Jerry Jones will turn 79 years old in three short months, and the larger-than-life Dallas Cowboys czar is experiencing the weight of his own football mortality.
Once the embodiment of NFL success, Jones has not hoisted the Lombardi Trophy since Bill Clinton inhabited the Oval Office, a quarter-century marked by disappointment, disappointment, and — you guessed it, you witnessed it — more disappointment.
All he got was this lousy Zeke shirt.
But despite Dallas’ long stretch of futility, Jones remains much of what he was when he purchased the landmark franchise in 1989: unrestrainedly wealthy, unabashedly original, and undoubtedly desperate. Desperate to reclaim the throne. Desperate to never lose it.
For proof, look no further than Wednesday’s training camp-opening press conference during which an emotional Jones — audibly choked up at times — was asked whether he would make a deal with the devil, willing to undergo such drastic measures, to win another Super Bowl.
And … well, Hell hath no fury like a Jerry scorned.
“I found that he’s not quite as responsive to one’s individual ask as you might think, and I’m not trying to be sacrilegious here, but the facts are that I would right now, if I could, and I knew that I had a good chance to do it, I’d do anything known to man to get in a Super Bowl,” Jones said, via Pro Football Talk. “That’s a fact. There’s nothing, in my mind, that can have a higher priority than that. As you know, sometimes you have to make decisions to go back to step forward, and we’re faced with that in building a squad. You can’t have it all. You see several ways that you might be able to do something from my perspective to get better, but that will end up costing you down the road. That’s the pragmatic part when it goes. I feel as driven as I was when we first bought the team.
“I was scared to death then, and I’m scared to death now. I worry about what’s happened here with the economy and COVID, and I worry about our place in it, in the NFL and where the place is in sports. I worry about that. But the thing that means the most to me and I care about — and I could be anywhere in the world I wanted to be right now — I want to be here with our team.”
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Dallas Inks Sign Entirety of Rookie Class
Hours before Jones took the podium in Oxnard, the team wrapped up its 2021 draft class, signing third-round defensive end Chauncey Golston and third-round cornerback Nahshon Wright.
Golston, chosen No. 84 overall, will earn $660,000 in base salary for the upcoming campaign as part of his four-year pact, per the NFL’s rookie pay scale. He’s projected to take home a $233,925 signing bonus. Wright, the No. 99 overall selection, will also receive $660,000 in base salary while netting a $210,154 signing bonus.
The Cowboys previously got under contract first-round linebacker Micah Parsons, second-round CB Kelvin Joseph, third-round DL Osa Odighizuwa, fourth-round LB Jabril Cox, fourth-round offensive tackle Josh Ball, fifth-round wide receiver Simi Fehoko, sixth-round DL Quinton Bohanna, sixth-round defensive back Israel Mukuamu, and seventh-round offensive guard Matt Farniok.
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Emotional Jerry Jones Utters Desperate Plea for Cowboys Super Bowl