OXNARD, Calif. — Jerry Jones finds himself in a Pro Football Hall of Fame time rift.
Not that the Cowboys owner is unhappy about receiving the game’s highest individual honor during Saturday night’s ceremony in Canton, Ohio. Jones, though, knows enshrinement into the Hall is usually the final chapter of the honoree’s gridiron biography.
The past five owners and/or team executives selected — Eddie DeBartolo Jr., Bill Polian, Ron Wolf, Bill Parcells and Ralph Wilson — were no longer working in the league or distanced from day-to-day operations.
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That isn’t an accident. Hall voters (which I was, for seven years) are reticent to champion those still active on a team, or potentially so, because of how their return could impact the overall body of work already complied. Polian was so concerned about having his Hall candidacy torpedoed in 2015 that he dropped out of consideration for a top executive role with the Bills.
In this case, the Jones book isn’t close to completion. The 74-year-old Jones shows no signs he will cede his roles as the franchise’s president and general manager to his son Stephen or a family outsider any time soon.
Jones made a point of saying so when discussing the challenges of preparing his upcoming induction speech.
“The memories recapping and looking back, my remarks I wanted to include have been very enjoyable,” Jones told co-host Gil Brandt and I last week on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “But at the end of the day I can’t say enough about what I think of the future.
“I know how lucky I am to have gotten to this point, but I really believe that my story is about what it is in the coming years.”
Jones’ standing in the Hall won’t be affected by whatever unfolds — heck, even O.J. Simpson remains a member — but his legacy will be.
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Although the Cowboys have won three Super Bowls since Jones became owner in 1989, the debate will always rage about who deserves the bulk of the credit for the personnel moves that made Dallas a powerhouse in the early-to-mid 1990s: Jones or coach Jimmy Johnson.
Jones can fully distance himself from Johnson’s shadow if the Cowboys can capture another Lombardi Trophy under their current front-office configuration. While he has entrusted the Stephen Jones-led front office and coach Jason Garrett with ample responsibilities, Jones unquestionably retains final say over major decisions that have impacted the team both positively and negatively through the post-Johnson era.
Jones’ philosophy toward some of the off-field trouble, drug suspensions and controversy involving his players remains the same as well. Simply put, someone known for having a good time himself isn’t going to tell his players they can’t do the same within reason.
Jones joked that if it isn’t “serial killing” or “any type of breaking the law” than he isn’t worried about a trickle-down effect on the Cowboys’ performance.
“I’ve never, not one time in my career, seen off-the-field (behavior) and concern about it affect the play or how a player plays,” Jones said. “Now, I’ve seen it impact how we play if it reduces availability of a player, his ability to get out there. You could make a case there.
“But as far as all this off-the-field stuff, I could tell you first-hand when I played (at the University of Arkansas in the 1960s) all I could think about was that guy in front of me and my assignment and not messing it up. That’s it. What was going on in the outside world or for that matter right over on the sideline was the farthest thing from my mind.”
Whether this approach has factored into the Cowboys winning only two playoff games since 1998 is debatable. What’s undisputable is the main reason Jones was tapped for the Hall: his impact on how the NFL conducts its business.
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The Cowboys were on the verge of bankruptcy when Jones purchased the team in '89. Forbes Magazine recently valued the Cowboys at an NFL-high $4 billion.
Jones also helped make his peers richer by providing expertise that allowed the NFL to secure monster deals from TV networks and open untapped revenue streams. Asked about what he envisions for the NFL’s financial future, Jones pointed to upcoming technological changes that would impact how fans consume the product.
“I’ve always known that only 7 percent of NFL fans have ever been inside a stadium,” Jones said. “The majority watch it through television. … No one knew that the fragmentation of television — that is going from three channels to where you might have several hundred — would make the NFL that much more valuable, that much more substantive, that much more influential if you will.”
Jones also hinted at what may be an NFL rebranding in light of the health and safety issues that have damaged football’s popularity. Jones believes the progress being made toward addressing injuries will make the NFL distinguish itself in terms of promoting safety while still being the place "where the men play" and "where it does get physical."
Still, one thing that remains unchanged for Jones is his perpetual optimism about the Cowboys that surfaces at the start of every preseason. Beside the impressive talent that Dallas has assembled — led by second-year quarterback Dak Prescott — Jones is bullish on Garrett and his coaching staff making sure the 2017 Cowboys don’t rest on their laurels after last year’s 13-3 season.
“I think the success of last year and the failure of the year before have given (the coaches) insight and a lesson, whatever you want to call it, in how to maybe take advantage this year,” Jones said. “We’ve got some young players that can play and play right now. And I think we’ve got them in spots that we can live with as they learn.
“Now, by the way, I sure wouldn’t have said that about Dak Prescott at quarterback last year. But boy, look what happened there.”
Chalk that up as another reason why Jones continues to look ahead — rather than behind — as his Canton coronation approaches.
Alex Marvez can be heard on SiriusXM NFL Radio from 3 to 6 p.m. ET Saturday at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
