Technically speaking, an owner's job is to make sure his/her company remains in existence, make sure his company turns a
PROFIT, and make sure it remains relevant so it can continue to make a
PROFIT!
No one is better than Jerry Jones in doing that.
While it is true that the Cowboys were America's Team before Jerry Jones, Jones revived the franchise. Whether you want to call it serendipity, blind stupidity or intentionality, he had the foresight to hire Jimmy Johnson and
AGREED to the trade of Herschel Walker, which catapulted the Cowboys to three Super Bowl wins and restored their popularity and, honestly, expanded upon it.
The Cowboys today are living off the fumes of the 90s dynasty. I know people want to hate him in totality, but you
MUST give him credit for the part he played in hiring Johnson and restoring the shine on America's Team.
Furthermore, Jerry Jones is a
MARKETING GENIUS. Remember, he is the reason the NFL is the powerhouse it is as a league today, and his marketing prowess is the reason Jerry Jones is in the Hall of Fame.
Please read:
Jerry Jones risk allows Cowboys to become the leader in the growing women's sports apparel market
Jerry Jones helped revolutionize the modern NFL
Excerpt from the latter link:
This isn't some rinky-dink sports tabloid writer or wannabe blogger saying this. This is
FORBES - the premier business magazine in the United States!
Jerry's downfall is that he is too involved in day-to-day management of the football team, player personnel and contract negotiations. And because he is married to being both owner and GM (see his "socks and jocks" comment), he makes bad decisions. I've always said Troy Aikman - as much as I liked him - should have been gone in a trade long before his career was done. Anyone who paid attention could see the handwriting on the wall. Same for other players like Deion Sanders (who wouldn't have been signed if Jimmy Johnson had remained coach), Jason Witten and Tyron Smith. We seem to hold on to players too long - beyond their appropriate trade value because we always think we're a player away from the Super Bowl so we must keep everyone in tact.
Then we acquire players who just aren't good for our team, e.g., Terrell Owens, Greg Hardy, Pacman Jones, Roy Williams, etc., because with Jerry, it's about acquiring talent.
It's good that he wants to acquire talent (that's the good owner part), but he's terrible at understanding how talent fits into a team (that's why, IIRC, Jimmy Johnson never wanted Deion Sanders because Deion's influence ruined the team's work ethic. For an example of this, see Troy Aikman's comments on how other players acted based on Deion's attitude).
So, while I think we're going to suck for a while because Jerry refuses to relinquish his role as GM, there's no question that under Jerry Jones as owner, both the Cowboys and the league have prospered monetarily. And
THAT is what an owner is supposed to do - make sure his company remains relevant and turns mega profit.
Since Jerry has entered the league, the cash registers for the Dallas Cowboys have never stopped Cha-chinging!