Jerry Jones' fall from grace is his own fault and tragic for Cowboys' legacy
Nobody is more synonymous with the modern NFL than Jerry Jones. The owner of the Dallas Cowboys has been front and center for much of the league's most significant moments since his arrival in 1989. Yet, as we head into the 2022-2023 season, his fall from grace is tragic for his legacy with the Cowboys, and it's entirely self-inflicted.
The Dallas Cowboys' last Super Bowl victory came in 1995 with a win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. The achievement continued the remarkable rise in success America's Team had enjoyed since Jones took ownership of the franchise.
However, it's worth noting that since that day in 1995, the Cowboys have won just four playoff games in 27 years and have never progressed beyond the divisional round.
The 2021 NFL season saw yet another disappointment for the Dallas franchise. The first-ranked offense in the league was totally outclassed by a San Francisco 49ers team that had barely snuck into the postseason.
Quarterback Dak Prescott's comically senseless decision to run and slide with mere seconds left on the game clock brought yet another Dallas Cowboys season to a premature and dismal end. Yet Jerry Jones remains in control.
Speaking to reporters for the first time since free agency opened, Jerry Jones said he had an opportunity to make things work with Randy Gregory and opted not to.
Like he said, who can say how it works out. But the Cowboys are doubling down on using that money on more players. https://t.co/euH1FnW6Kd
Why is Jerry Jones still involved in football decisions?
“Obviously, I’d like to have a young offensive lineman at the positions that could immediately come in and play.”
These were the words of Jerry Jones at the recently held NFL annual meeting in Florida. While we are all familiar with the success Jones' model of the owner/general manager worked in the early days before the introduction of the salary cap, it is staggering that he is still involved to such a great degree.
If the general manager of any other franchise had presided over four playoff victories in almost 30 years, they would be out of a job; in truth, they wouldn't even have been retained in a position for such a poor streak to extend to that length.
Jones, though, remains as involved in the Cowboys' football operations as ever, and it's beyond many as to why that is the case.
Of course, Jones is the owner, and there is no way he is going to step away entirely. But it's challenging to make an argument that he's providing aid to the front office with his interference.
There is something fundamentally wrong with a franchise that can appear so dominant in the regular season but then collapse repeatedly as soon as the playoffs begin.
Jerry Jones' problems are entirely self-inflicted
In the 33 years Jerry Jones has owned the Dallas Cowboys, he has barely been out of the spotlight. At first, it was his evolutionary style of ownership and spending that brought renewed hope and success to the nation's most prominent sports team. Yet, now it is doing nothing but tarnishing his legacy.
While the legal details of his latest scandal are somewhat unclear and ongoing, a paternity suit is being filed against him, which claims he fathered a child out of wedlock back in 1996.
Whether or not you believe the details of the lawsuit are irrelevant, the fact remains that Jerry Jones' incredibly close working ties with the Cowboys ensure that this media frenzy impacts the franchise rather than just himself and his marriage.
Having never been able to separate Jones from the Cowboys, stretching right back to his immediate dismissal of legendary coach Tom Landry, the vast majority of the public now see the Dallas Cowboys and Jerry Jones as one entity, and that isn't healthy.
Every Jerry Jones scandal seems to be centered around him as a person doing something utterly careless. His 1999 arrest for a traffic offense, for instance; and the suggestive images of him and two women at a restaurant that were leaked in 2014.
Perhaps his most poorly thought-out gesture was suggesting that any Cowboys player who took the knee during the American national anthem wouldn't be allowed to play.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on political matters. Still, when you build your entire legacy on being highly intertwined with a franchise, you can't make these comments without it putting unnecessary scrutiny on the team as well.
Jerry Jones on off-field attention: "When you spend 30-something years saying 'Look at us. Hey, wait, wait, you’re looking away...We’re the Cowboys. Look at us.' When it's been that way, then when you have some things you might not want to look at, you get looked at. That's good"
Success is getting further and further away from the Cowboys
A generation of Cowboys fans has never seen their team win a Super Bowl. That number is only going to grow as the Dallas franchise continues to struggle in the postseason.
Jerry Jones' legacy with the Cowboys will be different from his legacy with the NFL. He has been a massive figure for the league, despite his legal actions against them as an organization; however, few Cowboys fans see him as the benevolent winner he appeared to be in the early 90s.
Jerry Jones' reputation within the Dallas franchise is being tarnished. He is being seen as the general manager unafraid of all consequences. He can make decisions on player personnel without recourse and always pin the on-field failings on someone else entirely.
This is precisely why Jerry Jones has never been able to get the elite and brightest young coaches in the sport. Bill Belichick wouldn't work for him. Imagine had he tried to deal with the Wunderkind Twins, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, and their roster control requests?
There is a set type of head coach that will work with Jerry Jones in Dallas, and unfortunately, in the 2022 style of the NFL, those coaches aren't going to win you Super Bowls… and this is showing no sign of changing.
Success for the Cowboys is getting further and further away, while Jerry Jones' reputation with the franchise is becoming a tragic tale of how not to run an NFL team, and it's all his own fault.