Listeners and at least one of the hosts on Dallas’ 105.3 The Fan got a lot more than they likely bargained for when Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones made his regular weekly radio appearance on Tuesday.
Fresh off a humiliating 47-9 loss to the Lions on Sunday, Jones bristled and became combative with the hosts after a question about whether he had the right players for his team.
“Well, first of all, where you gonna go to get any players?” Jones shot back. “Seriously? Where are you gonna go to get any players for next week against San Francisco?”
Co-host Shan Shariff then attempted to explain why Jones answered the way he did about acquiring players.
“I think the counter back when you said ‘where are you gonna get the players, you can’t get them this week’ is — and you’re aware of all the offseason topics—” Shariff began.
Jones, apparently not wanting to discuss his lack of offseason moves, cut Shariff off.
“But what is your counter?” Jerry retorted. “What is your damn counter?”
Things spiraled from there.
Listen, let me tell you what I’ll do. Let me tell you what I’ll do about it. I will let us sit down and look at the decisions we’ve made over the last several years, OK? I’ll look at it. Now if you think I’m interested on a damn phone call with you over the radio and sitting here and throwing all the good out with the dishwater, you’d have got to be smoking something over there this morning. I’m not. And I really don’t, and I don’t even want our listeners listening to me talk about — This is not your job. Your job isn’t to let me go over the reasons that I did something, and I’m sorry that I did it. That’s not your job. . . . That’s not your job, or I’ll get somebody else to ask these questions, men. . . . .No, no. I’m not kidding. I’m not kidding.
“You’re not gonna figure out . . . what the team is doing right or wrong. If you are, or any five or ten like you, you need to come to this [ownership] meeting I’m going to today. There’s are 32 teams here. You’re geniuses. . . . You all really think you’re gonna sit here with a microphone and tell me all of the things I’ve done wrong and without going over the rights?
“Now, listen, we both think we’re talking to a lot of great fans and a lot of great listeners. And I am very sorry for what happened out there Sunday. I’m sick about what happened Sunday. And I’m not talking to these yay-hoos on the end of this phone. I’m talking to you, the fans, that are listening this morning. And we can spend a lot of time going over zigging and zagging on the stupidest things I ever done that anybody has ever analyzed is buy the Cowboys. It was an idiot that did that. So idiot things can turn into good decisions. Smart things can turn into bad decisions. The facts are that when you make one, you don’t really know whether it’s gonna be good or not at the time.”
It’s unclear what Jones thinks the radio host’s job is if it’s not to ask questions about the team. True, it’s not a reporter’s job to solve the problems facing the Cowboys. However, it is the host’s job to ask Jones at least some degree of penetrating questions, which may reveal whether Jones knows how to solve the problems.
The Cowboys don’t have to worry about losing this week since they have a bye. However, they play the defending NFC champions, the archrival San Francisco 49ers, the following week. So, Jones has until then to figure it out. That’s his job.
