I looked across the NFL this week.
And then I flipped my focus to the team donning blue and white star emblems on the uniforms worn by America's Team
OF COURSE, there were trades. And more trades. And deals for the now, and other teams stashing for later. And doubt. There's a lot of doubt.
But it's difficult for many, especially those who were not alive at the time, to remember that Jerry Jones was the first and only owner to ever win 3 Super Bowl Championships during a span of four years. In fact, Jerry Jones was wildcatting prodigy and has spent the better half of a century playing against the odds — he has spent his life, going against the grain.
And winning lots of Super Bowls.
Well, not enough for some Cowboy fans. But more than most anyone else would ever dream of.
That'd be the legacy of Jerry Jones, though: the louder the criticism, the better Jerral Wayne Jones seemed to get.
At least, in his earlier days — most recently back in 1996.
"I, uh, uh, er . . . think, ur, um, we've finally gotten lucky with assembling the players we would need to make a run in the championship…", a fictional 80-year-old man impersonating Jones told me during an interview that never took place.
If you've ever had a few beers with Jerry, which I never have, but I imagine if I ever did he'd tell me how he know he knows how to get to the Super Bowl.
He had three.
Back in 1993, 1994, and 1996.
"Those Super Bowls totally blew my mind," were the kinds of things being echoed by almost every fan of Dallas, or any football fan within the, grips of becoming a Dallas fan, although I don't recall anyone saying that specific thing.
But the team was good back then.
A long time ago.
Trust the fans. Because no fan will ever forget that Mr. Jones was a big part of all of our younger lives. That's the thing about Dallas. We're all old and grumpy, and tired of his ****. It happens. It's the life cycle. Each generation is proven wrong in some way by the next.. Ideas, legacies . . . they fade.
Say what you want, the team has legacy.
If nothing else, losing says a lot about Dallas' legacy
But so does the winning.
Winning teaches you to work together, it teaches you to come together, it teaches you that coming together and achieving a common goal entails something way bigger than accomplishing selfish goals.
For Mr. Jones — or as fans all refer to him as, "Jerry," — this is a story about the legacy of a real man, Jerrall Wayne Jones himself, the owner we all love and hate through it all. Good or bad, has been a character in the real-world team that gives us a fictional outlet to follow, which somehow helps us escape the real world and live in a fictional one where the lessons we learn while playing this ludicrous game give our lives meaning.
We've all played it, likely, but have we ever questioned why?
That's the story behind Jerry Jones' legacy.
He is the why.
Jerry's legacy aside.
There were a thousand ways you can get to the Super Bowl back then.
You could ride on the back of Emmitt Smith after assembling the perfect team around Hall of Fame Quarterback, Troy Aikman and win in 1993, 1994, and 1996.
"The tape shows Troy is on a whole 'nother level," guys like George Allen "Pat" Patrick Summerall (May 10, 1930 – April 16, 2013) might say, but never did actually say (for the record).
Or you could fast-forward to that time Hunter S. Thompson never interviewed Jerry Jones, but wishes he would have had the pleasure of living to interview Jerry Jones in the Micha Parsons era.
But Hunter S. Thompson died, although his spirt lives on.
"You know, Pat, you could sit on your *** for 27 years and finally get around to drafting someone like Micah Parsons. You know, remember those times we never sent Jerry the memo. But Micah Parsons! Boom! This guy tackles like a bazooka!," an American football player and coach turned National Football League commentator, John Earl Madden, never said either. But you can kind of hear him saying that from the grave.
In any case, my point being. In 2022, I think there might be more than one way to get to the Super Bowl.
But the best way to get to the Super Bowl might be rolling with the team you have, and fighting it out with the current players on your roster.
If a group of men can do it, It's a group of men led by the wildcatter.
There may be a thousand ways to get to the Super Bowl, but, in the end, there's really only two ways.
Jerry Jones, Micah Parsons, and Dak Prescott will either go out champions.
Or they'll go out like a gonzo news piece in which Hunter S. Thompson covers the Mint 400 Motorcycle Race.
But that might not be the best way.
