Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Peace to the planet.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Charlamagnea god here and as we come closer to closing
out this year, I just want to say thank you
for tuning it into the Black Spec podcast network. There
have been so many great moments over the past year.
Take a listen to some of those captivating moments in
this special best of episode.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Every season, every week, every game, there is something new
to report. But then there are some storylines to me
that never change. Into the owner of America's team, the
Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Well, I will let us sit down and look at
the decisions we've made over the last several years. Okay,
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 app with
the dishwater, you have got to be smoking something over there.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Eighty two year old Jerry Jones, owner, president, and general
manager of the Dallas Cowboys, handing a local radio reporter
his ass for asking why Jerry didn't make any significant
moves during the off season.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I'm Master Spatzian. I am a sports journalist, on your host, producer, anchor.
I do it all anything within sports rooms that you
can talk about I will somehow find a waited.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I ask Master dionn because every year, before the season
begins and when the season is in full swing, a
significant amount of attention is always placed on a team
that has been mediocre.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
At best for the better part of a decade.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
So I'm really curious as a Cowboys fan and also
as a journalist, what is this fascination we have with
the Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Hey, listen, I grew up in Dallas, so the fascination
is like for me personally from a is my hometown
and is why I represent And it is so cool
for me being from Dallas where everyone thinks you just
about the Cowboys and gideaup and yehaw. I go travel
around the world and people know of Dallas because of
the Cowboys. It is the most valuable franchise in the world.
(02:05):
The big reason behind that is Jerry Jones and what
he did in terms of his investment, which he still
says to this day was a terrible investment at the
time because he didn't have any money and now flipping
it into an empire that he's been able to turn
the Dallas Cowboys into it because of how it was
in your face and because of the lord that existed
in the seventies during their run with Tom Landry and
which you saw in the nineties of course with the Triplets,
(02:28):
that a lower still existed to day, despite the fact
that of course carry I haven't seen his team make
the Super Bowl since I was in diapers, but that
a lawyer still exists because it was just fixated within
NFL culture. And when we talk about again, we didn't
(02:48):
give the name of America's team. NFL Films gave the
name that the Cowboys we are America's team because it
legitimately was everyone every black person I know of that
age group wanted to be Drew Pearce. So there was
this station that happened, you know, the cheerleaders, the the appeal,
the look, the uniform, everything about it, having God watching
in Texas Stadium like they had it all and now
(03:12):
it's it's a tyring sale, it's just a tire fire.
It's just it's it's all things must go. It's it's
we got this. We got this shiny suit that we
have with the stadium, and we have a great facility
and all these different things. But for some reason, the
success in the allure which was what built the Cowboys
into being this thing that everyone wanted to either be
a part of or wanted to hate. We're winning, but.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
I would like to ask you this.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
So it was a horrible loss home loss this past week,
and Jerry Jones got defensive when asked about the franchise's
lack of off season moves to improve the roster, and
he tried to do a little repair and explain why
he was so frustrated. But I'm really curious, as a
fan and as a journalist, is there any explanation for
(03:59):
a loss against the Detroit Lions at forty seven and
nine at home? The worst loss in thirty five years
as owner and general manager, of course.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Fifth worst loss in franchise history. Now, I guess there's
every single status you can rip off from that game
that none of them looked good, none of them, none
of them looked.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Good at all.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
You can make the excuses. There was injuries on the
defensive side. I knew going in. The lines are a
team in which, of course went to NFC Title Game
last year, and a team that a lot of people
think will win the NFC, so you know it was
gonna be a tough game. They had the biweek leaning
into this week, so you knew some guys who potentially
were on the custom of playing fifty to fifty, whether
they've come back or not, they probably weren't gonna play
the Micael Parsons, et cetera, et cetera. So you knew
(04:41):
this would be a struggle, and you needed a great
Dak Prescott game to help you give you a chance
to beat the Lions, because you knew everything else was
going to be in flux, and everything else was in flux,
and you didn't get the great Dak Prescott game that
you would hope for to have any sort of shot
out to be Lions. So as a result of those
(05:01):
two combinations, it just turned out to be an absolute disaster.
And I was just sitting there watching because and I
watched the whole thing because my whole thing was I
just didn't want to see any more injuries happening with
this team because their depth right now has been challenged
in a way that you can question the roster you
want to. There are specific areas in which the roster needs.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
To be used.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
The question that was asking Jerry Jones I also had
a problem because it was very broad and generic and
at this point, like Jerry had a good point, you're
not going to bring in twenty players, right There's not
twenty players that are better than the players they have
on this roster. But there are specific areas which the
Cowboys should have addressed that they did not their interior
defensive line. They can't stop anyone running the ball, and
that was an issue that has been issued last couple
(05:40):
of years and it continues to be an issued this year.
And you're seeing people just gashing them right down the
middle and they can't do anything about That has been
a consistent issue. The other issue was, of course, the
running back situation. They brought back Ezekiel Elliott, they got
Dalvin Cook on the practice squad, but you thought they
would have invested in something, even if he didn't want
to invest in Derrick Henry to go pay for him
for whatever reasons that you can't afford to him, at
(06:00):
least draft a quarterback. Draft the running back, excuse me,
and they didn't draft a running back in a lot
of situations in which they could have done so, and
it would have been a huge upgrade over the running
backs that they have on this roster right now, and can't. Granted,
they've done a great job drafting. I will give him
credit for that. I don't think they get enough credit
for that.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
You just talked about several consistent issues that they've had
and several consistent problems in terms of what's been going
on with the Cowboys over the years. What do you
say to the critics who say the consistent problem is
Jerry Jones.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
He has been the problems with the Cowboys, and Jimmy
Johnson walked out of that door. It has been the
Jerry Jones so since then, and he is whatever you
want to see, that's a curse or whatever the case
may be. He has been the fundamental root of the
reason why this team has grown from a business standpoint,
but also the reason why it can't get of its
own way, because Jerry Jones itself cannot get out of
his own way. He always needs the spotlight if everyone's
(06:52):
talking about the Cowboys. For him, business is good, even
if that is detrimental to the culture of the locker room,
the front office, the coaching staff. It doesn't matter to him.
It's just all noise. And when you're at that point
where you're talking about billions of dollars. Noise is just noise,
but more people talking about you. Good gossip, bad gossip,
whatever the case may be, is good money for him.
(07:13):
That's not a way to build a team. That's not
a way to build a championship team. He needs to
cut that down.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
But does he want to let me ask you, does
he want to does he want to.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
Win a championship?
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Does he really want his team to be viable or
just does he want to be an influencer or does
he want to really truly? And by influencer, I mean
does he want to be an Instagram model? No shape
the Instagram models, So does he really want to make
some noise?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
That's a great question, And that's one you would think
as he gets older because the craziest part about that
line's loss it happened on his birthday. So he ain't
getting no young. It's to quote jacket it, he is
not getting any young. So if you an want a
Super Bowl, you might as well do it as soon
as you can, especially with you know, some of the
time that you have on his team. So you would
assume the desperation would continue to kick in. And when
(07:58):
he brought on Mike McCarthy, people thought that that was
a veteran head coach that you're bringing in for that
desperation that Jerry Jones even knows it himself. He only
has a few more years left. But this is where
Jerry Jones again, it just it's frustrating as a Cowboys fit.
That same press conference introducing Michael McCarthy, i' McCarthy essentially
(08:19):
just admitted to the fact that, hey, there are some
things I said in the interview that truth be told.
Like I did, I wasn't really studying all their games.
I wasn't really watching all their games. And at that
point a red flags really hit for me. I'm like, oh, no,
did Jerry Jones just, you know, buy a limit? You
know what I'm saying that he did. He buy a
used car that had a bunch of damage and didn't
check the car facts.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
Yeah and so, And Jerry.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Jones refuses to admit the fact that when he does
make these mistakes, you have to fix them. You have
to you have to change course. He should have fired
Micha McCarty then the last season he chose not to.
He's sticking around for another year and we're sitting there.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
That's what I'm asking you why does he continue to
make the same decisions. I won't even say mistakes, because
at this point it's intentional.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
Year after year after year.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
He stayed too long with Tony. Is it time to
get rid of Dak? Is there decisions that need to
be made?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
I think it's ego. I think it is he is
the kingpin of all these owners. He when he talks
or when he moves, they all fall. And so that
level of authority or superiority that you may feel amongst
these billionaire owners is something which maybe he has a
sense of feeling like he can't show any level of
weakness or signs of a failure or fallacy, even if
(09:30):
the whole public knows that these are terrible decisions, that
you roll with them and see them through, because if
you come out on top, then you're Jerry Jones a genius.
News last Jerry, It's been on thirty years now.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
If I'm on the outside looking in, I don't think
winning a super Bowl or being in the Super Bowl
matters to him.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
What would you say?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
I can't argue against it. I really can't, because you
talk about these things again, If it really was Mark
Cuban's a great example, going back to Dallas, Mark Cuban,
another who's a fantastic owner for the Mavericks. Now he's
a minority owner, but when he first came in the league,
he was the brash, abrasive, in your face, shock value owner,
(10:10):
you know, going to dairy queen, taking all these fines,
yelling at the referees, et cetera, et cetera. At twenty eleven,
he realized, Hey, maybe I should shut up, Maybe I
should cut back some of those antics. Maybe I should
quiet down the noise that I'm providing for myself for
this organization. So let them focus on their jobs and
hopefully that can lead to success and ultimate would let
to you the first championship of franchise history.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
When Naked Sports returns, we meet at the intersection of
sports and politics. White teflon don can seemingly get away
with just about anything on and off the field.
Speaker 6 (10:43):
Washington Post has unearthed this photo from nineteen fifty seven.
In it, of course, the person who has circled there
is Dallas cow was owner Jerry Jones. He's among a
crowd of white students who were confronting black students as
they were attempting to enter the North Little Rock High School.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
Back in a moment.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Just before Thanksgiving of twenty twenty two, a photo from
nineteen fifty seven surfaced. It was an image of teenage
Jerry Jones outside of North Little Rock High School, where
a group of black students were trying to integrate classes
and among the angry mob of white students, you could
see Jerry Jones looking, not shouting to be fair, but
(11:26):
definitely in the mix.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
That was gosh, sixty sixty five years ago and a
curious kid.
Speaker 7 (11:36):
I didn't know at the time that anium melimal.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Event really that.
Speaker 7 (11:45):
Was going on, and I'm sure glad that we're a
long way from that, I am, and we just that
would remind me. Just continued to do everything we can too.
Not half those kinds of things happen.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Lebron famously criticized Jerry Jones, or not necessarily criticized them,
but took issue with the photo of Jerry Jones as
a young boy standing outside of that courthouse. Do you
remember the photo I'm talking about?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Of course, of course, So for the folks.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
At home, can you explain that scenario Jerry Jones was
what seventeen eighteen years old, and how in fact he
explained what he was doing there at that moment. But
more importantly, it really the issue just went away. It
wasn't even a big deal.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah, it was a school in which, of course, in
little ark Arkansas, and theories stayed in which brown versus
board segregation, desegregation is happening. We're seeing busting happening in
terms of black kids and white kids integrating as particularly
in the South, and the pushback that happened at the time,
of course in terms of the frustrations of the unwillingness
(12:55):
to do so, and you're seeing a situation with school Obviously,
the infant picture lives in infamy in terms of schools
being bust in for desegregation in Arkansas, being escorted in
by police and just a mob of angry white people
surrounding them, and there was a picture that popped up
that happened to show that Jerry Jones was among the
people there among the angry mob. And how he played
(13:18):
that in terms of how he played dumb or whatever
the case may be. Obviously, as a black Cowboys fan,
conflicted because you know this is the owner of your team,
but you still have allegiance to the Cowboys because it's
your hometown. You know, there's a different level of allegiance
in which place exists for me that you know, this
is this is this is home. This is what represents
my identity. Like I said, when I go to Europe,
people know doubts because of the Cowboys. So there's an
(13:39):
infinity that I have towards his team that it's hard
for me to break that apart from my own identity,
even as a black man. So that whole time has happening.
Obviously all your friends are using this is like bait
and you know, conversation, trash talking like you're still going
to sport his team, you know, and just saying, hey,
at least my owner want to do this, When I'm like,
news flash, Like, I'm sure there are other owners who
(14:01):
probably agree and feel the same way that Jared Jones does.
How he was a you know, but again, as you mentioned,
he has a level of teflon when these ins and
circumstances pop up, He's able to find ways to to
wiggle and nag him navigate himself out of those circumstances situations,
and he comes out on top somehow some weight.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
Why though, why is that?
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Is it?
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Because he has so much money. Is it because he's
so powerful?
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Why? Why is he exonerated of behavior that others probably
would be held to a different account.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
That's a great question. I think I think it.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Is when but I'm not even I'm talking on the
field and off the field his decisions. Any other any
other owner would be in a different situation. They would
there would be calls for him to he or she
to leave said position. I think about the owner of
the of the cults.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Help me out, Jim Mers Jim mersy.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
He is Jim Marse has had so many issues and
people not He hasn't sold his team, but people have
held him auntible for his behavior, you know, And it's
been talked about and in question and he's been laughed
at yet and still with Jerry, it's like, Okay, there's
a level of respect or reverence rather that he gets that.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
No, I feel no other owner does.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Yeah, and there's there's a level of charm that Jerry
has as well that you can't ignore either, you know.
And for people I know who's been around him, I've
been around him a couple of times as well. And
when you're caught up in a conversation with him, it's like,
you know, he's a very easy guy to talk to me.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Okay, all right, folks. So this is when I make
a confession on the podcast. And for what it's worth,
I met Jerry Jones and had dinner with him and
his wife back in twenty fourteen. And the story is wild.
But to Master T's point, there's something about Jerry Jones.
I will tell you this, Master T, I'd only be
rude I did have You're right, and I want to
(15:50):
call myself on the carpet.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
You're absolutely right about the charm that he has. True story.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
I went to Mister Child, Mister Child in LA and
I was meeting Holly Robinson Pete there and her husband
used to pay for the Cowboys at one point, and
she walked up to him and said, hi, mister Jones,
and he was with his wife and he said, would
you ladies like to join me and my wife Anna?
And he was like it's a mandatory and we tried
to say no, and we couldn't say no because of
his charm. You're absolutely correct. But this is when you
(16:18):
are right, and I'm going to liken his his ability
to get out of tough situations to this scenario. Jerry
Jones was sitting and he was like, you, ladies have
to try these duck tacos. It's the best thing ever.
I came all the way from Dallas just to have
these duck tacos. And the duck tacos are delivered now,
mind you. Jerry was like, I'm gonna make it for
you ladies, so because it has to be made the
(16:40):
way that I make it. Jerry then proceeds to take
his fingers, grab the taco meat, put the taco meat
inside of the shell. Cause because that's how you have
to make it. But normally people would grab a.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
Fork, songs or spoon, yeah something, he grabs them.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
He said, hmmm, ladies, you're gonna oh, licking his fingers.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
Ladies are gonna love it.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
While making, he rolls up the taco, rolls up the
taco and he hands it to me and I look
at it, and the whole world stopped.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
I'm looking at this taco.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
And I'm all like, I'm not gonna get this man stock.
This man literally just licked his fingers and make this taco,
not once, not twice, several times. He also made one
for my friend Holly. He's like young lady. Let a
man do something for you.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
You know what he is.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
He makes his taco, hands it to Holly, and we
are looking at each other like.
Speaker 5 (17:43):
Do we what do we do?
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Because that's the kind of decision you're like, if I
say no, is it gonna embarrass him?
Speaker 5 (17:49):
Yes, I should have said no. I didn't have the
gumption to say no.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
When I tell you, I took a bite of this
taco with my eyes open, afraid, like I'm gonna be sick.
I don't know what I'm gonna get. I don't know
if it'll be I don't know what's gonna happen. If
I have listeria, I don't know. I don't know what
I'm gonna get. We'll have an SCD. I don't know
what's gonna happen.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
I'm taking but I took a bite anyway.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
And then Holly as I took the first bite, because
she kept looking at me like you go first, and
I was looking at her like you go first.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
We were talking with our eyes and she was looking
at me like you go first. I was like, you
go first.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Your husband playing with him.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
You go first.
Speaker 5 (18:23):
So I take a bite. I look at her, I
take the bite and Jerry says it's good.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Huh, And then I was like, hm hmm, you know,
just like yes, she looks at me and without fail
she goes, hey, yum. Right.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
I was like, yeah, yum.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
I literally took a bite of that taco against my will.
But it was something about his charm and who he
is and how he presents and how he takes over
the whole room and how he feels larger than life
and how everything feels okay once he's talking. So to
your point, I see why he Well, don't hold him
accountable because of that charm, because of that whatever that
(19:04):
is that Jenna sa kuah. I don't know how to
describe it. But would you have eaten that taco after
he licked his fingers all on? Would you have eat it?
Speaker 4 (19:11):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Or no?
Speaker 5 (19:11):
You're sitting in front of Jerry and his wife. Would
you have eaten that duck?
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Potto?
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Is easy for me to say no right now, because
I'm not in that circumstances situation, how that played out.
I still probably say that.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
I'm not even that's not that's not true. I can't
I can't justify it.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
No, I can't.
Speaker 5 (19:27):
So what do you say?
Speaker 3 (19:28):
No? No, sir, mister Jones, I don't eat duck. After
you've already said you want the taco. What do you
say I already told him, we already said we ate duck.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I eat duck, but saliva.
Speaker 5 (19:40):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
However, would you have said that, You wouldn't have said
that you've been a geyser right now, you would not.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
I mean, I don't know. I don't know that's saying
that situation. It would be tough. I'm not gonna hold
it would be tough.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
So what do you How do you just say no, thanks?
Speaker 4 (19:55):
I don't know that.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Because you did say you were hungery already. Yeah, it's
a tough spot. It's a touch spot. I'm not I'm
not disagreeing with you. I literally said, it's easy for
me to say it here in this confinement of my
comfortable house. And then like hil and Jerry, because you know
again I said, with something Jerry, and then like, you know,
he's a nice guy, like.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
He's he really is affable, he's a nice guy.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
So it's it's it's, it's it's again. Sometimes you can
get lost in the news and all these different things
when you're around somebody that kind of man, you're like, oh,
you know, but not so bad. Like again, like I
grew up in the South. I grew up in Texas.
You know, I've traveled all over the South. So it's
like Southern people. To me, there's a comfort that exists
there with Southern people, regardless of race, religion, age, or
(20:36):
whatever the case may be, right, even if the fact
that like they could be rooting for my own detriments
as a black man in terms of their policies and
the rules and the way that they view things when
you're around them and you're at a sports bar, you're
at a game, especially on game.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
He's charming.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
He's not mean, he doesn't say anything mean. He wants
to He's a get along guy. He's not he's not
out here, you know, being Bill Belichick. Like that would
mean the I I can tell you'll know. I could say, Bill,
no thanks, I don't want one of your tacos. You
make me sick, sir, billn't even the house the house.
But my point is, this whole demeanor is such a
he's so he's so sour, you know, and surly if
(21:11):
you will, I wouldn't even okay, all right, So I
just answered that question for myself, I am curious though,
do you think that that do you think Jerry Jones
was held held accountable for that photo, that that that
service of him and.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
Some people are accountability Well, some people say, look it's
forty years ago, fifty years ago.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, and you have to account that the variants of
accountability because he was asked about the question and there
was a story made about it, and he was asked
about it, and he was pressed about the situation. So
like in terms of that level of accountability, yes, but again,
he has a charming way of being able to find
ways to, you know, excuse himself of certain behaviors that
he has or certain tendencies that he has, and and
(21:54):
you know, you kind of just chalk it up to
Jerry being Jerry at a certain point.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Once again, thank you for tuning into the Blackpack Podcast Network.
See you in twenty twenty five for more great moments
from your favorite podcast.