Deep Blue: Own It: The Jerry Jones Story | Dallas Cowboys 2019

[Music] no absolutely not apps I mean this is not the team of the nineties if Quincy doesn't get cut I think that I probably end up in practice squad if that was possible maybe they cut me and I'm playing for somebody else I couldn't make myself do it I would just like done we did not want to play Cleveland didn't wanna play it was a lousy game she had never played it ladies and gentlemen presenting Jerry Jones for enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame jean-georges [Applause] 74 years before he stepped onto that stage and Kenton Jerry Jones started his life 2,000 miles away in Los Angeles California my mother and dad had moved with their rest of their siblings to California during World War two my father wasn't in the service but he worked in the aircraft plants out there after Jerry's 6 birthday his father Pat Jones moved the small family to Arkansas where shortly after the move Pat started a small business of his own I grew up with my sister living above my dad's grocery store and actually I'm gonna call it a supermarket for its time but for instance the activity was wonderful and people were everywhere all the time the son of a Salesman Jerry learned early the value of a dollar and what it took to earn it I grew up with entrepreneurial parents and the lessons that I learned around that kitchen table through osmosis are still with me today I can remember memories of when I was around nine or ten my mama putting a bow tie on men I'd stand outside the door greet the customers and she'd wink if one of the ladies would give a tip and had a history of that so I'd push her basket around and help her get her things out of the shelves jeurys love of sports began at an early age and by the time he hit high school football had become his passion earning all-state honors his senior year Jerry proved he had what it took to play at the next level and since he lived in Arkansas there was really only one acceptable option jerry arrived in 1961 a fullback from Rose City Arkansas not that many people have ever heard of Roller City he was a try-hard guy with a limited ability like me and the guys that tried hard and stayed usually played and that's one series of attributes right there and I've always said that Jerry is probably in trivia Arkansas Razorback trivia he's the only guy that started at fullback one year and the next year started at guard and the offensive line changes were also happening off the field and none more meaningful than a budding relationship with gene chambers a former Miss Arkansas and future mrs. Jones along with Jean Jerry met several young men that would play a big role in his future endeavors one of these players was a defensive lineman from Port Arthur Texas named Jimmy Johnson he was on offense eyes on defense and you know all right names ended in Jay and so they roomed us together on all the away trips so we were roommates and we knew each other you know through thick and thin you know all the way back at Arkansas he was always you know finagle in doing this he always had a lot of irons in the fire which he does now one of those irons was the resale of coveted Razorback football tickets a pregame ritual that involved a lot of ingenuity and a little extra legwork I would get those from usually the freshman girls dormitory and they could buy a ticket for a dollar the face on him was seven but we were so good as a team those tickets went for and so but the problem is that you had to be a student to get in well before the game I would get all taped ready to go and if I'd sold about 20 of them whether it was in Fayetteville or Little Rock Arkansas I'd have to go out to the players gate and lead all the people through the gate that I'd gotten in they had a seat because the ticket I'd walk them across the endzone and lead him up in the stands and I'd come back in and get my equipment on get ready to play and on weekends instead of Jerry hanging around to clubs like all the other players were Jerry is selling insurance on weekends 19 20 years old and the guys making money already he was different he's wired a little bit differently you knew you know all the way back at Arkansas this guy's going to be super successful at whatever he does in 1964 both Gerry and Jimmy made the all Southwest Conference team and the Arkansas Razorbacks made history cotton ball victors for the first time the Razorbacks have finished the year undefeated in 11 games this great Arkansas team was officially named national collegiate football champion that was 1964 a year to remember football stayed with me I talked about it all the time I daydreamed about it I thought about it every day I aspired to be in the NFL after his graduation from the University of Arkansas Gerry tried has handed a variety of business ventures the most notable of these was the potential purchase of the struggling San Diego Chargers where Jones came very close to making a deal he couldn't refuse I had no money but I did have a organization that was willing to lend me the money as a matter of fact they sent to Barron Hilton who owned the team at the time they sent him a million dollar letter of credit so that I could show that I had made arrangements to buy the team if we decided to buy the team that organization was the Teamsters Union a powerful association with links to organized crime and headed by none other than Union President Jimmy Hoffa I was talking to my father and he said son by your own admission this court doesn't work economically there's no money coming in and lot going out and I said but Dad this is my lifelong ambition and he said you hadn't been around long enough to have a lifelong he said I'm trying to talk to you realistically Jerry if it doesn't work I hate to see you as your young man just right off the bat get in something that financially doesn't work and so he talked me out of it jeurys desires succeed was bruised but not broken and with the added responsibility of a growing family he continued his quest for the next business deal he was in the insurance business all in gas business he is always making money and I remember Stephen his son was in my football camp at Oklahoma State and Jerry was there in Oklahoma City he came by the house and said Jerry I said you know you've made so much money you're doing so many different things I want to get involved in some of that stuff I said I want to make some money he said Jimmy he says you go to bed at night you're thinking about football you wake up in the morning you're thinking about football I gotta be at night I'm thinking about making money I wake up in the morning I'm thinking about making money he said you stick to what you know and I'll stick to what I know you in 1988 I was on a fishing trip with my son in Mexico and for some reason the next morning I got up I was feeling pretty rough I don't know why but I was drinking a lot of coffee and I was reading the paper when I learned that the Dallas Cowboys were for sale I found a phone in the lobby and I got someone on the other end of connection and I said you don't know me from Adam my name is Jerry Jones and if I live to make it back to United States I'm gonna buy the Dallas Cowboys hangover be damned you're after I left Oklahoma in 88 I get a phone call one night and it's a Gil Brandt called me and Gil Kofman she says you know Jerry Jones Act say yeah yeah I know Jerry Jones doing well you know yeah I socialized with him in the 70s when he was here and Oklahoma City were together a lot and he was doing well hauling guests but he said well let me tell you he just bought the Cowboys then I remember telling Gil I said I'm gonna taste them he's gonna cut all the fat out around there because I'm pregnant I know how Tex Schramm ran when you have an owner that gives the general manager the checkbook and when he can go write a check any time he wants for any player a free agent or any contract well he can solve any problem but just give a little more or what they asked for well they weren't going to ask for Jerry what they wanted and no one around there was the Cowboys were losing a million dollars a month the cash when you buy something you have to assume that who sold it to you really knew everything about it and had maximized their opportunity so you don't change something [Music] jerry buys the team his first act his first act is to somebody find the coach Landry Jerry flies down to Tom's lake home or are his vacation home outside of right outside of Austin coach Landry was playing golf the time then Jerry came in and he fired he fired coach Landry in my best friend's office what the Freak I mean who could have who could have expected that well I think they were appalled by what was going on I mean here was Tom Landry had the tremendous history with the Cowboys had built the Cowboys he was mr. cowboy in terms of building this franchise and when Terry comes in and fires the man who has been the only head coach of the Cowboys ever had they were totally appalled by who is this guy from Arkansas to come in and say Tom you're out I'm bringing my own guy head oh you know I came in in 92 and it was still to talk around town and there's some older players that still hold that grudge against Jerry this was a corporate takeover but the difference was this was a sports team that had become the fabric of the community and had emotional ties that go much beyond any sort of business transaction but too many cowboys players and fans if there was one thing more important than loyalty it was winning I was doing one of two sports call-in shows in the 80s and I was taking calls every single night about how Tom Landry has to go Tom Landry has had the game has passed him by it's time for something else he's been great we love him move on the same people who were calling and screaming you've got to get rid of Landry then someone replaced Landry and he's the bad guy you know if I tell you I give you one year for you to tell me how I can let Landry go that the public will accept you can't do it coach Landry have to retire a bear brand at Alabama have to retire there's no right way to let a legend go with only three wins the previous year Jerry was confident that the addition of Troy and Jimmie Johnson would make an immediate impact in his first season as owner but the Cowboys soon found out that the climb to the top will be a little tougher than they imagined you know Jimmy came and I said that's it we're good we got Jimmy I got my quarterback Troy they said I know it's going to work now and we only won one game so I think I think after that first year we all kind of step back and assess instead of why this is going to require much more than we all thought and believe [Music] but even with 15 losses the Cowboys knew that better days were on the horizon and in 1990 with a brand-new game-changer running back things were moving in the right direction in 1992 our team was getting good we played a preseason game in Tokyo we played to Houston our rulers and they had warren moon who's sitting on this stage tonight they were better than us right at that particular time Warren had him up by 14 points at half time and I was over on the sidelines and I looked at this ceremony being prepared and I saw this huge trophy a samurai warrior it was as tall as me and then I saw a little old 12-inch geisha doll and I asked him I said tell me what's this going on he said well the winner of this Tokyo Bowl preseason that gets this big samurai warrior most beautiful trophy I've ever seen the loser gets that little doll I've had footed it over to Jamie and I said Jimmy have you seen what's going on over on the other sideline you know we have won crap I would like to win that trophy he's heads Harry he said you know we've had eight men out since the first eight plays really it's not in our best interest and you know these priests is this preseason game we're trying to get ready for something in the season well of course Houston won but Adams got that great samurai trophy and I took home that little Misha doll [Music] just three years after Jerry Jones purchased the team the Cowboys were starting to shape up since the one in 15 season of 1989 Dallas had improved their record every year and in 1992 as the youngest squad in the NFL we're ready to inch even closer to being a Superbowl caliber team we were just young having a lot of fun again very passionate a lot of great athletes on the field and we didn't really care we just wanted to play and play really hard as I look back to the start of the 92 season think what makes that your so special is the fact that I still don't think as a group we knew how good this team was capable of beating the Cowboys cruised through the regular season with an incredible 13 and 3 record routed the Philadelphia Eagles in the divisional playoff in advance to the NFC Championship game against the mighty San Francisco 49ers remember San Francisco on oil they were that you're 15 and 1 or 14 and 2 or whatever and then you know this 49er dynasty and and all that's sometimes you know youthful ignorant scan be blessed you know we're just playing the game we don't know the ramifications I don't really believe anybody thought about the Super Bowl until maybe five minutes left in the fourth quarter [Applause] [Music] I think the 49ers were the best team in the NFL that year but that particular day we were the best team two weeks later the Cowboys stormed into Pasadena for Superbowl 27 and after 60 minutes of Dallas dominated football Jerry Jones and his Cowboys stood on top of the world as Super Bowl champions you will experience nothing like what we experienced winning that first Super Bowl I love my kids winning that first Super Bowl was the greatest feeling I overhead period period we're standing in the Rose Bowl Paul tagged abou the Commissioner of the NFL hands us the Lombardi Trophy and when he handed us the trophy that Jimmy reached over and said Jerry would you rather have that damn Cimarron warrior back in Tokyo or have his Lombardi Trophy by 1993 Jerry Jones had turned the Cowboys into a profit generating machine and with one Super Bowl championship already in the books the prognosis for a repeat performance looked very realistic [Applause] after a slow start Dallas won 12 of its last 14 regular season games and breezed through the playoffs all the way to Super Bowl 28 where in similar fashion of the previous year the Cowboys dismantled the hapless Buffalo Bills to capture their second consecutive World Championship [Applause] we have mutually decided that I would no longer be the head football coach with the Dallas Cowboys I hated it for both of them and that's why I said why couldn't you guys made this work you went to Super Bowls the role you're on top of the world and it's enough for everybody to get credit in this thing I was certainly disappointed you know surprised would say that I didn't understand that I had too strong minded individuals who are too genius is that what they do when you put whatever Jimmy's baggage was together with whatever Jerry's ego and baggage was and you put those two things together then you get what you got that's why I think all of that led to his dismissal eventually and why they couldn't get along they just couldn't get along which is originally Jimmy had a huge ego back then and I and I get it listen you know he's running the organization Jerry brought Emily in here to run this organization the the right way he had just won two back-to-back Super Bowl so you can imagine the confidence that Jimmy had but you can also see on Jerry side Jerry's the one buying the groceries Jerry's the one who's extending himself financially to sign certain guys and you know keep guys on his roster so I get it in in the end it's Jerry's baby Jimmy was a hired hand and Jerry and the Eagles got involved and Jerry had to make a decision and we had to live with to follow the unusual timing of Jimmie Johnson's exit left most of America shaking their heads in disbelief but as the dust of his departure settled a recurring theme in Jimmy's resume led to the realization that the timing may not have been the question but the answer no one can deny Jimmy's role in putting the team together the staff the players that you also cannot deny that at that point in his life Jimmy Johnson never held a job anywhere longer than five years nor did he after that that was kind of my background I was at Oklahoma State University as a head coach five years I was at the University of Miami five years I was in Dallas Cowboys five years a lot of people say what you should say the University of Miami you know one four five national championships oh well you should have stayed the Dallas Cowboys won four or five Super Bowls I always like to go and accomplish things and I'm a little bit of a gypsy and I kind of get bored and I want to do other things and and so yeah I really kind of had the feeling you know that I was gonna be leaving Dallas you know he made that clear to me he said Steven this just in the bout you know right now struggling with our relationship between your father and myself this is more just about I've kind of made my run at the players you know the way I coached the way I do things it's kind of my time to to move on Barry Switzer walked into a hornet's nest and in never flinched Barry great job March the 28th - Gerry he called I just had a colonoscopy people have asked me to learn any correlations between the colonoscopy in George I said no it just happened be I'll never forget I've had a colonoscopy that morning my girlfriend picked me up I was single and brought me back to my townhouse and I was drugged up pretty good and Jerry College is Jerry once talked to us I can't take the number I'll call him this afternoon I called him back to the afternoon and yes the only thing he says you want to coach the Cowboys hell I said hell I don't tell the job was open he says facing the bay and and they said I said call me when it is and and he called back and up and said that they they'd settled him Jim you settled in him done come on down the next day I drove on down and next day I was announced head coach so that was my interview process Jerry told me that he only had two names on this list when he bought the Cowboys Jimmy and me that was the only two coaches he considered and he knew them he can trust them he thought knew he could trust me my first day in the office Barbra Goodman is a great lady's secretary she's one of the right books she was secretary for Landry she was secretary Jimmie Johnson and she's secretary for me greatly and she's helping me get organized in my office the first you know it's the first time I've said in Jimmy just left packed up and gone I'm trying to get organized what little stuff I've got and just sign the contract the night before with Stephen and Jerry and my attorney and all of a sudden Jerry walks in and Barbara just gets up and leaves no one that Jerry wants to talk to me in private Jerry closes the door comes down and sits on the desk and I go over and sit down for the first time in Jimmy's chair North Dallas Cowboys chair or Landis chair I don't know whose chair what I saw I sat down there and and I looked at Jerry and Jerry says that contract we did last night I don't want you to tear it up I said do that Jerry he says because I'm gonna give you better one and I said okay and you shut you serious and he said yeah that's it I'll caught me give me the contract I'll get my attorney and we'll sign and he got a start walk out door and I'm thinking what made him do this and I said Jerry I want to ask you a question why are you gonna do this and you know I'll never forget he stopped at the door and it turned around this to two of us in the room he said you know what I got up this morning and I looked in the mirror and I liked myself for the first time of a long time and I knew what he meant because blond man I've been in that situation for - when they suck up their guts and they do something and you they should have done and they do it when everybody says that they won't do it and and I understand why he kept me that I said you know what Jerry you want to have another night's sleep so we we signed a new contract and I appreciated that but that's true story and he says I best I've ever felt about myself in a long time and I looked at myself this morning that season Jerry Barry and the Cowboys came within one game at the Super Bowl losing to the 49ers in the NFC Championship game [Music] you prior to 1995 no team at everyone three soup clothes in a four year period the challenge to win that third Super Bowl was made more difficult because free agency had just come to the NFL after losing ten key players to free agency many thought that the window for another Cowboys Super Bowl had closed the Jerry made some valuable additions to the team that took the Cowboys all the way to Super Bowl 30 you know prior to that it was I could win without Jimmy and and and and and you know bring in Barry Switzer he can do the coaching and the pressure was on Barry 95 the pressure was on us and I thought that brought us together with Barry closer to it as a team to go out and win it makes Super Bowl because now it wasn't that Barry couldn't coach them to a Super Bowl it was the players couldn't win another Super Bowl without coach awesome [Music] I'm happy for Jerry I'm happy for Jerry when it the next year I'd took the pressure off Jerry it really did just two years removed from the historic win in Super Bowl 30 the Cowboys found themselves dealing with the prospect of their first losing season in seven years one night we call it the last supper lice were like off the Last Supper we were in Cincinnati and and and Jerry's talk about what we're gonna do next year and you excited you're he gets enthusiastic is he I love him he's Stephen I'm sitting over talking about we can do this we do this you know like they might say the first thing you have to do is you have to fire my ass and hire a new coach if we don't win the syllabus tomorrow and they always seen the looks on their face when I was mad a minute - I didn't we lost the next day and we've go six and ten that year and I left and went back to Oklahoma in 1998 Barry Switzer was replaced by Chan Gailey and the Cowboys less than stellar performance on the field resulted in a level of mediocrity that was hard to swallow for many Cowboys fans as Roger Staubach likes to say based on his experiences in the 70s and 80s we love you win or tie as long as you're gonna win three Super Bowls in four years then we will we will stop saying bad things about your future great-grandchildren in public we won't curse you in church anymore but as soon as that stops [Music] by the year 2000 the glory of Super Bowls past was no more than a memory in yesterday's legends seemed unable to rekindle that flame for any franchise the transition period after you win a title in my mind is always a most difficult because you keep all of the people in place you had the success with and you probably stay with them one or two or maybe even three years longer because of the loyalty you built up the appreciation you built up and just you know what on some level you've earned this you we want you to end your career as a cowboy so let's let's ride this out together for the longest time we've wallet around a mediocrity as far as bringing in personnel good personnel but Jerry was still the most optimistic person that I could ever be around I mean I can still remember us have a hip yeah I could remember looking at the personnel one year I'll tell you this we were in his big meeting room and I'm thinking this is going to be another five and eleven season this is gonna be terrible and Jerry comes in the meeting and as optimistic as he is he gives us this speech and I'm looking at this personnel he's telling us how good we're gonna be and I honestly left that meeting vacant you know what we're a playoff team [Music] with an aging team and free agency fatalities the Cowboys were in decline now five years since the last Super Bowl win and restless for the next Dallas media and fans started to point fingers many of them in the direction of Jerry Jones fans wanted their sports owners to stay in the background pay the bill and let the coach general manager run the team the fact that Jones was wearing two hats as both owner and general manager had been a sore point for skeptics since Jerry took office and what you've done a little defensive and turn you into something you don't like yourself since 1989 it's not going to be the way it is going forward it has since 1989 and it's gonna help us win again just keep on going you know the baby I think people forget they look at Jerry the businessman I need to forget that he at his core as a football guy he grew up playing football and he's a guy who loves the game and understands the game and understands the role it has in communities Jerry is a great businessman there's no doubt there's no doubt but he's also won Super Bowls business doesn't win Super Bowls that's football when super ball goes he'll have business win Super Bowls you feel gates and all those dudes I have Super Bowl they don't have I think you've had a an exaggerated sense of just how hands-on Jerry is as far as dictating to the people who work for him this is how you'll do it Jerry never told me to run a plate never told me who to play he never called a defense or an office I always laughed about people say Jerry comes to the sidelines hold up well it's his sideline people up the damn team who gives a damn I don't have time to look at Jerry I don't see the cheerleaders you don't want me to all these beautiful cheerleaders down and someone sends a bunch of I guess I'm in the ball game we got 60 minutes to play I'm watching 11 players on the field that's our defense I don't give a damn who am I supposed to know who's on the sidelines our dr. Michael Irvin told me the art of smiling in the face of adversity the rougher it was the louder he laughs he was a football player I did sing sometimes against the grain and sometimes I rubbed people the wrong way even through the Cowboys competitively lean years Jerry continued to push for changes that would advance his team and the game there are some business things I think he's spearheaded on the league level that really just changed the game weather was being involved in TV contracts or how teams were marketed how the league was marketed I just think he changed the game and I've heard somebody say this before he's kind of added another zero to everybody who's involved in the National Football League I think that's probably pretty accurate everything he did was with an eye toward the league the marketing you know what he did with Pepsi what he what he did with Nike again people viewed as contentious they're playing a game in New York he invites Phil Knight the lawsuits filed and Phil Knight suddenly pops up in his box and goes down on the field before the game in a game in New York Phil Knight who is the CEO of Nike this is a made major store it will send shock waves throughout the National Football League Jerry came in and created a new paradigm for the NFL and how it makes money I think the concept of marketing really wasn't a one that was given a lot of heft in the National Football League and then Jerry Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys and marketing he did that was the driving force behind our interest in doing those kinds of things with great companies like Pepsi and great companies like Miller beer and AT&T that's where that came from and of course I had hoped that if we could do it well the league could do it well [Music] when I was 21 years old my coach Frank Rawls took the Arkansas Razorbacks to Houston to prepare to play here in Dallas and the Cotton Bowl on New Year's Day and while we were down there to get away from the hoopla and the all the camaraderie that goes on around a bowl game he took us on a field trip to the Astrodome and there hadn't been any event in it or any game played but it was finished we walked in there and I will get emotional but I looked up and [Music] you just couldn't believe it and it felt like you were on Mars and I thought who and where how do how does a man or men or women think of this and where do you start and I remembered that all my life and when I'd see something about the Astrodome I'd read about it consequently 35 years later when I had a chance to be a part of building the venue of AT&T Stadium I didn't have to think could I do it I didn't have to think really a lot about how to do it I knew it could be done and it just shows me when you put in somebody's mind and heart and when they're young how it really lasts all the way up in my case almost 30 years later and they not only do it what they saw then and had put in them in they'd a lot of times do it so much bigger ten days before jerry jones sat down for this interview his coach and friend Frank Broyles passed away at the age of 92 [Music] I'm not a pop psychologist but there's no question relationships are important and the most important relationships in his life for his family his wife Jean and his kids his grandchildren and and he makes no bones about that it's a great example for the rest of us he said a football game on Thursday night a high school football game on Friday night a college football game on Saturday and an NFL game on the weekend where he just loves the game and he loves his family and I think the passion of those two are really what drives him when we first moved to Dallas I was living with my parents in a one-bedroom condo and I had just had my daughter Hayley and my mom had set up the little study with a bed and a crib he didn't have a door have anything on it was practically you know right in the in the living room and you know every night when I put her to bed of course she'd wake up in the middle of the night and need to be fed and cry and all that and my dad would wake up in the middle of night 3 o'clock in the morning 4 o'clock in the morning she ate every hour and every hour he'd come in and it sit on the corner of my bed and it stays there do you think I can do to help you it's like no you can't help with this and he said well then I'm just gonna sit here and keep you company and that compassion is something that you know is the most valuable thing that he has that I enjoy what I would want to carry on with my family is is prioritizing family mom and dad were involved in our lives and the things that we did and they mate made everything they made everything you did seem important and I think that's so instrumental in a family and it's so instrumental and what you do with your life being raised just to believe you can go do something [Music] in 2017 the world was given a bronze reminder of one man's lifelong passion for the game he loves a single symbol that reflects the countless souls that invested in the journey of the solitary man with a dream as big as Texas I think it's short-sighted to think that his legacy is a building or bricks and mortar or stadium or a field it's about inspiration it's about aspiration it's about loving a game it's about having faith in youth and young kids take you to a place that you can't reach on your own and it's about living in a world that you make your dream your reality you know it's real easy to say it's about winning Super Bowls or it's about having a successful franchise on and off the field but I've heard him say so many times that really what he's done since 1989 and done over the last 25 plus years is it's been his time to carry the ball when he first bought the team I think he said it so well I don't really feel like you ever owned the Dallas Cowboys you just get your chance to really run with the ball and manage the team and the fans at the end of the day are the lifeblood of a franchise folks obviously to have had the chance to be a part of this great game use whatever skills that might work to help move the ball forward I don't leave you tonight with one last thank you it's for you the fans I'm a fan you're the heartbeat of the game and the Dallas Cowboy fans are the greatest fans on earth you're here the nights because you love the game guys I'm here because I love it too thank you guys [Applause] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Dallas Cowboys

Views: 45,271

Keywords: dallas, cowboys, dallas cowboys, nfl, football, game, season, jerry jones, jason garrett, dak prescott, ezekielelliott, zeke, offense, defense, coach, amazing, hilarious, funny, catch, pass, talkin, bill, parcells, break, jaylon, smith, know, mas, deep, blue, documentary, hangin, with, the, boys, tony, romo, leighton, vander, esch, demarcus, lawrence, sean, lee, cheerleaders

Id: kpjJsdW663c

Length: 43min 32sec (2612 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 14 2019

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