Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones started his Tuesday morning with his usual radio spot, but he appeared to be fed up with the criticism lobbed at him after the team’s poor start.
On his 82nd birthday, Jones was forced to watch the Cowboys suffer their worst home loss since 1988. The Detroit Lions piled on 47 points while Dallas only scored nine.
Jones was asked on "Shan & RJ" on Audacy's 105.3 The Fan why the players who have failed to execute in the losses to the Lions and the New Orleans Saints are "still the right ones for your team." In response, Jones defended his players and noted the number of injuries the team has faced in recent weeks. He said the team didn’t step up enough and "we paid the consequences for it."
Jones said he didn’t want to hear about getting players in the offseason.
"Don’t tell me about, ‘Should’ve gotten a guy in the offseason.’ This isn’t a damn argument just because… I’m dealing with how we line up against San Francisco, not what I did wrong last week, last month or two months ago or two years ago.
"If I really gave you guys a list of all the things I’ve done wrong over the last few years, you could be on this program for the next five years steady and go over it. But every now and then you do some right things and at the end of the day, you add it up, and the rights give you a better spot than the wrongs.
"But if you think for any minute right now… there’s one Super Bowl champion. What did the others do wrong? There’s one Super Bowl champion, and we want to be that champion, and I’m sure not throwing in the towel today because of what happened out there Sunday. But I’m not going to sit here and waste a lot of energy and a lot of time on, ‘Let’s talk about what I should’ve done back in 1907 or 2017.’ I don’t have time on this great show for looking back on decisions."
As the radio hosts pressed further, Jones got more serious and threatened to replace the hosts.
Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy and quarterback Dak Prescott watch play during the Detroit Lions game in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
"This is not your job," Jones said. "Your job isn’t to let me go over all the reasons that I did something and that ‘I’m sorry that I did it.’ It’s not your job. Y’all (do your job) or I’ll get another to ask these questions.… I’m not kidding.
"You’re not going to figure out what the team is doing right or wrong. If you are, or any five or 10 like you, you need to come to this meeting I’m going to today with 32 teams here – you’re geniuses.… Y’all really think you’re going to sit here with a microphone and tell me all of things that I’ve done wrong without going over the rights."
Jones did admit he was "sick" over Sunday’s result. He tried to make his point by saying one of the "stupidest" decisions he made was buying the team in the first place – but it turned out to be a good one.
"One of the stupidest things I’ve ever done was buying the Cowboys," he said. "It was an idiot that did that. So, idiot things can turn into good decisions. Smart things could turn into bad decisions. That facts are that when you make one, you don’t really know whether it’s going to be good or not at that time."
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones during training camp at the River Ridge Playing Fields in Oxnard, California, July 26, 2024. (Jason Parkhurst-USA Today Sports)
Dallas is 3-3 on the season entering the bye week. The team has made the playoffs each of the last three seasons but has not made the NFC Championship since the 1995 season.
