Jerry Jones will be chronicled in a new 10-part documentary series on Netlfix, the streaming service announced on May 15th. There will be plenty to chronicle. The boy from Arkansas has had quite a life as a college football player, self-made billionaire, and owner of one of the most valuable sports franchises, if not the most valuable sports franchise, in the world.
Jerry Jones is the Subject of an Upcoming Netflix Series
Netflix has produced a wide range of original documentaries, including Last Chance U, Making a Murderer, and Wild Wild Country. The series is produced in association with NFL Films and was reportedly acquired by Netflix for close to $50 million. Debate has already ensued as to whether the content will be hard-hitting or on the other hand, PR for Jerry Jones.
The main character is complex enough for a full treatment. Jones was introduced to the larger public in 1989 when he purchased the Dallas Cowboys. He then proceeded to unceremoniously fire legendary head coach Tom Laundry, the only coach in the team’s storied history, and not long after he showed general manager Tex Schramm the door. The Cowboys were then fully his.
Despite the fact that the organization had been floundering for most of the 80’s, Jones’s hostile takeover caught the ire of fans and media, especially after the 1-15 finish in the first season under his ownership. But the band-aid had been ripped off, the Cowboys got some prime draft picks, and head coaching duties had been handed over to Jones’s Arkansas Razorback teammate and highly successful college coach Jimmy Johnson.
The second season began the built-up which eventually culminated in the 1992 Super Bowl Championship, followed by another Super Bowl Championship the next season. The early Jones era teams were led by Troy Aikman, Emmit Smith, and Michael Irvin, household names now nearly synonymous with the Cowboys. But the first signs of trouble started with the departure of head coach Jimmy Johnson, though the coaching reigns were placed in the competent hands of another former Razorback and college coaching legend, Barry Switzer.
Switzer’s first season saw the Cowboys failing to make the Super Bowl, losing to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship game, but returning to the Super Bowl in his second year, defeating the Pittsburg Steelers for three franchise championships in four seasons. The following season is when the wheels started to come off. Michael Irvin was suspended for five games of the 1996 season after pleading no contest to felony cocaine possession, and even Switzer had a run-in with the law for possessing a firearm in his luggage at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
Rumors of a rift between quarterback Troy Aikman and Switzer were swirling. The product on the football field continued to regress. The 1997 season was a losing one, and Switzer resigned at the conclusion of the regular season schedule. After the Switzer era, the Cowboys wouldn’t win a playoff game again until 2010 and haven’t returned to the NFC Championship game.
Jones himself has been no stranger to controversy. It starts with Super Bowl winning coach Jimmy Johnson leaving because of allegedly not being given sufficient control over the team due to Jones’s tampering. Further, Jones has been fined several times by the NFL for anything from publicly criticizing referees to violating a gag order on labor issues.
But Jones’s contributions are not all bad, and even some of the bad are pretty entertaining. For his familiarity in Dallas and his generosity toward the University of Arkansas athletic program, (he was instrumental in Arkansas’ hiring of John Calipari) he is known simply as “Jerry” in Dallas and in his home state. Jones appeared on the HBO series Entourage in 2010 and shows up in many pop-culture contexts.
In the aftermath of the Colin Kaepernick controversy in which he knelt on the sideline for the playing of the national anthem, Jones tried to split the baby by joining arms with the team and taking a knee before the national anthem. One can see and feel his logic, but it fell flat. In an interview in 2015, Jones confirmed that he attempted to borrow millions of dollars in 1966 from the Teamsters Union in order to buy the San Diego Chargers.
Unsurprisingly, back in 2003, Jones was named the most disliked sport personality by Sports Illustrated. Nevertheless, Jones has exalted the Cowboys brand over the decades. He purchased the organization for 140 million in 1989, and now it’s worth over 9 billion dollars.
The move from the old Texas Stadium to state-of-the-art AT&T Stadium which hosts major events including college football championship games, and the opening of Cowboys Fit health club alongside the team’s practice facility in Frisco, TX near the new location of the Professional Golf Association, has the organization on the cutting edge of sports businesses. Now all they need to do is to win again. There is no official release date yet for the series.
