traveling Circus, which was great for a good Sunday afternoon laugh. I sure he bought the votes and spread enough money around to be "elected". His making the HOF is a joke and flies in the face of those who truly belong. Damn Arkansas hillbilly pig.

 

Joe,

The firing of Johnson and hiring Barry should be cause of great happiness for you. First of all, it forced Jones to realize that NO ONE would work for him. Barry certainly didn't need the money, but took the job to help out his friend until he could find someone to take the job. Year two re-enforced that NO ONE would work for Jones, but that year Barry really put the screws to Jones financially. Those are probably the two biggest setbacks in Jones' ownership.

He has done some incredible things to advance the stature of the NFL, but also the pockets of all NFL owners, as well as his own, and built the franchise worth hugely.

While Tex Schram is a member and deserves to be there more than many whom are enshrined, Gil Brandt and Clint Murchison were part of that trio who brought so many new innovations to the game, which we now take for granted. Why are they not in the HOF?

 

They weren't Longhorns. BOMC.

 

i will never like Jerry Jones, but I acknowledge his contributions. It's like T.O. No, I don't like the guy, but he's first ballot HOF in terms of his on field credentials.

 

I heard Peter King today on Cowherd say that TO's personality in the locker room was the reason he didn't make it. All the voters think the poison offset the production.

 

right. ultimately, i disagree with that line of feeling. i don't say line of thinking, because it seems emotions are running the decision making.

TO is
#2 all time in receiving yards
#8 all time in receptions
#5 all time in total touchdowns (receiving/rushing)
#3 all time in receiving touchdowns
#16 all time in receiving yards per game

he's HOF. i might be ok if they are punishing him one year for being a jerk. or showing the current players what happens when you're a jerk. ok fine. but he's a gimme HOF.

 

I like Jerry Jones in the Hall of Fame. He was a terrific innovator who brought lots of money and visibility to the NFL ... an owners job. Curiously enough, he was a terrible General Manager but has learned on the job and is pretty competent at building a roster or at least allowing it to be built. It's funny that many still hate Jones for firing a man who had no problem firing players the minute their performance lagged because of age. Tom Landry deserves all sorts of credit and kudos for the wonderful job he did as Cowboys head coach. He did not deserve to keep the job when his doing so was detrimental to fielding a competitive NFL team. He didn't live long after losing the job and his time was better spent with Alicia and family than hanging onto a job where his performance wasn't likely to have been as good as the man who succeeded him.

 

TO was a terrible teammate and destructive to the teams on which he played. His huge ego, need for attention and denigration of the men throwing him the ball ... men who as quarterbacks needed the support and confidence of teammates ... outweighed TO's enormous talents on the field. For overall wins and losses, the teams that had TO would have been better off getting some receiver off the waiver wire. To me the Hall of Fame is for players who contributed spectacularly on the field and made their teams better. TO was spectacular on the field, disastrous in the locker room.

 

It would be interesting to hear what Donovan McNabb has to say about it.

 

Or Jeff Garcia.

 

You know those pictures where it changes to something or somebody else when you look at it from an angle? They need to do that with his picture so that when you look at it from a different angle you see the image of Jimmy Johnson. For fun have a little photo of Switzer yelling, "We won, we won" while Jerrah yanks it from him.

 

I couldn't care less if that arkie asshat is in the HOF. I have been a Cowboys fan for almost 40 years now and I can say they have ONE playoff victory in the last 21 of them. Screw him if he made a lot of money by putting an uninspiring and under producing product on the field. Or if he made the NFL more money. That just tells you all you need to know about how stupid consumers really are.

 

so i'll just say i don't think that is accurate

 

I'll concede that early in his career TO made the 49rs a lot better. As a Cowboys fan, I saw TO when his talents were diminished and his ego and team-chemistry destructiveness skills were at their zenith.

 

That is a great question. I don't understand why they have been left out. It baffles science.

 

Yeah, I think there were times in his career when his +/- was problematic. I don't like the guy either. I just think he did a huge amount on the field. For me, he's the classic case of a jerk who gets into a HOF. This is how I would deal with TO related to the HOF [NSFW language]...