CBS, one of the primary broadcasters of NFL games, served up a 60 Minutes profile of Dallas Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones last Sunday. The piece was largely flattering with most of the criticism aimed at Jones' failings as a general manager in recent years. (Jones is the only owner to serve as GM, as well.)
The piece addressed Jones' rise from being the son of a grocery store owner to being owner of the most valuable sports franchise in America. Forbes recently estimated the club to be worth $1.8 billion. Jones bought the club in 1989 for $150 million.
Clearly, Jones knows how to turn a profit. Which is why his comments during the 60 Minutes interview on the looming NFL lockout should have garnered more attention.
Problem is, CBS didn't air them. Rather, CBS included them in its online "Overtime" feature, which was likely seen by only a tiny fraction of fans.
Consider this question from reporter Scott Pelley: "I think the first thing fans want to know from Jerry Jones is -- Is there going to be football next year?"
Before we get to Jones' answer, this question needs to be asked: If the first things fans want to know is whether or not there is going to be football, why didn't CBS air this question and Jones' response? CBS made absolutely no mention of the looming work stoppage.
I'd like to think that 60 Minutes wouldn't pull any punches -- though they have before -- but undoubtedly, executives at CBS had to consider how to handle the looming work stoppage considering how vital the NFL broadcasts are to their network (and indeed to 60 Minutes, which has to depend on NFL viewers sticking around for it).
The other alternative would be that Jones' comments about whether there would be football -- again, what every fan wants to know -- were cut for content reasons. Perhaps they didn't fit the narrative the producers were trying to tell about the pull yourself up by your bootstraps entrepreneur. Of course, that would make the comments he did make about the economics of the game all the more relevant.
Or maybe the producers didn't think Jones' comments about the possible loss of the 2011 NFL season were easy enough to follow or sexy enough or controversial enough. But that's the story. That Jones and the other owners can't effectively explain why a lockout is truly necessary.
Perhaps they didn't think Jones' comments fit into the story of the owner who is going through the "year from hell." But their profile was largely sympathetic, with Pelly pointing out that "there's always next season."
But there may not be a next season. And Jones may be, in part, to blame.
Whatever its reasons, CBS did its viewers and NFL fans everywhere a disservice by not airing Jones' response to the question of whether there would be football. (Okay, they get some credit for putting them in an "Overtime" segment, but even that report was flawed, claiming Jones "spent $1.2 billion on his new football stadium." In fact, the city of Arlington owns the stadium and contributed $325 million to build it. (Both facts should have been mentioned in the piece that aired.)
So here's what Jones said: "What you need to do is address a car wreck years before it gets there. That's when you can do something about it." When asked by Pelley to explain what the "car wreck" was, Jones said: "Basically, the model that we have does not work. The economic model of the NFL that we have, relative to the players does. Not. Work."
Jones emphasized those last words as if he was hoping to single-handedly change the (true) perception that the league is the most profitable in the world and has never been more popular.
Pelley also asked: "Do you think [a lockout] would be disastrous for the game?"
Jones: "No. I do not. But I know that the sentiment is not to have a lockout."
Jerry Jones said a lockout would not be disastrous. How is that not news?
At the very least, it would be totally disastrous for the fans.
During the interview, Pelley said to Jones: "You know most fans think that this idea of the possibility of a lockout is an argument between billionaires and millionaires that leaves them out. And no one's looking out for them."
Well, Mr. Pelley, someone is looking out for them -- Sports Fans Coalition. Is CBS?
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Brian Frederick is the Executive Director of Sports Fans Coalition. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication and lives in Washington, D.C. Email him at brian@sportsfans.org.
Follow Brian Frederick on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brifred
It will get ugly and the model actually does work, it just gives the players more power than the owners think they should have. Owners, like all folks that have huge power, think they need more and without it they are not in control. The problem is that money is so huge that greed takes over and you have to have all the ingredients for this recipe in harmony. A lock out is simply sour grapes on one side or the other, but you don't see players getting support that the owners do.
The NFL might get a little too slick for its own good...it is the best marketed program in this country, name one better.
Forget Jones and talk to his players and the NFL Player rep, there is the story, not with this pouty little owner-boy who did not get a home team SB like he wanted, awwww
Now they are just a more boring version of Entertainment Tonight, with no Journalists anymore, just stenographers for their Corporate Masters and fawning "Celebutard" interviews.
That is why their ratings suck now.
The last thing corporate America wants are employees with a strong id...
The NFL also needs to address how it can market to hispanics, a community that is gaining more economic and political clout. Again, failing to do that and then asking players to bite the bullet as a result is ridiculous.
Yes, LA will have a team, and teams can move, before the Jags I thought the Vikes were going there, but not so! There is room for another two teams, IMHO, one in LA and one international if possible, but the NFL is not going to dilute its current mix until it is a known and tv revenues are going to support growth and certainty for a long term.
There is so much wrong with professional sports as mass entertainment. Billionaires and millionaires off OUR BACKS. How to squeeze ever more money out of a poorer middle and lower class to feed their greed engines. Even in the old days, once TV was widely available and broadcasting games was ironed out....there was plenty of money. These players got fame, and eventually enough money to be very well off. Team owners and TV networks and advertisers were all drawn to the money there. I know this is too big of a topic....that greed ruins everything and enough is never enough...but Come On, Man. Basically the oldest model of this nationwide broadcast sport that we all saw in the 60's was workable and profitable.
Now look what it has become. Holding states and metropoli hostage to stadium demands, ransacking public funds, moving games to pay TV platforms, and selfish greedy players whom our children idolize...how much worse could it be, can it get? I say let them do a lockout, and hope the public walks away. They don't make anything useful.