The Cowboys were losing $1 million a month when Jerry Jones bought them for $140 million in 1989. They now rank atop Forbes’ annual team value rankings at $4.2 billion.
Every owner these days is trying to keep up with Jones, who enters the Pro Football Hall of Fame next month.
“The NFL was always a dream of mine, an ambition of mine, and I must say that almost within months of the time that I actually could afford to basically be involved -- 29 years ago -- to be involved in an ownership position, I immediately exchanged the financial security and basically put our future, put practically everything in terms of the Dallas Cowboys in buying the team,” Jones said on a Hall of Fame press conference Thursday. “It was not a pretty investment. It wasn’t one that you or anybody else would admire at the time. That was not the point. The point was what it could do. It really does show that in spite of some of the physical aspects of challenges that if you just have enough passion about things [you can be successful]. My most important thing is I don’t think I’ve worked a day since I bought the Dallas Cowboys. It has absolutely been a labor of love every morning, and I’ve [never] been more excited about the future, the future of the league, the future of the Cowboys, my future. I’m more excited today than I was maybe in ’89 when I became involved.”