In This Story
Dallas Cowboys
Aug 22, 2025 7:00 AM EDT
Jerry Jones opens the new Netflix documentary by bragging about his ability to talk people into lending him money. He was born to sell his version of reality. While wildly entertaining, America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys is ultimately Jones selling us his version of what happened in Dallas.
The film seems to be inspired by Michael Jordan’s Last Dance. It shows the warts, but never in a way that makes you lose respect for the protagonist. The problem is that Jones has a big voice in each episode. He admits that he’s a salesman. Why should we trust him now?
Here are the six things in the documentary that were hardest to buy ….
1. The 1970s Cowboys were all but dismissed
The producers spent very little time explaining how the Cowboys became America’s Team. We never heard from Roger Staubach or Tony Dorsett. Their coverage of Tom Landry was not flattering, focusing on a sharp decline in his last few years coaching.
Whether intentionally or not, the film implied that Jones made the 1990s Cowboys an overnight sensation. But Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin were immediately national figures because they had the star on their helmet. They were riding the coattails of Staubach, Dorsett and all the other Dallas legends.
If Jones had bought the Cardinals and won a Super Bowl, would they have immediately captured the nation’s imagination? No, because a whole generation of fans around the country had become Cowboys fans in the ‘70s. Hopefully, young people don’t watch this documentary and think they are America’s Team because of Jones.
2. That Jones is all about creating a soap opera
I don’t buy Jones’ claims that he creates drama for drama’s sake. Or the idea that Jones is OK with losing as long as the Cowboys are interesting. That sounds like a rationalization for not winning another Super Bowl.
When Jones is shown on camera back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, all he talks about is winning. He’s obsessed with it. While he does talk about improving branding, he never implies that he’d be satisfied with only being popular. He sings a different tune in more recent interviews. It took a couple decades for him to reach the conclusion that he had accomplished something by just being relevant.
On the day that Jones hired Barry Switzer, the owner laid out the priorities of the franchise. “Five years ago, I said we will win,” Jones said. “We must win and winning is the name of the game. Nothing has changed.”
Back in the day, Jones was singularly focused on championships. He said that winning a title at Arkansas transformed his life. Jones can’t be truly happy with the current state of the Cowboys – profitable and the center of attention with no new rings to show for it. He has no choice but to paint a positive picture of how the franchise has developed.
3. Jones role in growing the NFL
Jones has helped the NFL become the nation’s most popular sport. But if you knew nothing about football and just saw this documentary, you’d think Jones is the primary reason that the league is doing so well.
Jones is known as one of the architects of the league’s lucrative television deals. In the documentary, we learn that Rupert Murdoch is the one who called Jones with the idea to put the NFL on FOX. Jones helped push the deal through, but pro football was about to take off on TV with or without him.
Murdoch, no surprise, helps push the Jones narrative in his interview for the documentary. “He’s taught the other owners how important football is to this society,” Murdoch said. “It’s now part of the culture.”
The other owners didn’t know football was popular? Jones was in the right place at the right time. Network TV was expanding and sports were entering a new golden age on television. Jones famously said “500 coaches” could have led the Cowboys to a title when he was battling with Jimmy Johnson. I would have told him that 500 owners could have helped the NFL become a television force.
Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson pose with the Lombardi Trophy after defeating the Bills in Super Bowl XXVIII.
Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson pose with the Lombardi Trophy after defeating the Bills in Super Bowl XXVIII. Credit: RVR Photos-USA TODAY Sports — Source: RVR Photos-Imagn Images
4. Who really built the ‘90s Cowboys
The credit game continues 30 years later. Jones never says he was the sole mastermind for moves like the famous Herschel Walker trade. But he insists that each move was made together by him and his coach. Jimmy Johnson still won’t relent and says that he was the one who decided to deal Walker. History shows that Jones could never duplicate the success he had with Johnson after the early ‘90s.
Jones leans in on the Switzer Super Bowl year, which felt extra-special because he did it without Johnson. But it was still Johnson’s players. The film feels like Jones’ final plea for his former coach to give him more credit. Ultimately, even when they reconcile, it’s hard to believe a trade like that was anything but Johnson’s idea.
5. Explaining terrible behavior
The film did cover the Cowboys’ legal troubles. But the overall push of the film was to get us to empathize with players like Michael Irvin, Erik Williams and Charles Haley despite their actions. Even as they did unspeakable things, they were presented in a positive light. I was genuinely shocked when they described Irvin’s multiple drug-fueled sex parties and then found out he had a wife. And that she supported him. Kind of a strange hero’s journey.
“Football organizations … they’ll never win championships,” Irvin said. “Only football families win championships. That’s what we had that was different. We were a football family.”
An alternative view would have been that the Cowboys tolerated players with character red flags that other teams didn’t want because it helped them win. And naturally, that only works for so long before those players implode. The film touched on antisocial behaviors by Haley, including pleasuring himself in the meeting room with the 49ers. But again, the producers included the narrative that the team should be commended for sticking by him because he suffered from mental illness. They don’t focus on the fact that if Haley lost his ability to sack the quarterback, he’d be cut immediately.
6. The Cowboys have been close in recent years
One of the most surprising moments in the documentary was Jones’ reaction to the 2023 wild-card loss to the Green Bay Packers. He seemed to think he had a Super Bowl roster that year. The reality is that the Cowboys were nowhere close and they lost 48-32.
Tony Romo helped out Jones in the documentary with a rose-colored view on the last decade of Cowboys football.
“Those teams have been good enough to win the Super Bowl,” Romo said. “They just needed that one play, that one quarter that gets you over the hump. You want to blame Jerry for those things? It’s hard for me to ever think that.”
Toward the end of the documentary, Jerry and Stephen Jones are sitting in their office celebrating the massive contracts they gave Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb. That’s exactly why they haven’t won. They overpaid both players and hurt the overall roster. The salary-cap system started in ’94 and Jones hasn’t been able to build a champion since.
The Gambler and His Cowboys is a compelling story and a must-watch for football fans. Ultimately, however, it’s just a story. That’s what Jones sells and he’s done a great job doing that in this documentary.
About the Author
Andrew Perloff