I have a huge secret that I'm probably not supposed to leak, but because we are so close-knit here at BTB I figure I can share it with you. Jerry Jones loves to talk. Surprise! With the Super Bowl now just days away, Jones is preparing to host 100,000 of the NFL's closest sponsors friends at Cowboys Stadium for the concluding act of the 2010 NFL season. The Super Bowl is the crowning achievement of any one associated with professional football and as an owner, hosting one in your newly built shrine to all things Cowboys has to rank as one of Jerry's highest achievements. With that, the media have been chomping at the bit for some good Jerry-speak and he did nothing to disappoint them. Here is a collection of Jerry Jones tidbits for you to snack on.
On the importance of winning a Super Bowl as opposed to hosting one: [Ft. Worth Star Telegram]
"You need to win," Jones said. "Stadiums are important. But the most important thing is to win the Super Bowl. I drive across the water. I don't lay up. I go for it. I've gone for it. Every year you don't win, it's tough."
On the great city of Dallas hosting the Super Bowl:[CBS Sportsline]
"This is football country. It runs deep. It runs through men and women," he said. "It's a big deal. That's the way it is here -- period. All that should help us if we have ambitions of hosting future Super Bowls."
On his mistakes evaluating our roster and staff going into the 2010 season: [Ft. Worth Star Telegram]
"From the standpoint of expectations, I thought we had the players and the roster," Jerry Jones said. "It goes to show you something that I learned a long time ago. If you think that by looking at someone's résumé or by how they look on paper is going to make the play, then you have misjudged it. We are a classic case of that."
Follow the jump for more from Owner Jerry Jones
On selling the naming rights to Cowboys Stadium: [Dallasnews.com]
"The idea of this being Cowboys Stadium was appealing," he said. "It is important to us to have people talking about the Cowboys."
"But I have always said that unless we were ready in the right way with the right partner," Jones said, "then Cowboys Stadium is the way we wanted it."
On revenue sharing: [espndallas.com]
"It is incumbent on us to recognize what we had in place is not a good model," Jones said. "Rather than waiting until we're in the shape the country is in or the world is in when things have gone to hell in a handbasket economically, we make some of those changes we'd love to have made 10 or 15 years ago in this country or other countries. You do it before you're off the cliff rather than when you're driving off the cliff."
On the priorities of the owners: [espndallas.com]
"What counts is, are we going to be playing in the fall? Are we going to be playing in the fall?" Jones said Tuesday during a press conference at the Super Bowl media center. "Not hang our hats on [organized team activities], how many offseason workouts, how much of all that. Are we going to be playing in the fall?
"I am one of the leaders of the pack on playing in the fall. I've got 31 right even with me as far as the owners are concerned. We want to be playing in the fall."
On plans to add Drew Pearson to the Ring of Honor: [espndallas.com]
"We have yet to address that," Jerry Jones said Tuesday. "There is no decision there at all. Obviously, it’s always been a question of your Hall of Fame players that deserve a lot of consideration there.
"But there has been no plan, and right now there is no plan to have an inductee into the Ring of Honor this next season. There’s no plan."