News: ST: Jerry Jones regrets the rushed decision to fire Tom Landry, said he should have waited a...

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With the 25-year anniverisary of the day he bought the Cowboys coming up on Tuesday, owner Jerry Jones spent a little time Sunday reminiscing the days leading up to the purchase of the some of the decisions he made.

Jones' biggest regret was the rushed decision to fire legendary coach Tom Landry and replace him with Jimmy Johnson. Jones doesn't regret the move, just the circumstances that forced him to act so quickly and thus come off as disrespectful to Landry.

He said if he had to do it all over again, he would have waited a year before making the change.

"If I had a chance to do it over again I would've waited a year and just got my feet on the ground a little bit more and probably just gone with the staff that we had and then later made the ultimate change that I made," Jones said.

Clearly Jones is still pained by the stigma of being the man who fired Landry and how coldly he did it. Some Cowboys have never forgiven him for it. It's an issue that forced the team's Hall of Fame coach to change allegiances and root for the rival New York Giants until his death, Landry's wife Alicia admitted in a book last year.

Jones laments now that if he had to it over again he would have taken up the offer of former owner Bum Bright to the firing himself.

"He did insist that, 'I should make this change. You shouldn't. You should have a clean slate. I will make the change,'" Jones said. "I wanted to and felt that it was pretty obvious that changes were being made because I was taking the team, and I wanted to look coach Landry in the eye, visit with him about that rather than having it done just through the actual purchase closing procedure that would normally come. But that would've been something that when I look back at hindsight, I could've taken Bum up on his offer to make those changes."

Clarence Hill

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