Why Did Jerry Push for the Salary Cap? (Old 1995 Article)

Zordon

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Days like this where we're sitting on the sidelines watching other teams sign players and improve, I'm remind that the man so many on here believe would do anything to win was one of the biggest proponents of implementing a hard cap in the 90's, handcuffing his franchise for a generation.

http://newsok.com/article/2509795

The question begs an answer: If you have the best young team in the National Football League, why in the world would you be the person most responsible for implementing a salary cap that limits the money you can spend to keep those players?

Three years ago, the Cowboys shocked the NFL by winning the Super Bowl despite having the youngest team in the league. They won another Super Bowl the following season, but the $37.1 million salary cap has forced Dallas owner Jerry Jones to allow some of his top players to sign with other teams.

Which brings us back to the original question: Why in the world would Jones be so adamant about pushing for a salary cap after the 1993 season when he realized many of his young stars would soon be asking for hefty raises?

"I've always heard from people who have a lot more experience than I have that when you get good teams they basically become an older team. You're reluctant to change. You ride that horse all the way into the ground," Jones said. "But under this system, it forces us to inject younger players into the mix. That could be very healthy for us. " Critics say the cap robs the top teams of their depth, which increases the chances of injuries playing a critical role in the Super Bowl sweepstakes.

"I don't buy that. I'm not trying to be naive, and I'm not trying to defend the salary cap, but I don't agree that depth is not there anymore," Jones said. "We'll probably carry nine defensive linemen and have a rotation as good as we had three years ago. Our depth in the offensive line, I'd argue with you, is as good as we've ever had. " That's hard to swallow, but the Cowboys like the potential of backups Ron Stone and George Hegamin. Even if there was no salary cap, Jones emphasizes he could not afford to open his checkbook and re-sign everybody.
 
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Floatyworm

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Makes you wonder if Jerry really just lives pay check to pay check like the rest of us...and is just playing everyone that he is a billionare.:popcorn:
 

DandyDon52

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He's a tightwad! LoL
if you remember he didn't want to pay emmit Smith's a few million dollars back in the 90s.
It took a holdout and 2 losses to
Get him to pay up.
He probably saw it as a smart
Way to keep more $ for himself.
At the time he had Jimmy, so
Building a winner seemed easy.
And since he was way smarter than Jimmy lol, he could do same thing and pay less to do it.
 

LatinMind

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He's a tightwad! LoL
if you remember he didn't want to pay emmit Smith's a few million dollars back in the 90s.
It took a holdout and 2 losses to
Get him to pay up.
He probably saw it as a smart
Way to keep more $ for himself.
At the time he had Jimmy, so
Building a winner seemed easy.
And since he was way smarter than Jimmy lol, he could do same thing and pay less to do it.
Jimmy was nothing without Jerrys money. The dolphins are still waiting for their refund.
 

NorthTexan95

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He's a tightwad! LoL
if you remember he didn't want to pay emmit Smith's a few million dollars back in the 90s.
It took a holdout and 2 losses to
Get him to pay up.
He probably saw it as a smart
Way to keep more $ for himself.
At the time he had Jimmy, so
Building a winner seemed easy.
And since he was way smarter than Jimmy lol, he could do same thing and pay less to do it.

Jerry also made (and maybe still does) player pay for their own lunches.
 

kevm3

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Jerry is just not a football winner. Great business mind, but everything he touches in regards to fielding a successful football team backfires and propels the team to mediocrity. So I guess, that move was right in line with his philosophy. It was great for his pockets since there was a cap on what he had to pay out to players, but we haven't sniffed a superbowl since the 90s.
 

Cowpolk

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Jerry is just not a football winner. Great business mind, but everything he touches in regards to fielding a successful football team backfires and propels the team to mediocrity. So I guess, that move was right in line with his philosophy. It was great for his pockets since there was a cap on what he had to pay out to players, but we haven't sniffed a superbowl since the 90s.
But he still has more rings than most
 

kevm3

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But he still has more rings than most

he was lucky to have jimmy johnson and then did a Jerry Jones football move and got rid of him and we haven't done anything of note since except Switzer getting one more ring with Jimmy's boys.

All we can talk about now as cowboys fans is what happened in the 90s while both the eagles and the giants have hoisted up superbowl trophies in the past couple of decades... and the Jones boy keeps on operating by the same losing formula year after year after year and yet after 20 years we really expect a different result. We have, what, 2 or 3 playoff wins in the last 2 decades?
 

Cowpolk

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he was lucky to have jimmy johnson and then did a Jerry Jones football move and got rid of him and we haven't done anything of note since except Switzer getting one more ring with Jimmy's boys.

All we can talk about now as cowboys fans is what happened in the 90s while both the eagles and the giants have hoisted up superbowl trophies in the past couple of decades... and the Jones boy keeps on operating by the same losing formula year after year after year and yet after 20 years we really expect a different result. We have, what, 2 or 3 playoff wins in the last 2 decades?
Who hired him and signed off on everything he wanted to do? Who signed the checks? And who stated this team could win a Superbowl with any coach then proved it?
 

cern

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Days like this where we're sitting on the sidelines watching other teams sign players and improve, I'm remind that the man so many on here believe would do anything to win was one of the biggest proponents of implementing a hard cap in the 90's, handcuffing his franchise for a generation.

http://newsok.com/article/2509795
One of the world's greatest mysteries.
 

acr731

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Who hired him and signed off on everything he wanted to do? Who signed the checks? And who stated this team could win a Superbowl with any coach then proved it?


So Jerry gets a pass because of something that happened nearly 25 years ago?
 

superonyx

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What business industry wouldn’t love a salary cap?
What is surprising to me is how this is even legal. Can you imagine what people would say if the Auto Manufactures colluded to set a salary cap?
Or even Apple, Google, Microsoft all got together and capped their employees salaries....yikes..


The nfl has been allowed to operate in such a shady way for so long..
Billionaires getting taxpayers to build them stadiums so they can charge personal seat license fees, $50 for parking ect...
All so cities can pretend the players they are so passionately cheering for most likely grew up 2k miles away actually cares about the happiness of the fans.
We are strange creatures.
 

Northern_Cowboy

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Days like this where we're sitting on the sidelines watching other teams sign players and improve, I'm remind that the man so many on here believe would do anything to win was one of the biggest proponents of implementing a hard cap in the 90's, handcuffing his franchise for a generation.

http://newsok.com/article/2509795
He pushed for it because he believed then as he still does today that he is an awesome GM and it wouldn't matter. The mistake has never been the salary cap the mistake has been Jerry the GM for all the years
 
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