Jerry Jones should bring his alleged words to life, help Black people gain NFL ownership

Let me make it plainly clear: Jerry Jones is not racist.

He can be racially insensitive with his words and his stances on issues.

To many, especially Black people, it’s a distinction without a difference.

But to those who know him, there is nuance here and it is a little more complicated than that.

As is the lawsuit filed by former reporter Jim Trotter against the NFL. The suit has put Dallas Cowboys owner in the news and the crosshairs of controversy once again.

Trotter is an ex-NFL Network employee who has filed a racial discrimination claim against the NFL, arguing that he was fired for speaking out about the NFL’s lack of diversity in the league office, coaching ranks and its own media operation.

Trotter, who currently writes for The Athletic, filed a 53-page complaint in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday.

As a part of that complaint, Trotter mentioned what he felt were racist comments by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones that he felt weren’t properly addressed by NFL Network officials.

Trotter claims that in August 2020 when he asked Jones about the lack of Black employees in decision-making positions at the NFL, the Cowboys owner gave an incendiary response.

“If Blacks feel some kind of way, they should buy their own team and hire who they want to hire,” said Jones according to the complaint.

Trotter followed up the claim by saying officials at the NFL Network ordered him to not use Jones’ comments publicly.

This week Jones refuted Trotter’s version of events, calling them inaccurate.

“Diversity and inclusion are extremely important to me personally and to the NFL. The representation made by Jim Trotter of a conversation that occurred over three years ago with myself and our VP of Player Personnel Will McClay is simply not accurate,” said Jones.

Trotter’s integrity as a journalist is unassailable.

Jones has been known to say some questionable things, especially when he feels attacked or gets dug in.

Check out this response last year to USA’s Today’s Jarrett Bell when he asked arguably the NFL’s most influential owner why he hasn’t been more of a force on the diversity front within the league.

“The people they put on the diversity committee,” Jones said, “I sure would have gladly ... if they had put in the Jerry Jones Rule rather than the Rooney Rule, I would have been there.”

The Rooney Rule was named after Dan Rooney, the late Pittsburgh Steelers owner who in the early 2000s as President of the NFL Diversity Committee, helped establish the mandate that teams must interview minority candidates for head coaching vacancies.

Jones ultimately told Bell “you know my heart.”

Bell, who began his career with the Dallas Cowboys Weekly and was on staff when Jones bought the team in 1989, is as close to Jones as any journalist.

Bell knows his heart

So do a litany of his former Black players who continue to swear by him, including Deion Sanders, Michael Irvin, Nate Newton, Emmitt Smith, Dez Bryant, Pacman Jones and Josh Brent.

The majority of that group includes great players who won Super Bowls for him, helped him win games and helped him sell the Cowboys brand.

It’s easy for people to say he only cares about those Black players because of what they did for him.

But what about Brent, who was found guilty of intoxicated manslaughter for the December 2012 car crash that led to teammate Jerry Brown’s death at the age of 25?

His sentence included 180 days in jail and 10 years probation. Brent’s blood-alcohol level at the time of the crash was 0.18, more than twice the legal limit, and he was driving up to 110 mph in a 45-mph zone.

Brent wasn’t a star and didn’t make a lot of money. Jones and Cowboys gave him a job in the team’s scouting department to help him take care of Brown’s daughter.

“It’s good to have him out here,” Jones said in 2015. “We want him here.”

That, too, is Jones’ heart.

Before anyone accuses me of carrying Jones’ water, just know I have been tough and critical of him regarding his decisions with the Cowboys and stances on race, particularly the protests during the anthem.

So much so that Jones let the F-Bomb fly out his mouth toward me in 2020 as I walked off a practice field. I still can hear “F you Clarence” reverberating and the bugged eyes of other reporters within ear shot.

I also know that I have been covering Jones and the Cowboys since 1997, longer than anyone on the beat.

The same Jones gave me a hug and offered kind words to me on the first day of training camp in 2021 after my mom passed and he sent bushel of flowers to my dad’s funeral this past February.

Things he didn’t have to do.

Jones says he gives more credence to relationships than Race. That is logical in his mind and that is all that matters TO HIM.

At 80 years old, he doesn’t care how it looks or comes across.

He can point to his many relationships and say ‘you know my heart.’

It also should be noted that the Cowboys have a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion lead as does every other team in the NFL; a Black Employee Network that has hosted a Juneteenth celebration at the Ford Center and AT&T Stadium in each of the last two years.

Jones is no drum major for justice. But he hasn’t gotten in the way of progress.

“Whatever I am, or whatever I became, it sure as hell wasn’t that I wasn’t genuinely with my heart trying to give everybody the best I could to get the issues and handicaps (minorities) are facing, resolved,” Jones told USA TODAY Sports last December. “It’s the way I do it. So you say, ‘I disagree with that way,’ but it’s not that I’m not pouring my soul out ... and it’s not an insensitivity to biasness. You’re getting the best I’ve got.”

It’s noble to an extent, but it’s also disappointing.

Jones can do more.

Because gestures, words and stances matter in the big picture on global issues.

And the majority of world doesn’t know Jones’ heart, they know him by his actions and they think they know him by that photo from North Little Rock High School when a mischievous curious kid found himself on the wrong side of history in 1957.

Now at his age, Jones is not going to take any diversity or sensitivity classes.

But there is one thing Jones can do.

Per, his alleged words, if Black people want to make changes, then they should buy a team and hire their people.

Jones should use his power and influence to help make that happen.

It was Jones who was the single most powerful force helping fellow owner Stan Kroenke relocate the Rams to Los Angeles from St. Louis.

Now, he can do it again.

As of now, NFL rules make it hard for Black people and minorities to buy a team. Those rules require the lead investor of an NFL ownership group to have at least a 30 percent equity stake in the purchase. For the recent purchase of Washington Commanders that number was nearly $2 billion.

Few Black people have that type of liquidity, which limits the pool of potential Black bidders for teams.

The league has discussed making changes to its policies in an effort to bolster its goal of diversifying its ownership. There are no Black owners among the 32 teams.

Step up, Jones.

Put your alleged words into action.