ESPN uncovered new details on how Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has turned the franchise into a public carnival with guided fan tours and paid access to the team.
While the long-held line on the Cowboys has been that Jones engaging in these circus acts is all that makes Dallas “America’s Team,” analyst Mina Kimes made the opposite case this week.
Kimes argued that the tours, which ESPN reported generated $10 million for the franchise at the expense of staff and athletes being treated like museum displays, actually hurt the organization despite all that revenue.
“I do not think that these, small incremental gains he gets, whether it’s attention or ticket sold are actually good for the Dallas Cowboys organization in the long-term,” Kimes said on the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast. “I think that it’s actually kind of a dated way of thinking about this team.”
Dallas infamously has not made it past the divisional round since winning its last Super Bowl in 1995. They struggled to come to terms on new contracts with star players Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and Micah Parsons this offseason after refusing to extend those players early. And through six games this season, the Cowboys are .500.
Kimes explained that while $10 million is an impressive number to derive from treating team facilities like an amusement park, the experience of playing for the Cowboys is worsening in a way that has a tangible impact on the team’s on-field performance.
“If you believe, as I do, that all of this is actually counterproductive to running, operating, building a successful football team — and I genuinely believe it is after hearing these players and seeing the product on the field and looking at what they do in free agency, or what they don’t do — then yes, I think you’re actually eroding the long-term value of this franchise in pursuit of these small gains,” Kimes said. “I really do.”
More to the point, Kimes argued that the Cowboys would be the Cowboys with or without stunts like these.
“What I’m disputing is that the value of the franchise is in any way tied to any of this bulls***,” she said.
While it’s indisputable that Dallas is the most popular NFL team, Kimes does not believe it is because of how Jones runs it like an entertainment product.
Instead, Kimes said the inverse is more accurate. Jones uses the attention around the Cowboys to keep his status as a celebrity icon up.
“The person who benefits the most is Jerry Jones,” she said. “I think that’s why my hackles go up a little bit when he’s painted as this, like, brilliant businessman … he does it because he likes being a celebrity.”
There are a ton of reasons the Cowboys are popular. For many Western cities in the 1970s and 1980s, the Cowboys were the only team they could watch regularly. Coaches like Tom Landry and Jimmy Johnson combined with star players like Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin, and Deion Sanders brought attention to the team on and off the field. Winning five Super Bowls in 15 years doesn’t hurt.
But now, Kimes is pushing back on the idea that just because Jones does it, it’s smart.
From the tabloid fodder around the cheerleaders to the presence of the team’s former players in the media to the team’s continued regular-season success, the Cowboys are still extremely relevant.
To Kimes, that’s true with or without fans gawking at players while they lift weights.
[Pablo Torre Finds Out on YouTube]
