The Dallas Cowboys remain ‘America’s Team’ despite nearly 30 years of on-field frustration. They haven’t won a Super Bowl since 1995 or even reached the NFC Championship. Yet the franchise continues to dominate the business of sports. At the center of it all is Jerry Jones. The 82-year-old is a visionary disruptor who didn’t just change the Cowboys; he changed the entire NFL.
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When Jones bought the team in 1989 for $140 million, the Cowboys were drowning in debt and irrelevant on the field. Fast forward to 2023, they generated $564 million in operating income (as per the latest numbers reported by Forbes in January 2025). That’s twice as much as any other franchise.
Operating income is the team’s revenue from core business operations like performance on the gridiron, media rights, merchandise, and fan engagement (excluding income from investment, etc.). This amount is calculated after deduction of the team’s operational costs, including player salaries, stadium costs, and marketing. It is a significant metric because it highlights the revenue streams Dallas has opened up to flourish, regardless of on-field struggles.
Jones, however, saw a legacy, and wasn’t content to be just another owner operating within the league’s old guard model. He set out to break it. And break it he did.
In the 1990s, Jones turned himself into the face of the NFL, ushering the league into a modern era of marketing, media, and sponsorships. He pushed the Cowboys into every living room in America, turning the blue star into one of the most recognizable logos in the world.
Players weren’t just athletes anymore. They were celebrities, appearing on magazine covers, TV shows, and even in films. Jones understood the power of visibility long before the league did.
But where he truly disrupted the NFL was in sponsorships. Back then, teams were bound by the league’s centralized deals, with revenue split equally. Jones refused to accept those limitations.
In 1995, Jones made a groundbreaking move: The Cowboys signed an exclusive partnership with Nike, even though the NFL had no deal with the apparel giant.
Earlier that same year, he had already struck a deal with Pepsi for Texas Stadium, directly defying the NFL’s official partnership with Coca-Cola. He followed that up with American Express, despite Visa holding league-wide rights.
The NFL sued him. Jones counter-sued and won in the end. That battle cracked open the league’s old revenue-sharing model and gave franchises the freedom to cut their own deals. It was a watershed moment, one that reshaped how NFL teams do business to this day.
The ripple effects are still being felt. With new money pouring in, the Cowboys built AT&T Stadium, a $1.3 billion monument to Jones’s vision, packed with luxury suites, exclusive clubs, and corporate partnerships. AT&T alone pays over $19 million annually for naming rights.
The Cowboys became not just a football team but a global brand, and Jerry Jones became the architect of the modern NFL economy. And even now, despite decades of playoff failures, the Cowboys remain the league’s biggest draw. They consistently land primetime games because, win or lose, America always tunes in.
Jones didn’t just buy a football team. He rewrote the rulebook. He clashed with the NFL, defied tradition, and built the most valuable sports franchise on Earth.
Love him or hate him, Jones has proved one thing: Disruption creates dynasty, even if it’s off the field.
