Cowboys’ Jerry Jones: Important to ‘put the show on’ with full 16-game schedule

Jerry Jones may well be the league’s ultimate salesman. And what he’s selling right now- hard- is not just the notion that there will be a full 16-game season. It’s that there needs to be a full 16-game season.

To hear Jerry tell it, an NFL season is critical to the health and the psyche of a nation. America’s Team, he believes, could actually save America.

The billionaire owner held court Wednesday during a state-of-the-team press conference, held virtually for media members covering the club. And a day after two of the biggest conferences in college football scrapped their seasons amid the COVID-19 crisis, Jones was adamant that the NFL and the Cowboys are moving full speed ahead with a full 2020 schedule.

“Our very game is about getting prepared fundamentally for the unexpected,” Jones stated early on in his remarks. “We’re looking forward to playing all of our home games as well as our complete schedule.”

Jones is, of course, an optimist. It’s hard to imagine him being anything but encouraged about the prospect of a full season. He’s all about good spin, trending upward, and silver linings. But the more Jones spoke about these uncertain times for football and even more uncertain times for the public at large, it became apparent that the most powerful man in the NFL believes pro football is exactly what the American people need to combat the coronavirus.

“Our country really does place football,” Jones offered, “whether it’s misplaced or not, at a very high level. Consequently, it is important. I think it is important individually, but I think it’s important in the country. I know the debate going on. I can easily see how X percent of the people would be for: it’s just not worth the kinds of effort, risk, whatever, that’s going to go on. I believe it is. The NFL can be an exciting- when I say exciting, it can be an inspirational- part of how we address COVID, not only the remainder of this year, but as we go into ’21. So it’s a big enough deal for me to look at cost in every way, and obviously, cost usually is associated with financial, but it’s easy for me to justify for the long-term of interest in football and the long-term thing that competitive sports bring to the table and what it can bring to the country. It’s worth it to make the effort for us to have a complete season, and I want to do it in front of our fans.”

Leave it to Jones the businessman to view a global pandemic as a golden opportunity. And leave it to Jones the showman to see his product as the golden ticket.

“There’s a 50/50 debate about whether or not to go back to school or not. There’s a 50/50 debate or so about wearing masks. All of this presents challenges because we’ve asked this country in our own way, ‘Look at football. Look at the Dallas Cowboys.”

At a time when other sports have closed down and scaled back, when movie theaters remain shuttered, when Broadway has gone dark, and concerts are just a memory of what used to be, Jones sees an empty stage, just waiting for the next blockbuster act.

“It’s very important to understand how fabulous that the NFL has evolved to where we are such a premiere part of the economic scene and of the scene of providing that entertainment, really, chiefly through television,” Jones told the media. “It is important to everyone concerned, the futures of players, it’s important to the futures of coaches, it’s important to everybody concerned that what we do right now is put the show on. Just from that standpoint, put the show on.”

But Jones is also a pragmatist. He knows that all the rehearsals of training camp practices can’t guarantee against having to improv when the lights come up, especially if the virus takes a serious turn.

“At the end of the day,” Jones said, “we want great games. And we want great games starting out there in the Los Angeles Coliseum [sic]. Are we going to be ready to go if for any reason they call us a week before and we’ve got to do it a little differently? You bet we’re going to be ready to go.”

While allowing that there will almost certainly be bumps along the way, Jones sounds like a man committed to moving forward. He seems convinced that helping the Cowboys and the NFL somehow navigate the surreal 2020 season will end up being a key part of his football legacy.

“It can be an exciting time. It’s one that I really do want to be able to say, ‘Man, I was a part of something very different and very special. 2020: what a time to remember. And boy, did we do some good.’ That’s what I’d hope to say in the future.”

If he can salvage a season. If he can provide some degree of normalcy to a country that has almost forgotten what that looks like. Maybe, if Jerry Jones has his way, the Dallas Cowboys really can win over a nation in need of a champion… simply by winning some football games.

Just put the show on.

“I don’t know of anyone in the league,” Jones confided, “that doesn’t realize how important it is to us to have a season and have these games on. And our fans will benefit from that … And the way to get this done and how to get the show out here so that we can put these games on and have a Super Bowl champion, all of that is very, very critical from that standpoint. What drives it? The interest that we have from fans all over the country. This should be a great time. It makes our future if we can solve this problem and do what we want to do here. It really adds to what I want to be a part of for our fans and fans of football in the future. So it’s very important that we realize that everybody realizes, ‘Let’s do what it takes. Let’s be diligent about it. There’s a lot at stake here to put these games on.’”

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