Jerry Jones’ worst nightmare: Approach to Cowboys’ hire could invoke fan apathy

For the past 29 years, Jerry Jones has proven incapable of putting a championship product on the field. Most current Dallas Cowboys players weren’t born when the franchise last played a game beyond the divisional round on Jan. 14, 1996.

Although postseason wins have been scarce for the Cowboys, business has been booming. Perhaps you’ve heard it once or twice before, but the Cowboys are the most valuable sports franchise in the world. Interest in the team allows that to happen. Fans buy jerseys. They show up for training camp in Oxnard, Calif., albeit in decreasing numbers lately. Road games often feel like home games because Dallas fans come in droves.

Many would call the Cowboys’ hiring of Brian Schottenheimer on Friday night as the next head coach a decision founded in comfort and safety. While that’s true from a football operations standpoint, it’s also perhaps the riskiest decision Jones could have made. That risk isn’t tied to wins and losses, but something Jones cares about even more.

Apathy.

As Schottenheimer’s candidacy gained momentum this week, followed by the official announcement for a Friday night news dump, much of the public reaction carried some anger. Schottenheimer caught strays in all of that but much of that rage was directed at Jones, both for the process of the past couple of weeks regarding the head coach position, and for the final decision.

GO DEEPER

Underwhelming hire latest example of Cowboys being one of NFL’s most conservative franchises

That rage doesn’t bother Jones. In fact, he welcomes it. Jones would love for all of the attention toward himself and the Cowboys to be high praise and flattery, but the next best scenario is anger.

Look no further than the past 12 months. Around this time last year, Jones said at the Senior Bowl that he would be “all in.” He proceeded to let quality players walk in free agency and did nothing to replace that talent. No big signings, no big trades.

Some people in that scenario would be ashamed. Not Jones. He was the opposite. Whether it was at news conferences around the draft, during training camp or deep into a lost season, Jones continuously invoked the “all in” mantra — oftentimes unprompted. When most would view it as embarrassment, Jones embraced the mockery.

After all, if you were mocking him, you were still invested. You were still watching, still talking.

Sports entertainment shows will discuss the Schottenheimer hiring for the next few weeks. Fans will offer their remarks about it for a little while, too. But after the initial wave — which coincides with a conference championship weekend featuring two division rivals and then the Super Bowl — passes, how does Jones convince Dallas fans to care? What cards does he have left to play?

Brian Schottenheimer joined the Cowboys as a consultant in 2022. (Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)

A successful, postseason-advancing on-field product doesn’t exist. There’s no intrigue about the future at quarterback or head coach. The headline-grabbing mantra card has been played. An actual general manager isn’t walking through the door. 

When Jones was asked two weeks ago, after wrapping up a 7-10 season with questions surrounding the head coach position, how he would sell hope to the fan base in the coming months, here’s what he said:

“I think we’ve got in place some of the best quarterbacking there is in the game,” Jones said. “I think we’ve got the basis for great protection for that quarterback. When he’s done his best, we’ve been the strongest in the offensive line. … I like where we are there, and I like some of the skill players we’ve got on (defense). I like our special teams personnel. Man, let me tell you something. I’ve been with the Cowboys for 35 years, and the majority of it don’t have the positive prospects ahead that when I look to the future. The majority of it was less than we’ve got looking to the future now.”

The merits of the quarterback are a discussion for another day, but that he is the foundation of Jones’ selling of hope shows how few cards Jones has left to play. Dak Prescott is a good franchise quarterback, but he’s clearly a notch below the NFL’s elite class who automatically carry that hope with them. Prescott, 31, counts for a sizable portion of the salary cap and is coming off of a serious season-ending hamstring injury. He’s solid, but limited, and needs a quality environment around him.

Jones’ answer shouldn’t be terribly surprising. He’s never highly valued the head coach position, once saying that 500 coaches could have had Jimmy Johnson’s success. In a different context, Jones went back to the 500 coaches line a couple of weeks ago, when speaking on the interest level of being the head coach of the Cowboys.

There are different ways Jones could have garnered fan interest with this hire. He could have made an out-of-left-field move for former franchise greats Deion Sanders or Jason Witten. That’s not to say either would have been good hires — or even better than Schottenheimer — but it would have gotten the fan base’s attention. So too would have been throwing money at the best candidates, whether it was an established winner like Bill Belichick before he went to North Carolina or pursuing him hard enough afterward to cover his buyout and pay him a hefty salary he couldn’t turn down. Jones also could have gone after the hot candidates, like Ben Johnson.

The Cowboys did none of that.

They went down the hall and found somebody they were comfortable with, somebody who wouldn’t cost much or rattle the operation in place. Schottenheimer deserves the opportunity to show what he can do, but Jones has run out of chances.

Despite Jones’ approach over the past three decades, fans have rewarded him with TV ratings and apparel purchases. But everything has a limit. The more Jones proves he doesn’t care about winning, fans will re-evaluate how much they should care about his product.

The bottom line has been unaffected so far, but the risk for Jones’ worst nightmare — fan apathy — has never been higher than it is right now.

(Top photo of Jerry Jones: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)