*[I'll preface this that my posting is really a TV mini series in length. It's not the Cliff Notes version favored by many fans. I won't apologize for it's length, as a more thorough rendering of topic was my intent. Sorry for it's length, so please allow me to post seven pages before starting your comments...thanks]
All right, this fan has put up with fellow 'fans' for some time now...and generally it was a one directional call to arms against any and all Cowboy fans who did not embrace a wholesale onslaught of insult and demeaning of the terms involved with anything directly related to responsibility or production on the carpet itself. This was elevated to a full blown and grass root's 'support' of the team to include outright degradation of all so called rose-colored wearing fans that did not want to go so far as being a true rebel and provide funds to erect a billboard directly accross from the New Stadium and from it's vantage insult the very top level involved in the franchise itself. These insult hurlers wanted nothing less than the immediate removal of Jerry Jones himself, as GM of his own team. They would settle for nothing less to give any credability to the illustrious organization or those fans who followed them due to what they had done in the past and the demonstrated more recent events in that same franchise.
No matter what was presented to this self appointed keepers of the grand vision, they, and 'they' know who YOU are....would have nothing to do with analytical analysis. They would always substitute an insult driven and personal vindication of their own pleasure limiting blinders instead. They never stopped short of a humiliating and stereotyped attack against anyone not first proclaiming Jerry Jones as a fumbling ingrate; Wade Phillips as a delapidated and defeated overreaching bowl of jelly; and a total lack of 'guts' in a whole roster of players. NO, it NEVER ended short of a tar and feathering, and usually, an attempt to run such diversive elements as simple fans telling it like what they saw....off 'Cowboy' sites or insulting with the NEW social low level of cultivation. They called them idiots, retards, and childish for sticking to the actual presentation of a differing view of developments and actual trends taking effect even as those proclaimed that in fact there was NOTHING ever to occur until (1) Jerry Jones was no longer anywhere near actual participation in football decisions; (2) Wade Phillips was removed from any function on a coaching staff of the Dallas Cowboys; (3) there was just too little actual talent on the offense after TO's departure, to propell the Cowboys into a realistic competition against NFC East Rivals in New York and Philadelphia; and (4) there just was too little talent left on the defense after Dallas allowed such elements as Chris Canty, Anthony Henry, Kevin Burnett, and Greg Ellis to depart.
The myths of gloom strongly thrived on such elements of association as Jerry wandered into the Dallas scene totally unprepared and blind in his dealings from the start. He was supposedly a non-football person who relied upon Jimmy Johnson's ability to discern talent and forge direction for both he and the franchise. Through a transition of ownership, all blame was thrown at Jerry for the end of Tom Landry's time at the head of a vastly changed team in a NFL that had started a new direction in talent and applications as well.
Just to get things back in a realistic perspective, let's just look at what the picture of Jerry in an executive capacity should be described as such:
*(taken from the official Dallas Cowboys site)
Executive Profile
In one of the most dramatic eras of ownership in professional sports, Jerry Jones's stewardship of the Dallas Cowboys has brought unprecedented results and success to one of the world's most visible sports entities.
Highlighted by Super Bowl victories following the 1992, 1993 and 1995 seasons, Jones became the first owner in NFL history to guide his team to three league championships in his first seven years of ownership.
In 1995, Dallas also became the first team in NFL history to win three Super Bowls in four seasons while tying the NFL record for most Super Bowl victories by an organization with five.
By 1999, the first decade of Jones's ownership closed with eight playoff appearances, six division titles, four conference championship game appearances and three world crowns. Dallas closed the millennium as the NFL's "Team of the Decade" for the 1990s.
Since he took over as general manager in 1989, the Cowboys have drafted 17 different players who have gone on to appear in a combined total of 63 Pro Bowls. Dallas has also signed four veteran free agent players who have made 13 Pro Bowl appearances while representing the Dallas Cowboys. Since 1989, the Cowboys have made 97 trades, the most celebrated of which was the 1989 deal that sent Herschel Walker to the Minnesota Vikings and provided the personnel foundation for three league titles.
In selecting the on-the-field leadership for the Cowboys, Jones hired a pair of coaches who won three Super Bowls in Dallas: Jimmy Johnson (1992-1993) and Barry Switzer (1995). Chan Gailey followed with a division title and playoff appearances in 1998 and 1999. In 2003, Jones successfully recruited two-time Super Bowl winner Bill Parcells to Dallas, and Parcells then directed the team to a 10-6 record and a return to the playoffs in his first year on the job. In the last 27 years, 26 different owners have entered the National Football League. Of that group, only Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft of New England have guided their franchises to more than two Super Bowl championships. Moreover, 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.
On the league front, he has actively contributed to enhancing the NFL's status as the world's premier professional sports league by serving on the NFL's Competition Committee, the Broadcast Committee, the Management Council Executive Committee and the Business Ventures Committee. His vision in the areas of marketing, corporate sponsorships, television, stadium management and community service has made a visible imprint on the landscape of sports in America.
As a co-captain of the 1964 National Championship Arkansas Razorbacks, Jones is one of a very small number of NFL owners who actually earned a significant level of success as a football player. Jones is currently living his passion by engineering the fortunes of an NFL franchise. A man of varied interests who will not rest on yesterday's achievements, he is a dedicated businessman and family man sharing a vivid enthusiasm for both.
The Dallas Business Journal picked Jerry as the 2010 Business Man of the Year....and describes his progression as follows:
A Cowboy to the Core
by Chad Eric Watt Jan 04 2010
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has changed the NFL game with his maverick moves and Texas-size ambitions.
A win is a win.
That’s the message Jerry Jones is trying to convey to the media swarming around him in the Dallas Cowboys’ locker room.
It’s November, and his first-place NFL football franchise has just defeated the lowly Washington Commanders 7-6, scoring the game’s sole touchdown on a 10-yard pass with 2:41 left to play.
Jones didn’t throw the ball, catch the pass, or call the play. He hasn’t strapped on football gear in 45 years.
Yet, he’s about to hold court.
“It’s a real, real statement for this team to have won this football game,” said Jones, shifting effortlessly into the babble typically reserved for star players and coaches in post-game press conferences.
In any other locker room, the owner would have been way out of place. But the players don’t seem to notice, and the coaches don’t protest.
This 67-year-old owner is in his natural position. In the spotlight, in his suite, on the sideline, and in the locker room—every aspect of the Cowboys’ business is Jerry Jones’ business.
Ultimately, Jones can’t control whether the team wins or loses on the field, but he can make it into an efficient moneymaking machine—and he has, in every way imaginable. From his innovative approach to marketing the team to the one-of-a-kind fan experience he created with the opening of Cowboys Stadium at the start of this season, Jones’ impact on the NFL cannot be overstated. And, after more than 20 years in North Texas, during which time he has been a leading supporter of the Salvation Army, his impact on the region extends well beyond his team. That’s why the Dallas Business Journal has picked him as our Executive of the Year for 2010.
The Dallas Cowboys’ $1.2 billion stadium will help the football club add more than $360 million to the company’s top line for the 2009 season. But, regardless of the arena, Jones has built the iconic Dallas Cowboys into a lucrative and seemingly recession-resistant business that’s standing strong in the face of the worst recession since he bought the team.
The team sold all the suites in the new stadium, albeit some on a single-game basis. The recession’s biggest impact on the football club is that, as of mid-December, it hadn’t sold naming rights for the venue.
Still, the Dallas Cowboys are the most valuable franchise in the National Football League, and neck and neck with Britain’s Manchester United soccer club for being the most valuable sports business on the planet.
Jones was a millionaire when he bought the Cowboys. Rebuilding the team made him a billionaire and enabled him to create a billion-dollar arena for the team (with a little help from the people in Arlington).
A Maverick From the Start
The most hands-on owner in the NFL first became known as the rich Arkansas oilman who bought the Dallas Cowboys and immediately fired its beloved head coach to hire his college teammate.
At the same time he was bringing change to the Dallas Cowboys he also was bringing change to the National Football League.
“No one handed us an operating manual,” Jones said, referring to how his team should be run.
Visiting with other owners, Jones could get a sense of how other teams were doing it. But, even 20 years later, he marvels more at the things they weren’t doing at the time.
“You couldn’t find a team that was involved in stadiums,” Jones recalls. And few teams did anything special with their brands.
