Al Michaels, the famed NBC Sports broadcaster, recalled the day in September 1995 when Jerry Jones would unveil Nike’s sponsorship of his Dallas Cowboys, dramatically bucking the NFL — which at the time had a national deal with Pro Line licensees Reebok, Champion, Starter, Logo Athletic and Wilson — and banned clubs from signing their own deals.
Jones, who circumvented NFL rules by earmarking the deal for Texas Stadium instead of the franchise, invited Michaels to a suite at the St. Regis in Manhattan the afternoon before the Cowboys played the New York Giants under the glare of “Monday Night Football.”
“He was going to do it in typical Jerry Jones fashion. He wasn’t going to announce it in a press release, but he and [Nike Chairman] Phil Knight were going to go walking arm and arm on the sideline in the second quarter,” Michaels told the audience at the 10th annual Sports Business Awards last week, as part of his introduction of Jones for the Lifetime Achievement Award. “I said, ‘Yeah, this is all well and good, but you do know Park Avenue. There will be an earthquake on Park Avenue.’”
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Jerry Jones enjoys an ovation as he accepts his Lifetime Achievement Award.
Photo by: MARC BRYAN-BROWN
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As Jones would prove time and again, he did not care if he ruffled feathers at NFL headquarters.
“It is going to create shock waves, no question about that. You are changing the whole paradigm of the NFL here,” Michaels recalled telling Jones. And he had another concern: If the game was tight and exciting, he might not have much chance to lay out what Jones was doing.
“Leave it to Jerry to have his team win 35 to nothing, which gave us all night to talk about it.”
Of course, history proved Jones right, as teams today can sign their own deals and the leagues keep national ones.
The Nike deal exemplifies why Jones won the award: He thinks big, takes risks and is not afraid to change the way things are done.
Jones recalled when he came into the NFL, “the thing to do was use it as a hobby,” he said of other owners. Jones had other ideas, unwilling to lose the $100,000 a day the team was bleeding in 1989.
“There is no joy in Mudville when you are rounding the bases and you are losing your ass,” he told the awards audience, which laughingly lapped up his humor.
Time and time again Jones has dreamt big, whether it’s AT&T Stadium or the new $1.5 billion headquarters complex in Frisco, Texas. Michaels recalled the days when some teams practiced in dilapidated facilities, and now the Cowboys’ Star complex in Frisco has completely turned that upside down with a mixed-used development tethered to where a football team practices.
Even in the teeth of the recession in 2008 and 2009, Jones plowed ahead, opening AT&T Stadium with mountains of debt and collapsing markets facing him. That worked out, too, with the venue such a cash cow that the team is largely clear of debt, and it’s now considered one of the top facilities in the world.
In his comments, Jones touched on how important family is in his success. His children — Stephen, Charlotte and Jerry Jr. — all are key executives with the team. They sat smiling as he accepted the award, along with his wife of 54 years, Gene. At the table next to them was Jones’ friend, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his wife, guests of Genesco Sports Enterprises, a Cowboys adviser. Nearby was former head of NBC Sports, Dick Ebersol, who shared many TV negotiations with Jones.
