Jerry Jones’ giant list of controversies

Jerry Jones has been the owner of the Dallas Cowboys since 1989, and in that time, he’s made the team the most valuable sports franchise in the world, despite an extreme lack of postseason success over the last three decades. The Cowboys are 5-13 in the playoffs since 1996, when they won their last Super Bowl. Jones all but admitted that a lack of playoff success is outweighed by fame. “We’re still the most popular TV show there is on television,” he said back in 2014. And that’s not the worst of what Jones has done in the last 35 years as the Cowboys owner.

Where Jones goes, scandal seems to follow. He’s currently tied up in a legal battle with a woman claiming to be his daughter. He’s now the plaintiff in this case, claiming that she broke a settlement agreement by publicly naming him as her father and is now seeking millions from her to pay off the legal expenses. Slimy is the word that comes to mind, and that’s just one transgression of many. The list indeed goes on.

List of Jerry Jones controversies

Threatened to bench players who kneeled during national anthem

In 2017, several NFL players began kneeling during the national anthem as a sign of protest against police brutality against people of color. Rather than stand behind those players in solidarity, Jones threatened to bench any Cowboys player who dared kneel during the anthem.

“If there’s anything that is disrespectful to the flag, then we will not play,” said Jones. “Understand? We will not…if we are disrespecting the flag, then we will not play. Period.”

Made racist comment in a video that surfaced

The same year that Jones refused to stand up to racism, a video surfaced from 2013 in which he made a not-so-subtle racist comment. The timing was no coincidence, as the person who leaked the video did so for the simple reason of bringing awareness to the issue.

In the video, Jones tells a woman who was recently married that her husband is cheating on her, and here’s what he says: “You know he’s with a Black girl tonight?” His comment implies that the fact the woman is Black somehow make the infidelity even worse.

Tried to get Roger Goodell fired for suspending a player for sexual assault

In 2017, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott suspended for six games without pay after he was involved in a domestic violence case. Jones decided to threaten to have Goodell fired for that decision.

“I’m gonna come after you with everything I have,” Jones told Goodell. “If you think Bob Kraft came after you hard, Bob Kraft is a pu**y compared to what I’m going to do.”

Photos with strippers

Racy photos of married Jerry Jones with strippers surfaced in 2014, one of which shows him fondling the breasts of a young woman, and another showing a woman near his crotch. His response to the photos was that they were “misrepresented”.

Kept a man on the payroll accused of taking inappropriate photos of the cheerleaders AND his daughter, Charlotte

In 2015, a Cowboys executive was accused by four members of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders of sneaking into their locker room and taking inappropriate photos of them. That same man was accused of taking upskirt photos of Jerry Jones’ daughter, Charlotte Jones, during the 2015 NFL Draft.

The cheerleaders were paid $2.4 million ($399,523.27 each) in a settlement agreement in 2016, which Jones said was “in the best interest of everyone involved”.

The estranged daughter lawsuit

This whole case is messed up from start to finish. Jerry Jones has been married to Eugenia since 1963, but in 1998, he had an affair with a woman who worked at American Airlines. That woman got pregnant with his daughter, and because money has always solved all of his problems, Jones paid her off to keep her quiet about that, agreeing to support the child from childhood through adulthood.

When that woman grew up and sought to prove Jones is her father, he heavily denied it. His attorneys said it was an extortion attempt and so she sued him for defamation. That suit was dropped but a paternity test was ordered by a judge. Jones, however, has now countersued, saying that the woman and her mother broke their settlement agreement and is seeking $1.6 million from her to cover the legal expenses he incurred in the process.

Slime, slime, slime.