Jerry Jones recalls fans' outrage and death threats after buying Dallas Cowboys and firing Tom Landry in 1989

Time of India

2 days ago

Jerry Jones is the owner of the Dallas Cowboys. In February 1989, he bought the team and then fired Tom Landry, the coach who had held the job for 29 years. Fans were very angry. In the new Netflix series America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys, Jerry says he even got death threats after he made those moves.
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He also put himself in charge of the team, both as president and general manager, which was not the norm. This began a tense time for him and Cowboys fans.
Jerry Jones received death threats after firing Tom Landry in 1989
When Jerry Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys on February 25, 1989, in Dallas, he immediately let go of Tom Landry, the only coach the team had known. Fans loved Landry, who coached from 1960 to 1988 and even had a parade with over 100,000 people to say thank you to him.
Jerry also told lawmakers in his home state of Arkansas that he received multiple death threats because of these changes.
He even said, 'I was Darth Vader,' to show how upset fans were.
At the time, Cowboys Nation felt betrayed. One sportscaster said,
'Jerry and the Jones family had broken into the museum and taken our most valuable possession,'
talking about Tom Landry's fans felt such love for him.
Later, Jerry Jones admitted the firing was a big mistake in how people saw it, saying,
'The firing of Coach Landry was certainly one of the great PR missteps, maybe of all time.
Because I still wear that.'
Also Read:
Jerry Jones hired Jimmy Johnson after Tom Landry's exit from Dallas Cowboys
The day after he fired Tom Landry, Jerry Jones brought in his friend and former college teammate, Jimmy Johnson, as the new head coach. At a press conference, which many called the 'Saturday Night Massacre,' Jerry Jones said he was ready to build a new direction.
His daughter, Charlotte Jones Anderson, who is now a top leader in the team's brand and business work, recalled thinking, 'What do we do?' when all the backlash hit.
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Still, Jerry didn't give up. He said, 'With all that hate, I could stop and cry, or I could just keep going. But I'm not gonna take my marbles and go home. I can't, I burned all my ships when I landed.' That meant he was fully committed and had to keep going forward.