1. Jerry Jones bought the team from Bum Bright in 1989.
50 Facts About Jerry Jones
2.
Jerry Jones was a running back at North Little Rock High School, graduating in 1960.
3.
Jerry Jones attended the University of Arkansas, co-captaining the 1964 national championship football team.
4.
In 1989, Jerry Jones purchased the Dallas Cowboys for $140 million, and swiftly replaced Tom Landry with Jimmy Johnson as the head coach.
5.
Jerry Jones stands out as an NFL owner with a successful football player background.
6.
Jerry Jones played a pivotal role in securing lucrative television deals, contributing to the NFL's financial prosperity.
7.
Jerry Jones influenced team relocations and faced fines from the NFL for public comments on officiating and labor issues.
8.
Jerry Jones has an estimated net worth of $8.5 billion, mainly from his Cowboys ownership.
9.
Jerry Jones was born in Los Angeles, California, to John "Pat" and Arminta Jerry Jones.
10.
Jerry Jones's parents owned two branches of Pat's Super Market in the Rose City neighborhood of North Little Rock.
11.
Jerry Jones was a running back at North Little Rock High School, graduating in 1960.
12.
Jerry Jones attended the University of Arkansas, where he was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity.
13.
Jerry Jones was co-captain of Arkansas' 1964 national championship football team.
14.
Jerry Jones was an offensive lineman for College Football Hall of Fame coach Frank Broyles and a teammate of college football and NFL coach Jimmy Johnson, whom Jones hired as his first head coach after purchasing the Cowboys.
15.
When that venture failed, Jerry Jones was given a job at his father's insurance company, Modern Security Life of Springfield, Missouri.
16.
Jerry Jones received his master's degree in business in 1970.
17.
Jerry Jones's privately held company currently does natural resource prospecting.
18.
In 2008, Jerry Jones formed a partnership with Yankee Global Enterprises to create Legends Hospitality, a food, beverage, merchandise, retail, and stadium operations corporation serving entertainment venues.
19.
Jerry Jones is often vilified by fans who remain bitter at his unceremonious firings of longtime Cowboys personnel who were fan favorites, most notably head coach Tom Landry and personnel chief Gil Brandt, even though the Cowboys had done poorly the last few seasons before Jerry Jones became owner.
20.
Jerry Jones stated he did not give consideration to retaining Landry for even a season, as he said he would not have purchased the team unless he could hire Johnson as coach.
21.
Jerry Jones did not discuss the matter with Landry before announcing the decision.
22.
Since the dismissal, Jerry Jones indicated that he regrets the process of Landry's firing and his role in it.
23.
Consequently, Jerry Jones ousted Johnson after the 1993 season despite two consecutive Super Bowl wins, and refused to induct Johnson into the Cowboys Ring of Honor for 30 years.
24.
On November 19,2023, Jerry Jones announced that Johnson would be inducted into the Cowboys Ring of Honor on December 30 of that year.
25.
Jerry Jones initially promised Bill Parcells, the Cowboys' head coach from 2003 through 2006, complete control over football matters; however, their relationship broke down after Jerry Jones signed controversial wide receiver Terrell Owens.
26.
Jerry Jones stated that working as his own general manager helps streamline decision-making and communication lines with the coaching staff.
27.
Jerry Jones is the subject of the 2008 book Playing to Win by David Magee.
28.
Jerry Jones became involved in the St Louis Rams move back to Los Angeles with Rams owner Stan Kroenke in 2016.
29.
Jerry Jones was a key proponent of the Oakland Raiders' move to Las Vegas to play at Allegiant Stadium.
30.
Jerry Jones was fined $25,000 by the NFL for publicly criticizing referee Ed Hochuli after Hochuli made a call in a game between the San Diego Chargers and the Denver Broncos on September 14,2008.
31.
Jerry Jones made comments both to the press and on his radio show, saying Hochuli was one of the most criticized officials in the NFL.
32.
In 2009, Jerry Jones was fined $100,000 for violating a gag order on labor issues, commenting that revenue sharing was "on its way out".
33.
Jerry Jones "crossed the line", drawing a "six-figure" fine, sources said, as the commissioner distributed a memo to all 32 owners, along with a reminder that the gag order remains in effect.
34.
Jerry Jones was the inspiration for the character Baxter Cain, owner of the Dallas Felons, in the 1998 film BASEketball.
35.
Jerry Jones had a brief cameo appearance as himself in the 1998 made-for-television reunion movie Dallas: War of the Ewings.
36.
Jerry Jones appeared as himself in a 1996 episode of the TV show Coach and in a 2007 television commercial for Diet Pepsi MAX, which featured then Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips and quarterback Tony Romo.
37.
Jerry Jones appeared as himself in the seventh season of the HBO series Entourage in 2010, in an episode of the TNT incarnation of Dallas titled "Truth and Consequences", which aired on July 4,2012, in a series of commercials for the 2012 season of ESPN's Monday Night Football, and in the season 4 premiere of The League.
38.
In 2013, Jerry Jones narrated a documentary film on former teammate and business partner Jim Lindsey.
39.
Jerry Jones appeared in a 2013 Pepsi commercial, walking into an elevator filled with three men wearing New York Giants apparel, who look at him with discontent.
40.
Jerry Jones was parodied on the first episode, "Go Fund Yourself", of the eighteenth season of South Park, along with several other NFL team owners.
41.
In one scene, Jerry Jones is depicted as having huge, bulging chameleon-like eyes, as a young woman's head pops up from his lap.
42.
Jerry Jones appeared as himself in the ninth episode of Landman, titled "Wolf Camp", alongside Billy Bob Thorton and Jon Hamm.
43.
Jerry Jones married Eugenia Chambers in 1963, whom he met while both were college undergraduates.
44.
Jerry Jones revealed in July 2015 at a press conference before Cowboys training camp that he had undergone hip replacement surgery, joking that he would not start the season on the PUP list.
45.
In March 2022, Jerry Jones was served with legal action by a 25-year-old woman who claimed that he is her biological father.
46.
The woman is the daughter of a former airline employee that Jerry Jones met in Little Rock, Arkansas.
47.
Jerry Jones has paid nearly $3 million to the woman and her mother, which included the woman's full tuition at Southern Methodist University and a $70,000 Range Rover on her 16th birthday.
48.
Requests for money and other expenses exceeded the amount that Jerry Jones agreed to pay in the trust agreement between the parties by nearly $1 million over the years, including $33,000 for a "Sweet 16" birthday party, which was featured on the reality TV show Big Rich Texas.
49.
On February 29,2024, a court decision required Jerry Jones to undergo a paternity test concerning the woman's claim.
50.
In November 2022, a 1957 photo surfaced depicting a 14-year-old Jerry Jones witnessing an argument where White students attempted to prevent six African-American students from entering North Little Rock High School in Arkansas.