Jerry Jones is a fraud.
And in Texas, everything is supposed to be bigger. So that makes Jones, the Dallas Cowboys’ owner, the biggest fraud in the NFL.
The former my-way-or-the-highway owner has softened, become more sensitive to his players kneeling in protest against police brutality and social injustice against Black and brown people in this country.
What?
The same owner who in 2017 threatened to bench or cut any player who kneeled during that national anthem is now down with the cause; woke, if you will.
Please.
Jones — whose franchise has become an also-ran with just four playoff wins in 25 years since he took over making the football decisions — only cares about himself and how he looks to the public. Basically, his team’s white fanbase.
Hence, Jones only knows he has no power this time to stop the movement in this country. Black players, some of them stars, wearing his uniform, will take a knee before the start of the season-opener at the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday night, in front of a nationally-televised audience.
“I think we’re going to have guys kneeling, we’re going to have guys standing and the biggest thing is that we’re all supporting each other,” said star running back Ezekiel Elliott to the media. “We’re all supporting each other and that’s what’s going to bring us all together.”
This is what Jones said about the inevitable (for most, it signaled a “green light” to players from him):
“I would expect the Cowboys to show great sensitivity and I hope fans will receive it, however each individual presents it, that it’s a genuine ask for help, because right now in our society, we got some things we need to address.”
The last thing Jones wanted was to take a hard-line stance and then be embarrassed by his players when they took a knee. That’s the only reason he’s now on-board. It’s about saving face, not doing the right thing.
For years, we had to hear this nonsense that Jones loved his Black players and took care of them. It’s not real.
And as far as giving Black players second and third chances — Greg Hardy, Aldon Smith and Alonzo Spellman, to name a few — when they have done wrong, been convicted of crimes, Jones is looking out for his franchise, his money.
If Jones thinks they can help the Cowboys win more games and make more money, he will turn the other way and act as if nothing wrong took place.
But make no mistake about it. Anything he did had to be on Jones’ terms.
As long as you did what he said, you’re good with the Cowboys.
Three years ago, Jones yelled from the rooftop that anyone who “disrespects the flag” won’t be allowed to play.
“We cannot in any way give the implication that we tolerate disrespecting the flag,” Jones said to the media back then. “We know that there is a serious debate in this country about those issues, but there is no question in my mind, that the (NFL) and the Dallas Cowboys are going to stand up for the flag.”
Scared to death of their owner, no Cowboys player took a knee during the anthem, all taking a knee with Jones before the anthem (you’ve likely seen the photo).
Now, that same guy who claimed he was standing on principle and doing what’s right, has caved.
It means his whole proud American, tough-guy act was a fraud from the beginning.
Jones’ stance that kneeling was disrespectful from jump street was fraudulent, too.
It was never about the flag. That was just a convenient excuse to dismiss the movement, ignore the real issue at hand.
Read Jones’ quotes three years ago and now. He still talks around the issue. He refuses to really address the problem, the police brutality against unarmed Black and brown people in this country. Have yet to see a quote where he condemns the actions by white officers in this country.
To this day, Jones is still worried about white fans more than he is about Black players and the plight of their people.
On Sunday, when some Black Cowboys players kneel during the national anthem, and Jones is cool with it, white fans shouldn’t be mad at the players.
Those fans should be mad at Jones for being a fraud. He never cared about the flag, just about their feelings that might be attached to their wallets.