Cowboys’ Charlotte Jones reflects on family journey since buying team, documentary
When the Dallas Cowboys open the NFL season against the Philadelphia Eagles, many fans will have seen the Netflix documentary on Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. In a revealing one-on-one interview, Meredith Land sits down with Jerry Jones’ daughter, Charlotte, co-owner and Chief Brand Officer of the team.
Jones talks about what happened behind the scenes and the many struggles the family has faced after buying the team.
Charlotte Jones says she distinctly remembers the moment her father, Jerry Jones, gathered the family together to announce that he wanted to buy the Dallas Cowboys.
“Yeah, this is crazy,” Jones recalls thinking at the time. The reality set in for Charlotte and the family with the very first news conference. “I know my Dad totally respected the tradition of what the Cowboys were all about in the NFL. I’m not sure that we did, that I actually did understand the significance until that day at that press conference, of like,‘ oh my gosh, we are messing with people’s heart, with their passion.’ That the team was much more than just a team. It was a source of pride for everyone and just kind of, you know, it was like a culture and for us to kind of drop in the middle of it and blow it up that way, that was hard, and you know, the haters were loud,” Jones said.
The critics have not eased up, but those first years were especially tough, she acknowledges. “At the time, to understand the risk of everything we had, I mean, everything we had went into buying the team. It’s the only time my Dad has ever underestimated anything to us. He said, ‘You know, if I do this, this just may change our life a little.’ And those words just echo, you know, constantly in my mind because wow, what a change it has been.”
The change for the family and the game has been monumental.
The Netflix special dug into how the family worked to market and monetize the franchise.
Looking back on the documentary, Jones says there are things that she doesn’t like in the portrayal of her father.
“You know, I think the thing that I don’t love that I think people continue to think is that he’s only about the money. This was never about the money. It was always about pursuing something that he is ultimately, his ultimate passion, and how much he actually loves the game and wanted to be around the game, wanted to be involved in the game. The money part of it was to hold on to the passion and then build upon that. And so those are the steps of risk that he took,” Jones said.
When asked about critics constantly suggesting that Jerry step away from the role of general manager, Jones said, “It’s funny. We probably have had that conversation a thousand times. I’m sure. I think what people don’t actually understand either, is that he may be the final say, but the collaboration that he participates in, that he absorbs, is truly amazing.
He will not make a unilateral decision on his own. Whether it’s at the draft and he’s listening to the scouts and the coaches, and he’s basically the tiebreaker.
He’s always been that way. I think people think that he goes in there and is like, ‘this is what we’re doing and we’re going to do this and I don’t care what you think,’ and I’ve never seen him do that on anything.”
Jones says working for the family business hasn’t always been easy, and there have been many tough times.
“I remember I got fired when we were building the Star, and we were spending too much money. Jerry said, ‘You can’t have any money.’ So then I dialed it all back down. I’m like, ‘okay, this is what it’s going to look like.’
And he goes, ‘It has to look a lot better than that. You better go spend that money to make it look better than that.’ So I was like, ‘wait, ‘you just told me not to spend the money, then you told me to spend the money!” That’s just the way he works.”
One of the biggest bombshells in the documentary is when Jerry reveals that he fought and beat cancer.
“I was shocked that he did because for so long there was such an effort for us to have that be our personal journey,” Charlotte Jones said. “I think we all had an agreement that we really didn’t want to discuss it with anybody else.”
The Jones family, she says, never told a soul.
“Nobody, nobody. I think that our family is very strong and we’re very close, and I think that was all he felt like he needed to have the confidence and to just fight, to literally fight what was going on. I don’t think he ever wanted to appear weak.”
The Netflix series asks if there is a succession plan, and the answer seems to be that no one wants this to end.
“I think that’s the reality of that question, because the answer to that question is only revealed if he’s no longer here. That very much is the motivator behind all of us of, ’Oh, we don’t need to address that. We don’t actually care about that.’
What we care about is that we work really well together as a family, and that has been the secret to our success. All three of us are very different. We bring something very different to the table and, you know, we get to work with our family every day,” Jones said.
Ultimately, Charlotte says the biggest reason that she is still in the game is that her family has created a legacy that they hope will last for generations to come.
“I never dreamed that I’d be waking up 35 years later and still be doing this. I think my passion has certainly grown since the day that I walked in the front door, but it certainly started with, ‘we’re a family, we fight for each other, we protect each other, and we use all that we can to strive for success together.”
When the Dallas Cowboys open the NFL season against the Philadelphia Eagles, many fans will have seen the Netflix documentary on Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. In a revealing one-on-one interview, Meredith Land sits down with Jerry Jones’ daughter, Charlotte, co-owner and Chief Brand Officer of the team.
Jones talks about what happened behind the scenes and the many struggles the family has faced after buying the team.
Charlotte Jones says she distinctly remembers the moment her father, Jerry Jones, gathered the family together to announce that he wanted to buy the Dallas Cowboys.
“Yeah, this is crazy,” Jones recalls thinking at the time. The reality set in for Charlotte and the family with the very first news conference. “I know my Dad totally respected the tradition of what the Cowboys were all about in the NFL. I’m not sure that we did, that I actually did understand the significance until that day at that press conference, of like,‘ oh my gosh, we are messing with people’s heart, with their passion.’ That the team was much more than just a team. It was a source of pride for everyone and just kind of, you know, it was like a culture and for us to kind of drop in the middle of it and blow it up that way, that was hard, and you know, the haters were loud,” Jones said.
The critics have not eased up, but those first years were especially tough, she acknowledges. “At the time, to understand the risk of everything we had, I mean, everything we had went into buying the team. It’s the only time my Dad has ever underestimated anything to us. He said, ‘You know, if I do this, this just may change our life a little.’ And those words just echo, you know, constantly in my mind because wow, what a change it has been.”
The change for the family and the game has been monumental.
The Netflix special dug into how the family worked to market and monetize the franchise.
Looking back on the documentary, Jones says there are things that she doesn’t like in the portrayal of her father.
“You know, I think the thing that I don’t love that I think people continue to think is that he’s only about the money. This was never about the money. It was always about pursuing something that he is ultimately, his ultimate passion, and how much he actually loves the game and wanted to be around the game, wanted to be involved in the game. The money part of it was to hold on to the passion and then build upon that. And so those are the steps of risk that he took,” Jones said.
When asked about critics constantly suggesting that Jerry step away from the role of general manager, Jones said, “It’s funny. We probably have had that conversation a thousand times. I’m sure. I think what people don’t actually understand either, is that he may be the final say, but the collaboration that he participates in, that he absorbs, is truly amazing.
He will not make a unilateral decision on his own. Whether it’s at the draft and he’s listening to the scouts and the coaches, and he’s basically the tiebreaker.
He’s always been that way. I think people think that he goes in there and is like, ‘this is what we’re doing and we’re going to do this and I don’t care what you think,’ and I’ve never seen him do that on anything.”
Jones says working for the family business hasn’t always been easy, and there have been many tough times.
“I remember I got fired when we were building the Star, and we were spending too much money. Jerry said, ‘You can’t have any money.’ So then I dialed it all back down. I’m like, ‘okay, this is what it’s going to look like.’
And he goes, ‘It has to look a lot better than that. You better go spend that money to make it look better than that.’ So I was like, ‘wait, ‘you just told me not to spend the money, then you told me to spend the money!” That’s just the way he works.”
One of the biggest bombshells in the documentary is when Jerry reveals that he fought and beat cancer.
“I was shocked that he did because for so long there was such an effort for us to have that be our personal journey,” Charlotte Jones said. “I think we all had an agreement that we really didn’t want to discuss it with anybody else.”
The Jones family, she says, never told a soul.
“Nobody, nobody. I think that our family is very strong and we’re very close, and I think that was all he felt like he needed to have the confidence and to just fight, to literally fight what was going on. I don’t think he ever wanted to appear weak.”
The Netflix series asks if there is a succession plan, and the answer seems to be that no one wants this to end.
“I think that’s the reality of that question, because the answer to that question is only revealed if he’s no longer here. That very much is the motivator behind all of us of, ’Oh, we don’t need to address that. We don’t actually care about that.’
What we care about is that we work really well together as a family, and that has been the secret to our success. All three of us are very different. We bring something very different to the table and, you know, we get to work with our family every day,” Jones said.
Ultimately, Charlotte says the biggest reason that she is still in the game is that her family has created a legacy that they hope will last for generations to come.
“I never dreamed that I’d be waking up 35 years later and still be doing this. I think my passion has certainly grown since the day that I walked in the front door, but it certainly started with, ‘we’re a family, we fight for each other, we protect each other, and we use all that we can to strive for success together.”