From Dynasty To Soap Opera: How Jerry Jones Traded Dallas Cowboys Glory For ‘365 Days Of Sizzle’

On Thursday nighttime successful Philadelphia, nan Dallas Cowboys will guidelines connected nan sideline, helmets nether their arms, while nan Eagles raise a title banner for nan 2nd clip successful 7 years. It will beryllium a ritual drenched successful greenish and silver, an juncture of sweeping civic pridefulness for 1 of nan Cowboys’ fiercest rivals. For Dallas, it will beryllium a reminder successful 50ft letters: 3 decades person passed since America’s Team past won a Super Bowl.

And nan opposition could not beryllium sharper. For while nan Eagles bask successful different triumph and task nan stableness of an statement built for semipermanent success, nan Cowboys stumble into nan play diminished – having conscionable traded distant nan 1 subordinate who seemed tin of bridging nan chasm betwixt their glorious past and uncertain present.

Micah Parsons was not conscionable Dallas’s champion protect player; he was 1 of nan league’s fewer genuine game-wreckers, a two-time All-Pro separator who made quarterbacks rethink plays earlier nan snap. Yet aft a statement conflict spiraled into acrimony and commanded nan pre-season news cycle, Jerry Jones traded Parsons to Green Bay past Thursday for 2 early first-round picks and protect tackle Kenny Clark, a 29-year-old considered connected nan downside from his Pro Bowl peak.

Parsons instantly signed a four-year, $188m hold pinch nan Packers, making him nan highest-paid non-quarterback successful NFL history. Jones insisted he’d offered moreover much guaranteed money – and Parsons’s agent, David Mulugheta, says nan player’s first-choice was to enactment successful Dallas – but nan squabble appears to person ne'er really been astir dollars. Jones had bypassed Mulugheta, trying to agent nan woody one-on-one, arsenic if his sanction and nan prima connected nan helmet were leverage enough. It wasn’t hardball truthful overmuch arsenic hubris: I’m Jerry, we’re nan Cowboys, what much do you need? Parsons didn’t bargain it, and now he’s gone.

“FLEECED” trended connected X wrong minutes of nan news. Packers wide head Brian Gutekunst called it “a large swing”, likening it to Green Bay’s historical free-agent coup of Reggie White. In Dallas, nan daze was much existential. Parsons had been nan astir move Cowboy since DeMarcus Ware; now he was playing for different NFC contender, nan collateral harm successful a beef betwixt Jones and Mulugheta.

“I ne'er wanted this section to end, but not everything was successful my control,” Parsons wrote successful a farewell message. “My bosom has ever been here, and still is.”

Micah Parsons’ acrimonious holdout included nan All-Pro separator rusher slumped connected a training array down nan squad chair during a preseason crippled while nan squad was connected offense. Photograph: Sam Hodde/Getty Images

Jones, arsenic ever, offered his ain spin. He insisted Clark answered a “big concern” connected tally defense and compared nan move to nan Herschel Walker waste and acquisition that had kickstarted nan past Dallas dynasty successful 1989. But nan transportation didn’t land. Clark had been portion of a Packers portion that vanished successful nan bottommost half of nan convention against nan tally past season. Dallas, pinch Parsons, had vanished 28th successful defense past year. Without him, they whitethorn soon redefine nan floor.

It was, successful different words, nan Cowboys distilled: a headline-grabbing transaction pinch nary clear way to a championship. Jerry called it progress. The remainder of nan NFL chalked it up arsenic different section successful nan longest-running soap opera successful US sports.

That has been nan Cowboys’ shape ever since their past title. From 1970 to 1995 they were nan NFL’s ascendant force, appearing successful 14 NFC Championship Games and winning 5 Lombardi Trophies. Since then? Not 1 return travel to nan past four, marking nan longest drought successful nan conference. They’ve had stars, hype and stretches of regular-season success, but each January ends nan aforesaid way: pinch personification other lifting nan trophy.

Over that span, location person ever been whispers that Jones, nan omnipresent proprietor and self-appointed wide manager, prized nan headlines arsenic overmuch arsenic nan wins. In nan early years, he astatine slightest denied it. But past month, astatine a premiere arena successful Los Angeles for a Netflix docuseries astir nan Cowboys, nan 82-year-old seemed to springiness distant nan game.

“I do judge if we’re not being looked at, past I’ll do my portion to get america looked at,” Jones said. “The Cowboys are a soap opera 365 days a year. When it gets slow, I’ll operation it up. Oh, it’s awesome to person nan awesome athletes, person nan awesome players, but there’s thing much there: there’s sizzle, there’s emotion, and, if you will, there’s controversy. That contention is bully worldly successful position of keeping and having people’s attention.”

For nan NFL’s broadcast partners, that whitethorn publication for illustration a ngo statement. For Cowboys fans who person waited since Biggie and Tupac were still live for different parade, it felt much for illustration saying nan quiet portion retired loud.

The past thrust of nan dynasty

When Jones bought nan Cowboys successful 1989, nan Arkansas lipid wildcatter wasted nary clip making himself nan story. He fired Tom Landry, nan stoic fedora-wearing icon who had coached nan squad since its inception, and replaced him pinch University of Miami wunderkind Jimmy Johnson. Together they pulled disconnected the Herschel Walker trade: flipping their champion subordinate to Minnesota for a haul of draught picks that would go Emmitt Smith, Darren Woodson, Russell Maryland and different franchise cornerstones.

Those Cowboys were an irresistible blend of talent and swagger. Quarterback Troy Aikman was a surgeon successful enarthrosis pads, Smith nan metronomic backmost pounding retired yards pinch mechanical certainty pinch wideout Michael Irvin turning each drawback into a thoroughfare fight. From 1992 to 1995, they won 3 Super Bowls successful 4 years, a measurement of power unseen since Lombardi’s Packers.

But moreover amid nan confetti, location were cracks. Jones wanted his props not conscionable arsenic an proprietor but arsenic a shot architect. Johnson, who was doing overmuch of nan existent roster-building, bristled astatine nan limelight-chasing proprietor elbowing successful connected nan credit. After nan 1993 season, Jones said that 500 coaches could person won pinch those players. Less than a twelvemonth later, Johnson was gone.

Smith’s statement squabble that aforesaid twelvemonth besides offered an early glimpse of Jones’s attack to standoffs pinch stars. Coming disconnected consecutive rushing titles, Smith sat retired nan first 2 games of nan 1993 play while seeking a caller deal. The Cowboys mislaid some of them before Jones caved, signing Smith to what was past nan richest moving backmost statement successful convention history. Smith returned, was named nan NFL’s Most Valuable Player that twelvemonth and powered Dallas to 2 much Super Bowl titles. Jones has since pointed to that episode, and later holdouts by Zack Martin, CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott, arsenic impervious he tin outwait immoderate subordinate astatine nan bargaining table. The quality successful 2025 is that his difficult statement pinch Parsons didn’t extremity pinch deescalation and resolution, but a waste and acquisition that shipped nan team’s champion subordinate to Green Bay.

Cowboys proprietor Jerry Jones, left, holds nan Super Bowl trophy arsenic he makes a remark to then-US president Bill Clinton during a 1996 ceremonial for their Super Bowl XXX win. Photograph: Joyce Naltchayan/AFP/Getty Images

Mike Tirico, nan seasoned commentator who will telephone Thursday’s play opener successful Philadelphia for NBC, was successful his first twelvemonth covering nan NFL arsenic a big aliases play-by-play man erstwhile Smith’s saga unfolded. “It was 32 years agone we did nan first NFL Monday nighttime pregame show connected ESPN, and that was nan Emmitt Smith holdout season,” Tirico said past week. “The Cowboys opened that play connected Monday night, sewage blown out, mislaid nan 2nd game, and past Emmitt came back, and they were nan first 0-2 starter to spell triumph a Super Bowl. We’ve been down this roadworthy earlier [with Dallas]. But pinch Micah, it conscionable feels for illustration it has reached an moreover different level – pinch immoderate nonstop animosity here.”

Barry Switzer, Johnson’s aged assemblage rival, took complete and instantly benefited from nan roster he inherited. Dallas won again successful 1995. It would beryllium their last. The exit of Johnson wasn’t conscionable nan extremity of a partnership; it was nan opening of a demolition of a building successful which shot decisions were made without Jones’s manus connected each lever. The dynasty had been built connected clear roles; from present on, it would tally connected Jerry’s terms.

Cris Collinsworth, who will subordinate Tirico successful nan booth connected Thursday, reflected connected nan shift: “You look backmost connected this squad and wherever they were aft winning those 2 Super Bowls, and obviously, nan full Jimmy and Jerry point has been discussed for a long, agelong time. But it was really a unsocial opportunity for a batch of young talent, including young ownership, including a young caput coach that could person gone connected for a long, agelong clip aft that. They’ve been truthful adjacent since – Parcells had them a fumbled threat distant – but it doesn’t consciousness for illustration they’ve ever rather recaptured nan earthy emotion of those early 90s teams.”

Which is why nan Parsons waste and acquisition landed pinch specified bitter irony. In 1989, Jones had traded a superstar and built a dynasty. In 2025, he traded a superstar and convinced nary 1 that different was coming.

From contenders to contented mill

The years aft nan past Super Bowl were messy connected and disconnected nan field. The roster aged, nan extent evaporated and nan headlines sewage louder. In 1996, Irvin was arrested for cocaine possession successful a edifice room pinch “two self-employed models”, a lawsuit that produced much tabloid column-inches than touchdowns. Switzer resigned a twelvemonth later aft being caught pinch a loaded .38-caliber revolver astatine an airdrome and overseeing a dismal 1997 campaign.

Jones’s coaching hires shrank successful stature. Chan Gailey, nan erstwhile Steelers violative coordinator, made nan playoffs doubly but near aft 2 seasons. His astir celebrated infinitesimal mightiness beryllium his reluctance to draught Randy Moss successful 1998, a determination that haunted Dallas for years.

Next came Dave Campo, a likeable protect coordinator who had ne'er been a caput coach. Under him, nan Cowboys went 5-11 3 consecutive seasons, cycled done Quincy Carter, Chad Hutchinson and Ryan Leaf astatine quarterback, and traded 2 first-round picks for receiver Joey Galloway – a costly woody that helped push Deion Sanders retired nan door.

The Cowboys’ extended descent from nan NFL’s elite people to also-rans began nether Chan Gailey … Photograph: Paul K Buck/AFP/Getty Images

… and past Dave Campo. Photograph: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

By nan early 2000s, Dallas were stuck successful an personality crisis. They still called themselves America’s Team, but nan on-field merchandise was unremarkable. What did sell, however, were stories: nan chaos of nan late-90s locker room, nan nostalgia for past stars and Jones’s changeless beingness successful beforehand of a microphone. The Cowboys were drifting toward nan “365 days a year” exemplary earlier he’d ever put it successful those words.

The presence of Bill Parcells successful 2003 concisely changed nan tone. Parcells, a Hall of Famer, reintroduced subject – rookies had to “earn nan star” connected their helmets – and constructed a top-10 defense. But backmost instability hobbled nan project. Carter was dismissed aft failing aggregate supplier tests, quadragenarian Vinny Testaverde had a stopgap twelvemonth nether center, and a faded Drew Bledsoe couldn’t extremity nan slide.

Then came Tony Romo. An undrafted free supplier from Eastern Illinois, Romo seized nan occupation successful 2006 and instantly became 1 of nan NFL’s astir breathtaking quarterbacks. But his defining infinitesimal came that aforesaid play successful a wildcard playoff crippled astatine Seattle: serving arsenic nan holder connected a short section extremity to triumph nan game, he fumbled nan threat and was tackled conscionable awkward of nan goalline. The fiasco was replayed endlessly. It was nan benignant of viral heartbreak that keeps a squad successful nan nationalist speech agelong aft nan last whistle – precisely nan benignant of play Jones celebrates.

Tony Romo laments his fumble that costs nan Cowboys a playoff triumph successful a 2006 wildcard title successful Seattle. Photograph: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

Jones doubled down by signing Terrell Owens, nan league’s astir combustible prima caller disconnected a messy divorcement pinch archrivals Philadelphia, successful 2006. It made for gripping TV – sideline blow-ups, misty-eyed property scrums – but not sustained playoff success. A 13-3 play successful 2007 ended pinch a location nonaccomplishment to nan New York Giants, who went connected to triumph nan Super Bowl. In 2008, nan regular play came down to a azygous crippled successful Philadelphia wherever nan victor precocious to nan playoffs and nan loser went home. The Eagles didn’t conscionable win; they obliterated Dallas 44-6, a stomping truthful memorable successful Philly that it was scripted into nan climax of Silver Linings Playbook.

All of it was nan benignant of humiliation that, successful nan Cowboys’ universe, doubled arsenic a contented bonanza: shame connected nan scoreboard, saturation connected nan airwaves.

By 2009, Jones had fixed his worldview beingness form. AT&T Stadium – instantly christened Jerry World – opened successful Arlington arsenic nan largest, astir costly shot venue connected earth, crowned by copy video boards nan size of metropolis blocks. A $1.3bn monument to nan belief that sizzle matters arsenic overmuch arsenic silverware, it was capable to pull a Super Bowl, wrangle awesome prizefights distant from Las Vegas, and moreover came wrong a hairsbreadth of landing nan 2026 World Cup final. The Cowboys person yet to scope a convention title nether its retractable roof, but that’s almost beside nan point. With 100,000 fans crammed successful and replays flashing successful Imax scale, nan building itself became nan attraction: different reminder that for Jones, nan spectacle has ever been nan product.

But complete nan adjacent decade, Manny Pacquiao won much fights successful Jones’s individual coliseum than Dallas won playoff games. Jason Garrett took complete midway done 2010, and nan Cowboys entered a agelong of shot purgatory: 8-8 successful 2011, 2012 and 2013, each twelvemonth losing a de facto playoff crippled successful Week 17. They had talent – Dez Bryant was emerging arsenic 1 of nan league’s champion receivers – but nan defense lagged behind, and nan January glory ne'er arrived.

The McCarthy era and nan Netflix truth

In 2014, everything seemed to align. The violative statement was nan league’s best, DeMarco Murray led nan NFL successful rushing, while nan defense climbed into nan mediate of nan pack. Dallas went 12-4, won a playoff crippled complete Detroit and had a changeable successful Green Bay. On 4th down precocious successful nan game, Bryant made a spectacular leaping drawback wrong nan Packers’ five-yard statement – aliases truthful it seemed. After review, officials ruled it incomplete. “Dez caught it” became a rallying cry, a grievance, and different off-season contented cycle.

Injuries wrecked 2015, but successful 2016 Romo’s backmost wounded cleared nan measurement for rookie Dak Prescott. Alongside chap rookie Ezekiel Elliott, Prescott led Dallas to a 13-3 grounds and nan NFC’s No 1 seed. Once again, it ended astatine location to Aaron Rodgers and nan underdog Packers, connected a pinpoint sideline propulsion that group up a game-winning section goal.

Garrett’s teams remained competitory but couldn’t transverse nan divisional-round barrier. In 2019, they outscored opponents by 113 points yet missed nan playoffs entirely, a statistical anomaly tailor-made for sports power fodder.

Three of nan Cowboys’ astir sadistic playoff losses successful caller years person travel against nan Green Bay Packers, including doubly astatine dense favorites astatine home. Photograph: Michael Owens/Getty Images

Mike McCarthy replaced Garrett successful 2020, bringing a Super Bowl ringing from Green Bay and, briefly, an violative renaissance. From 2021 to 2023, Dallas won 12 games each year, classed among nan league’s champion defenses and saw Prescott station profession numbers. But nan endings were familiar: a botched backmost draw pinch nary clip near against San Francisco, different playoff nonaccomplishment to nan 49ers, and yet a 48-32 location humiliation by Jordan Love’s Packers.

Through it all, Jones ne'er stopped feeding nan contented machine. Every draught pick, each coaching rumor, each sideline changeable was portion of nan reality show. This year, he hired Brian Schottenheimer aft a conspicuously agelong search, a first-time caput coach whose main qualification seemed to beryllium keeping Jones’s powerfulness intact.

Collinsworth, now successful his 17th twelvemonth arsenic NBC’s analyst, sees a acquainted ceiling: “I deliberation astir Mike McCarthy. Out of nan 5 years, Dak Prescott has played 3 of them, and they won 12 games each 3 times. Dak was 2nd successful MVP balloting conscionable a mates of years ago. If he’s correct physically, if George Pickens offsets a small for CeeDee Lamb, and if that rebuilt violative statement pinch 3 No 1 draught choices tin enactment healthy, there’s an upside. But defensively, pinch nan injuries and now without Micah, they’ll person to outscore people. The unit is connected nan discourtesy to transportation this team.”

The Jones ceiling

The drought successful northbound Texas is nary mean barren spell. The NFL is designed to propulsion everyone backmost toward nan middle: nan draught steers nan champion prospects to nan worst teams, nan schedule softens for those who struggle, nan difficult net headdress is built to forestall runaway dynasties and a strategy of gross sharing fills everybody’s coffers. It’s baked into league’s business model: a benignant of gridiron socialism meant to guarantee each metropolis a move astatine hope, keeping fans engaged, loyal and spending. In a strategy wherever moreover basket-case franchises usually rhythm backmost into contention wrong a decade, nan Cowboys’ 30-year exile from nan NFC title crippled is little a slump than a defiance of elemental forces.

The Cowboys’ problems spell beyond nan schematic. Former NFL defender Uche Nwaneri, who had a little stint successful Dallas, described a “circus environment” wrong nan facility: slogans astir prestige connected each wall, players treated arsenic if they were defending champions successful “an alternate universe”, moreover arsenic nan remainder of nan convention saw a squad pinch 1 playoff triumph successful a decade.

The Parsons debacle followed a acquainted script: Jones overestimating his leverage, dragging retired negotiations and miscalculating nan market. He’d played nan brinksmanship crippled earlier – pinch Elliott, Lamb, Prescott and others – only this time, nan subordinate walked.

Jones moreover bragged to Irvin connected a podcast that Parsons’s supplier had told him to “stick it up [his] ass.” He insisted fans should “not suffer immoderate sleep” complete a waste and acquisition request. But successful nan end, it was Jones who flinched, sending distant nan Cowboys’ champion subordinate astatine nan worst imaginable time. The hard, acold truth: for each nan Netflix myth-making and “365 days a year” tabloid fodder, nan Cowboys went to furniture past Thursday farther from ending their 30-year Super Bowl drought than erstwhile they woke up.

And yet, for each nan stagnation, nan Cowboys stay nan NFL’s biggest draw. The America’s Team nickname, coined successful 1978, has survived slumps, scandals and serial underachievement. The Thanksgiving tradition, nan colossal screens astatine AT&T Stadium, nan cheerleaders (a franchise successful their ain right), nan coast-to-coast instrumentality guidelines – each of it feeds into nan brand.

Cowboys proprietor Jerry Jones attends nan premiere of Netflix’s America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys astatine nan Egyptian Theatre successful Los Angeles this month. Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty Images

Are they still America’s Team? Perhaps now much than ever. They’ve go nan emblem of a fading empire, adjacent parts spectacle and self-delusion, nan clearest distillation of US sports culture: a convention wherever nan scoreboard matters little than nan stagecraft, wherever Forbes valuations are bandied astir unironically for illustration championships, and wherever story endures moreover erstwhile nan trophy lawsuit gathers dust. The Cowboys are surviving impervious that successful American sport, story tin subsume commerce and civilization tin overwhelm competition. The dumbest timeline, rendered successful metallic and blue.

Jones is some nan designer and nan ceiling of nan Cowboys. His early bet connected Johnson produced a dynasty; his refusal to relinquish power has produced astir 3 decades of almosts. The Parsons waste and acquisition sharpened nan paradox. It wasn’t a maestro people successful speech but a reminder of Jones’s worldview: that being Jerry, and being nan Cowboys, ought to beryllium enough. For 30 years it hasn’t been.

And arsenic Thursday nighttime will punctual everyone, 1 of Dallas’s top rivals is now nan 1 raising banners. For Eagles fans, it’s schadenfreude beyond a city’s wildest dreams; for Cowboys fans, it’s torment. For Jones, it’s different nighttime successful nan spotlight, triumph aliases lose. The soap opera goes on. The sizzle remains. The silverware, not truthful much.