Jerry Jones' Top 20 Moments
20. On July 18, 1990, the Cowboys began their first training camp in the state of Texas, moving from the previous location of Thousand Oaks, Calif., to St. Edward's University after 27 years.
19. From the start, Jones was considered a maverick owner in the NFL, a guy some thought to be too far outside the box. But on May 1, 1992, Jones was given a seat on the NFL Competition Committee, sanctioning his acceptance into the league by the old guard.
18. The Triplets were forever etched into Cowboys lore as a threesome, Jones in a halftime ceremony on Sept. 19, 2005, inducting Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith into the hallowed Ring of Honor at Texas Stadium.
17. Jones would sign his very first player, the 1989 first pick in the NFL Draft Troy Aikman, on April 20, 1989, prior to the selection day, but it wasn't until Nov. 5, 1989, at RFK Stadium did the Cowboys win their first game of the Jones Era, beating the Redskins 13-3 in the ninth game of the season for what turned out to be their only win that year.
16. The selection and signing of Aikman had a lot to do with this day, March 5, 1993, Jones and the Cowboys shaking hands with President Bill Clinton, the former Arkansas governor, after being invited to the White House to commemorate winning Super Bowl XXVII.
15. Few hires of a head coach become as polarizing as that March 30, 1994 day when Jones hired former Oklahoma head coach Barry Switzer, who had been, as he said, "sitting on his couch" for the past 5 ½ years to become only the third head coach in Cowboys history.
14. After failing in their attempt to win three consecutive Super Bowls, losing the NFC title game in 1994 to San Francisco, Jones signs Niners cornerback Deion Sanders to a lucrative free-agent contract, including a $12.999 million signing bonus since he's superstitious of the No. 13, and Sanders helps the Cowboys that season become the first team to win three Super Bowls in four years.
13. Maybe one of the hardest moments, Jones would have to oversee the ceremony commemorating the final game to be played at Texas Stadium on Dec. 20, 2008, after his club lost a heartbreaking 33-24 decision to the Baltimore Ravens.
12. On a cold Dec. 29, 1991, day at Soldier Field, the Cowboys would defeat the Chicago Bears, 17-13, in a wild-card playoff game for their first playoff victory under Jones and the team's first playoff victory since beating Green Bay, 30-17, on Jan. 16, 1983, during what was known as the Super Bowl Tournament following the strike-shortened 1982 season.
11. Who knew that on April 22, 1990, with the Cowboys frustrated over their inability to select Baylor linebacker James Francis, they would settle for Florida running back Emmitt Smith, who would go on to have a 13-year career with the Cowboys and become the NFL's all-time leading rusher on Oct. 27, 2002, in a game against the Seattle Seahawks at Texas Stadium.
10. Few thought Jones would ever hire an authoritative head coach again, but there he was, on Jan. 2, 2003, announcing Bill Parcells, he of two Super Bowl victories during his coaching career with the New York Giants and another Super Bowl appearance with the New England Patriots. Parcells had been lured out of retirement to become the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
9. This truly was an emotional day and a kick for Jones, presenting Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin on Aug. 4, 2007, in Canton, Ohio, during his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
8. For several years Jones and the Cowboys had been trying to find a spot for a new Cowboys stadium, and that came to an end on Nov. 2, 2004, when the City of Arlington approved a tax referendum to build the stadium just west of the Texas Rangers' ballpark. Less than two years later, on April 10, 2006, ground was broken for the $1.1 billion stadium that is scheduled to open on June 6 of this year with a George Strait-Reba McEntire concert, and will be ready for the opening of the 2009 NFL season.
7. This might have been terribly obscured by winning three Super Bowls, playing in four NFC title games, winning six NFC East titles and having won 12 playoff games, but Jones & Co. almost didn't need a plane to fly home the night of Dec. 15, 1991, they were so elated after beating Philadelphia 25-13 at The Vet to clinch the franchise's first playoff berth since 1985. Might not seem like a lot to most, but to Jones and head coach Jimmy Johnson, this was the validation of all their work since taking over the franchise nearly four years earlier. The celebration on the plane was almost Super Bowl-like, since the 10,000-pound gorilla known as the memory of Landry-Schramm-Brandt-Murchison had finally been erased.
6. Beating Pittsburgh 27-17 on Jan. 28, 1996, to win Super Bowl XXX and become the first team in NFL history to win three Super Bowls in four years, almost took a backseat to Jones and Switzer teaming to win the team's first - and what turned out to be the last - Super Bowl without Johnson as the head coach.
5. Few ever thought this would take place, but in a hotel meeting room in Nashville, Tenn., the Cowboys won NFL approval for the first time on May 22, 2007, to play host to Super Bowl XLV. A Super Bowl would never come to North Texas because of the weather that time of year, but the NFL saw fit to award the region a Super Bowl since the Cowboys were building their 100,000-seat retractable roof stadium in Arlington.
4. This March 28, 1994, day shook and surprised the very foundation of the Dallas Cowboys, Jones announcing at a press conference in the same meeting room in which he was introduced as the next franchise owner just more than five years earlier that he and head coach Jimmy Johnson were parting ways. The two had irritated each other at the NFL Meetings earlier in the month, and after intense negotiations seemed to patch things up, seemingly the owner and head coach deciding to give it a go for another season. But, Jones dropped the bombshell that he and Johnson would be breaking up after winning consecutive Super Bowl titles, as inconceivable as that might have seemed.
3. The considered underdog and too-young Cowboys shocked the world on Jan. 31, 1993, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., by putting a 52-17 whooping on the thought-to-be seasoned Buffalo Bills, who had been to the previous two Super Bowls. After a slow start, the Cowboys overwhelmed the Bills, grabbing a record nine turnovers along the way. This was the Jones-Johnson Era's first Super Bowl title and the Cowboys' third, but first since Super Bowl XII following the 1977 season.
2. At the time, the media and fans were questioning the sanity of Jones and Johnson, the Cowboys announcing on Oct. 12, 1989, not even with their first season under their belt and no victories in their first five games, the trade of Herschel Walker to the Minnesota Vikings. Walker at the time was considered the team's only proven NFL player, but little did anyone know on that particular day, the trade would turn into five players coming over from the Vikings, along with six conditional draft choices that turned into first-round picks in 1990, 1991 and a portion of 1992s pick before all was said and done. This deal was considered the impetus to the Cowboys' pulling out of their 3-13, 1-15 doldrums to becoming the NFL's Team of The 90s.
1. As improbable as it seemed at the time, the guy being identified in the papers the previous couple of weeks as Jerral Wayne Jones, is presented as just the third owner in Cowboys history on Feb. 25, 1989, the Arkansas oilman purchasing the team from Bum Bright for roughly $140 million. Not only did Jones buy the team, sinking every penny he had into a club that at the time was nearly $20 million in debt, but he also simultaneously fired Tom Landry, the only coach in the team's 29-year history, and hired University of Miami head coach Jimmy Johnson, his Arkansas Razorbacks teammate, to become only the second head coach in club history.
