New Cowboys series on Netflix revisits rocky relationships, addresses controversies

New York Times

3 days ago

Since February 1989, it can be argued that the story of the Dallas Cowboys has been about two men: Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson.
That's captured well in eight episodes of 'America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys,' Netflix's new docuseries focusing on the 1990s NFL dynasty, its fast rise and how it crashed amid scandals that resembled episodes of another '90s hit, 'The Jerry Springer Show.'
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Sex, drugs, ego and violence all fueled — and eventually derailed — the success of a franchise that won Super Bowls in the 1992 and 1993 seasons and another in the 1995 season. The series is directed by brothers Maclain and Chapman Way, who have teamed up to direct and produce multiple films in the 'Untold' series.
Jon Weinbach, one of the executive producers of the series, and his team wanted to answer one question about the Cowboys of this era: 'What is not widely known?'
'I think the best way of getting material from or getting stories that feel a little fresh is just to be super candid with the sources,' said Weinbach, who also was a producer for 'The Last Dance,' which focused on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls of the '90s, and the director of 'The Redeem Team,' which chronicled the 2008 U.S. Olympic men's basketball team that won a gold medal in Beijing.
'I think most of the time, people are pretty honest if they're not too rehearsed. We had great voices here because they have been interviewed a hundred times, so the bar is high. We didn't want it to be, 'Tell us about the same four touchdowns you scored.''
Experience the historic rise of one of the greatest teams in all of sports.
AMERICA'S TEAM: THE GAMBLER AND HIS COWBOYS premieres August 19. pic.twitter.com/j7xvOMitNI
— Netflix (@netflix) June 30, 2025
The what-if of the Jones-Johnson relationship, a topic of discussion among Cowboys followers for more than 30 years, is one of the biggest questions explored in the series. Jones and Johnson, college football teammates who won a national championship at Arkansas in 1964, reunited when Jones bought the Cowboys and hired Johnson as the head coach. They won two Super Bowls together (1992 and '93 seasons) before their relationship publicly deteriorated.
Jones won another Super Bowl with Barry Switzer as coach in 1995, but the Cowboys haven't reached the NFC Championship Game since.
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It's a story sports fans, particularly Cowboys fans, know well. To me, only the breakup of the Los Angeles Lakers' Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant rivals the Johnson-Jones split.
The Cowboys remain one of the most recognizable brands in sports, but on the field, they haven't recovered from a feud that was fueled by miscommunication and the need for recognition. The series sheds light on a variety of issues that contributed to the breakup — among them, whether Johnson or Jones should get credit for the momentum-changing Herschel Walker trade in 1989 — and breaks down what kept Johnson out of the Cowboys' Ring of Honor until 2023. Johnson's eventual inclusion in the Ring of Honor and the reconciliation that allowed it to happen are also covered in the series.
'What did really unlock simply was that it was both full access to Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson,' Maclain Way said. 'We're certainly not the ones to come up with the bright idea to do a documentary series on the '90s Cowboys. … I think a lot of great filmmakers would have made this decision, seeing how unique it was to have Jerry and Jimmy both interview for hours about their relationship.'
The series is engaging, mainly because Jones and Johnson's relationship, which even non-sports fans can find intriguing, is a primary discussion from start to finish. Even in episodes not focused on Johnson, his absence is prominent. His demanding style and level of discipline grinded on players, but it also kept them in line. After Johnson's departure, a more relaxed atmosphere made practices easier, but it also irked quarterback Troy Aikman, who would question the lack of accountability during games.
The Cowboys have remained captivating despite their lack of extensive playoff runs since the '90s. Players like Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin, Erik Williams, Nate Newton and Charles Haley — who were interviewed for the doc — all had incredible careers wearing the star on their helmets. The franchise is worth billions. Sports talk shows discuss the Cowboys regularly, reminding me of what a television executive once said to me about the NFL: There isn't a favorite team for executives, but if it was about ratings, the Cowboys would play all 18 weeks and in the playoffs.
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'America's Team' has been America's soap opera for more than three decades, as the NFL season prepares to start up again next month. With every season that ends without a Super Bowl, what Johnson accomplished is magnified.
There is a lot of insight into the Cowboys of that era. Controversies aren't skipped. It's impossible to tell the full story without delving into the drama.
There's Aikman's tension with Switzer after he replaced Johnson. Switzer said some with the Cowboys felt Aikman was being harder on Black players when things didn't go the team's way. Aikman said Switzer called him into his office after a game in which he scolded receiver Kevin Williams for on-field mistakes.
The story became news before the Cowboys' Super Bowl appearance in the 1995 season. Aikman, however, believed Switzer should have done more to quell it. In the series, Smith and Haley defend Aikman and rebuff the accusation, with Smith saying '90 percent' of the team was Black, so if Aikman yelled at a player, he would probably be Black.
That conversation only added to the difficult relationship between Aikman and Switzer. Aikman saw a team that needed discipline and a coach who was not holding players accountable, putting the responsibility on Aikman.
Beyond Jones and Johnson, the star of the series is Irvin. The 'Playmaker' was the leading receiver on the Super Bowl teams of the '90s, but he was also a center of controversy. Irvin said in the series that his 1996 drug trial started the end of the Cowboys dynasty.
Irvin also spoke of the infamous White House, a home near the Cowboys training facility where players held wild parties and brought guests over for sexual activity and drug use. It was an alternative location of debauchery, a place that wasn't a hotel room, for some of the players.
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'(Irvin's) first answer was, 'I was the president of the White House,'' Maclain said. 'He can kind of disarm you with something that everyone was super afraid to talk about. He owns it and talks about it.'
Additionally, Irvin reminds viewers of 'Scissorgate,' when he allegedly was involved in an incident with offensive lineman Everett McIver. Irvin, who was on probation from the drug trial, faced potential prison time over the incident.
No one from the team, including McIver, would discuss what happened that kept Irvin out of prison. Players also didn't want to discuss the White House.
Irvin, however, was unafraid to touch on any subject.
'He's just a master storyteller,' Chapman Way said. 'He's a larger-than-life character, but he's super raw and vulnerable at the same time. He kind of goes there without even having to ask.
'It's part of his process of how he works through things and how he understands himself and understands the past. We'd go from dying of laughter to tears in your eyes listening to some of his stories.'
The series provides other nuggets that some die-hard fans are just learning. We learn that Jones tried to buy the San Diego Chargers in 1966 with financing from Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa, who was believed to have ties to organized crime.
Jones also discloses in the series his Stage 4 cancer diagnosis in 2010 — and even that is part of the Jones-Johnson feud. As part of his treatment, it was suggested Jones practice meditation. He was told to write down the names of people who angered him the most and wish them the best.
The first name was Johnson — and he couldn't get past that one, even with Johnson being away from the Cowboys for more than a decade.
'You learn he had Stage 4 cancer and you're like, 'Well, that's something that I wasn't prepared for,' but the conversation naturally kind of went there,' Chapman Way said. 'It was interesting that he starts talking about Jimmy Hoffa and how he almost partnered with Jimmy Hoffa to buy the Chargers.
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'I'm just like, wait, what? What's going on here? … There's always little things that happen like that.'
There were about 40 hours of interviews with Jones, and cameras followed him during the 2023 season that ended with an embarrassing playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers in January 2024.
Even Irvin's story is intricately connected with Jones and Johnson. Irvin's college coach at Miami was Johnson, and Jones has built a strong bond with Irvin. Jones was in the ambulance with Irvin on Oct. 10, 1999, when he was injured in Philadelphia after a tackle. It would be his last play as an NFL receiver, as he was temporarily paralyzed. Irvin officially retired in July of 2000.
Irvin said in the series that he would have tried to play again if Johnson were the coach.
Just another what-if.
(Photo of Jerry Jones and Michael Irvin: Frazer Harrison / Getty Images)
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