JON MACHOTA
Special Contributor
jmachota@dallasnews.com
Published: 26 December 2011 04:46 PM
When the critical decisions need to be made, Jerry Jones prefers to take care of business in person. That's why the Cowboys owner and general manager elected to speak with Jason Garrett face-to-face during the first quarter of Saturday’s game at Cowboys Stadium.
Jones said Monday that he prefers this method of communication in some situations, adding that there have been occasions where he has traveled by airplane just to get the opportunity to communicate eye-to-eye.
"You communicate a lot of different ways," Jones said during a radio interview with The Ticket (KTCK-AM 1310). "It isn’t just words. It’s body language, it’s everything. So it’s important to me, when I’m down there, to be evaluating what’s going on on the sideline, and it’s important to me to be communicating with anything I’m about on the sideline.
"In this particular case, I did want nothing to drop between the lines communication-wise. We had talked about clearly what would happen if the Giants won, what we would be doing with Felix [Jones] during this ballgame and the need to have him healthy if we could do anything about it next week. But what we didn’t talk about was what if something happened and there was a question mark about [Tony] Romo, how that would be handled. That’s Jason’s decision, but he doesn’t need to be making that one by himself.
"So I wanted to, very briefly, step down there with just a few minutes gone in the first quarter, sit there and say, 'Here’s the lay of the land. Romo’s got a hand injury, but it looks like we’re going to have him for New York. Felix is there. You make the decision, but our emphasis should be on New York.'"
Jones went on to say that his actions on Saturday where nothing different from how he has handled certain decisions with all of the other head coaches he has employed.
"I’ve talked to every head coach during a ballgame, on the sideline, that we’ve ever had with the Dallas Cowboys," he said.
Jones reassured that he isn’t calling the plays, he doesn’t decide the offensive philosophy and he isn’t determining which players dress on gamedays. But showing his face on the sidelines continues to bring criticism that amazes the man that has owned the franchise since 1989.
"It has amazed me to be criticized for really walking down on the floor of the company or walking into the business that we’re doing, not just the Dallas Cowboys, and not pick up the trash or be interested in how that guy’s treating customers,” Jones explained. “The more involved your top management, the more involved ownership can be, I’ve always thought made the best way for it to work.
"Anybody who has got any sense knows that I didn’t get here alone. I got here with a lot of very smart people and listening to those very smart people and I do do that. We don’t have to take a step back. What we need to do is win. And we need to win this way and a lot of other things then go away.
"You didn’t see that kind of criticism very early on, but we were winning Super Bowls. And it was the same exact way that we handled our decision-making and the exact same way that we handled our ultimate information gathering system. We’ve been doing it ever since I owned the team. The exact same way."
Special Contributor
jmachota@dallasnews.com
Published: 26 December 2011 04:46 PM
When the critical decisions need to be made, Jerry Jones prefers to take care of business in person. That's why the Cowboys owner and general manager elected to speak with Jason Garrett face-to-face during the first quarter of Saturday’s game at Cowboys Stadium.
Jones said Monday that he prefers this method of communication in some situations, adding that there have been occasions where he has traveled by airplane just to get the opportunity to communicate eye-to-eye.
"You communicate a lot of different ways," Jones said during a radio interview with The Ticket (KTCK-AM 1310). "It isn’t just words. It’s body language, it’s everything. So it’s important to me, when I’m down there, to be evaluating what’s going on on the sideline, and it’s important to me to be communicating with anything I’m about on the sideline.
"In this particular case, I did want nothing to drop between the lines communication-wise. We had talked about clearly what would happen if the Giants won, what we would be doing with Felix [Jones] during this ballgame and the need to have him healthy if we could do anything about it next week. But what we didn’t talk about was what if something happened and there was a question mark about [Tony] Romo, how that would be handled. That’s Jason’s decision, but he doesn’t need to be making that one by himself.
"So I wanted to, very briefly, step down there with just a few minutes gone in the first quarter, sit there and say, 'Here’s the lay of the land. Romo’s got a hand injury, but it looks like we’re going to have him for New York. Felix is there. You make the decision, but our emphasis should be on New York.'"
Jones went on to say that his actions on Saturday where nothing different from how he has handled certain decisions with all of the other head coaches he has employed.
"I’ve talked to every head coach during a ballgame, on the sideline, that we’ve ever had with the Dallas Cowboys," he said.
Jones reassured that he isn’t calling the plays, he doesn’t decide the offensive philosophy and he isn’t determining which players dress on gamedays. But showing his face on the sidelines continues to bring criticism that amazes the man that has owned the franchise since 1989.
"It has amazed me to be criticized for really walking down on the floor of the company or walking into the business that we’re doing, not just the Dallas Cowboys, and not pick up the trash or be interested in how that guy’s treating customers,” Jones explained. “The more involved your top management, the more involved ownership can be, I’ve always thought made the best way for it to work.
"Anybody who has got any sense knows that I didn’t get here alone. I got here with a lot of very smart people and listening to those very smart people and I do do that. We don’t have to take a step back. What we need to do is win. And we need to win this way and a lot of other things then go away.
"You didn’t see that kind of criticism very early on, but we were winning Super Bowls. And it was the same exact way that we handled our decision-making and the exact same way that we handled our ultimate information gathering system. We’ve been doing it ever since I owned the team. The exact same way."
