What successful NFL owners do and don’t do

[Kaiser]

Now, do I hire an experience Head Chef to hire staff and run the kitchen or do I appoint myself to be the Head Cook because I worked at a Denny"s part time while going to college?

But that would be the analogy if Jerry was playing on the field (like the cooks preparing food). The real analogy is if you made money in oil and used it to buy a chain of restaurants in an industry were no one was doing any marketing or process engineering. You could be CEO because you would be creating that from scratch, like Jerry did with marketing the NFL. Even if you made a pile of mistakes along the way and spent half of it on strippers **cough** you could still have a restaurant chain that was worth 30 times what you paid for it.

 

[Bobhaze]

But that would be the analogy if Jerry was playing on the field (like the cooks preparing food). The real analogy is if you made money in oil and used it to buy a chain of restaurants in an industry were no one was doing any marketing or process engineering. You could be CEO because you would be creating that from scratch, like Jerry did with marketing the NFL. Even if you made a pile of mistakes along the way and spent half of it on strippers **cough** you could still have a restaurant chain that was worth 30 times what you paid for it.

The problem with your take is that “monetary value” is not a viable way to measure a sports team’s accomplishments. Sure it’s an accomplishment for Jerry and his family, but most fans could not care less how much money JJs team is worth. Especially if that doesn’t translate into winning in the playoffs...which it has not.

 

[Kaiser]

The problem with your take is that “monetary value” is not a viable way to measure a sports team’s accomplishments.

Sure, but that takes us right back to whether we judge Jerry over his tenure or start on the last day of the 90's dynasty.

 

[Bobhaze]

Sure, but that takes us right back to whether we judge Jerry over his tenure or start on the last day of the 90's dynasty.

Would we tolerate any other person serving as GM with Jerry’s lack of results over the last 20+years? No. But somehow we are all supposed to just accept it, “as the way things are”.

 

[Kaiser]

Would we tolerate any other person serving as GM with Jerry’s lack of results over the last 20+years? No. But somehow we are all supposed to just accept it, “as the way things are”.

The way things are was a young team on the rise with a lot of talent. There is a reason they were talked about as a Super Bowl team coming into the year. This year it was a lot of little things (which Romo said also) that lead to a 4 point loss to the Pats, a 2 point loss to the Saints, etc. Then the wheels came off in the last two games, which is why Garrett is gone for sure.

 

[Number1]

Paul Brown didn't own the Cleveland Browns. The team was named for him, and he certainly controlled the football operation, but the team was owned by Mickey McBride when the team was founded, and ultimately Art Modell by the early 1960s.

And, his seven titles happened without him owning a team. He didn't own a team until he founded the Bengals in 1967.

I'm fairly sure he owned a piece - but not certain

 

[CowboyRoy]

So what have the NFL owners who have won the last 23 SBs done compared to Jerry? Here is a list of what they do and don’t do:

WHAT SUCCESSFUL NFL OWNERS DO: (The ones winning the last 23 SBs)

1. Successful NFL owners hire a GM who then hires a HC. The HC is allowed to hire his own staff.
2. The GM is held accountable for results. Usually 4-5 years are considered enough time to prove they can win or at least compete for a championship by making at least a conf championship game.
3. A good GM is sometimes kept for more than one HC tenure, depending on their success or progress.
4. The owner stays out of football operations by letting the guy he hired as GM run that side of the business.
5. If the GM isn’t getting it done in 5 years, it’s usually time for a change and a new GM is hired.​

WHAT SUCCESSFUL NFL OWNERS DO NOT DO:

1. They NEVER run the football side of operations. Why? Just look at the last 23 winners of the SB. Not one owner was the GM. Zero.
2. They don’t allow ALL their kids to have jobs with no accountability. If you’re going to have your kids have jobs with the on-field results side of the business, if the team doesn’t win, changes must be made.
3. Successful NFL owners don’t hold post game press conferences because they have hired professional football people to do that and they realize by speaking to the media too much, they undermine their HC and players.
4. They never override a coach’s discipline of players. Owners can state what their values are but let the people they hire discipline the players.
​

This is certainly an incomplete list.
But it is crystal clear: IF YOU ARE AN NFL OWNER, AND WANT TO WIN A SUPER BOWL, THERE ARE SOME DO’S AND DON’TS TO FOLLOW OR YOUR TEAM WILL END UP WITH 24 YEARS WITH 3 PLAYOFF WINS.

Jones #1 problem left is hiring idiots to be the HC. Then he needs to let them hire their own staffs.

He gets REAL HC in here and he can do as many press conferences as he wants.

 

[CowboyRoy]

The way things are was a young team on the rise with a lot of talent. There is a reason they were talked about as a Super Bowl team coming into the year. This year it was a lot of little things (which Romo said also) that lead to a 4 point loss to the Pats, a 2 point loss to the Saints, etc. Then the wheels came off in the last two games, which is why Garrett is gone for sure.

A real HC gets this team to beat NO, then definitely the Jets. We are then a new team at 5-1 and its a different year.

 

[Plankton]

I'm fairly sure he owned a piece - but not certain

He wasn’t the owner of the team. How else would he have been fired?

 

[cowboyec]

I miss Clint Murchison.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

So what would you say have been Jerry’s big accomplishments as a GM so far in the 21st century? We know what he kind of did with Jimmy at the helm.

Please explain further how the Maras are running their franchise without a GM. I guess I missed that somehow. Any other owners that have recently won SBs (since Jerry last won one) that are running their team as GM and in charge of everything “from socks and jocks” on up? I would like to know who they are.

I have no interest in arbitrary self serving temporal biases. He was GM in the 20th too. And yeah he engineered the Haley trades as well as the Sanders and Everett signings. The drafting certainly has not been a problem nowadays.

Wellington Mara ran the club's day to day for his entire career. They never fired their GMs through thick and thin as they were making the decisions. They won 6 titles.

Operationally, the Jones/Jones/McClay triumvirate is little different than Mara/Tisch/Gettleman. If anything Jones delegates more autority.

I have not really looked into the executive structure of the other successful clubs but I do not buy the line that their GMs have full control either. Benson and Rooney were famous for being hands on. Lurie too for that matter.

 

[Number1]

He wasn’t the owner of the team. How else would he have been fired?

minority share?

 

[lockster]

So what have the NFL owners who have won the last 23 SBs done compared to Jerry? Here is a list of what they do and don’t do:

WHAT SUCCESSFUL NFL OWNERS DO: (The ones winning the last 23 SBs)

1. Successful NFL owners hire a GM who then hires a HC. The HC is allowed to hire his own staff.
2. The GM is held accountable for results. Usually 4-5 years are considered enough time to prove they can win or at least compete for a championship by making at least a conf championship game.
3. A good GM is sometimes kept for more than one HC tenure, depending on their success or progress.
4. The owner stays out of football operations by letting the guy he hired as GM run that side of the business.
5. If the GM isn’t getting it done in 5 years, it’s usually time for a change and a new GM is hired.​

WHAT SUCCESSFUL NFL OWNERS DO NOT DO:

1. They NEVER run the football side of operations. Why? Just look at the last 23 winners of the SB. Not one owner was the GM. Zero.
2. They don’t allow ALL their kids to have jobs with no accountability. If you’re going to have your kids have jobs with the on-field results side of the business, if the team doesn’t win, changes must be made.
3. Successful NFL owners don’t hold post game press conferences because they have hired professional football people to do that and they realize by speaking to the media too much, they undermine their HC and players.
4. They never override a coach’s discipline of players. Owners can state what their values are but let the people they hire discipline the players.
​

This is certainly an incomplete list.
But it is crystal clear: IF YOU ARE AN NFL OWNER, AND WANT TO WIN A SUPER BOWL, THERE ARE SOME DO’S AND DON’TS TO FOLLOW OR YOUR TEAM WILL END UP WITH 24 YEARS WITH 3 PLAYOFF WINS.

I agree there's problems in our organization, but if Jerry was successful now as he was when he started, then Ur whole argument is busted. I think any owner can do as he pleases, there's no "Bible of NFL operations" that says it can't be done this way. The fact is, he was wildly successful the first few years. There's plenty of teams that have the structure you promote that are worse than the cowboys, but because dallas does it differently, unless they win SB EVERY YEAR , the statistics with Ur criteria will always be against them. There's so many other things to be factored in that you haven't accounted for here. This would never pass a scientific study commision with these criteria. I don't like the condition of team, but it isn't the structure that's the problem imo, but simply the ppl. making bad decisions right now, bit not all the decisions have been bad, there are worse teams.

 

[buybuydandavis]

WHAT SUCCESSFUL NFL OWNERS DO: (The ones winning the last 23 SBs)

​

​

That's not the criteria of success for a *business owner*.

The Cowboys are the most valuable sports franchise in the world. If Jerry isn't a successful nfl owner, there never was and never will be one.

Part of that success was making Jerry the face of the Cowboys more than the HC. Any suggestions for improvement of the Cowboys that messes with that *winning* business formula is a non-starter.

I think Jerry has gone pretty far in improving our chances to win *on the field* with Stephen and McClay. And being Jerry, he brings things that other owners do not, such as better chances for off the field money for the players, and winning the La'el Collins' Sweepstakes.

There are costs and benefits to Jerry running the business. His media profile and the wealth it brings to him and the players is a net asset, IMO.

The main cost to Jerry as owner in recent years is his commitment to poor coaches. I wonder if that's also part of the media strategy. Part of the drama. Sure is getting a lot of eyeballs lately. If not, Jerry can talk to the media all he wants and still bring in good coaches. McClay is largely the GM now, and likely will play a large hand in selecting the next coach.

 

[lockster]

One good coach hire like Belichick with his authority fixes the problem here. But even belicheck got vetoed by his owner.

 

[plasticman]

But that would be the analogy if Jerry was playing on the field (like the cooks preparing food). The real analogy is if you made money in oil and used it to buy a chain of restaurants in an industry were no one was doing any marketing or process engineering. You could be CEO because you would be creating that from scratch, like Jerry did with marketing the NFL. Even if you made a pile of mistakes along the way and spent half of it on strippers **cough** you could still have a restaurant chain that was worth 30 times what you paid for it.

I've noticed many fans seem to point to Jerry's financial success as some type of accomplishment that exonerates him from criticism.

Two points:

1. My criticism of Jerry Jones stems from his performance as GM and only pertains to him as an owner when discussing his horrible record for hiring GM's.

2. The gap between financial success and football success means that Jerry's success is the result of his ability to decieve and exploit the staunchly loyal Cowboy fans while delivering a poor quality product.

In fact, he fooled us so spectacularly that they put him in the Hall of Fame. His "contribution" to football was finding ways to get all of us to spend more money whether through direct sales or patronizing their sponsors.

It's not something we should ever point to as a positive.

 

[willia451]

Bump.

 

[CouchCoach]

The problem with your take is that “monetary value” is not a viable way to measure a sports team’s accomplishments. Sure it’s an accomplishment for Jerry and his family, but most fans could not care less how much money JJs team is worth. Especially if that doesn’t translate into winning in the playoffs...which it has not.

But isn't that the defense for Booger, the value of the team, the fact that it's the most watched and most talked about? The very same things that are the most important to Booger.

 

[Bobhaze]

But isn't that the defense for Booger, the value of the team, the fact that it's the most watched and most talked about? The very same things that are the most important to Booger.

Well it isn’t a valid defense but I’m sure it’s one the Jones Cartel loves to leverage. If there’s anything Jerry has taught the sports world it has to be this: a fat wallet doesn’t necessarily translate to winning championships.

 

[CB61]

Well all you need to do is look at the Dallas Cowboys and see what the worst thing is that you could do