Jerry Jones reveals hope for what his legacy will be

Jerry Jones has been all over the news over the past couple of weeks. From the Micah Parsons saga to the Netflix documentary about his Cowboys, there’s plenty to talk about in Dallas, coinciding with the beginning of the 2025 NFL season.

At 82-years-old, the Cowboys team owner was reflective during an appearance on Good Morning America on Wednesday. Asked about his legacy, Jones took it off the football field, revealing what’s more important to him than anything.

“I hope right there at that top they say he was a good daddy,” Jones responded. That’s what comes to mind for the Dallas franchise owner regarding what his legacy will be.

It’s certainly a sweet, sentimental answer from Jones, but Cowboys fans won’t want to hear it right now. They’re divided after the Parsons move, wondering if the team will be proven right for trading away their star defensive player, or if the former first-rounder will haunt them for years to come.

Later in his interview on ABC, Jones took the time to explain what went into the deal, and how it became about weighing the value of one player with multiple other players. Both the picks back in the trade and what else the team can afford without having him on the roster convinced the team owner, it seems.

“We have two kinds of capital or currency in the NFL,” Jones added. “One of them is draft picks. The other is the financial because every team is limited to the same amount of resources to spend, and having said that, Micah enabled us to have four, possibly as many as six players, for the future. That’s a good trade when you need numbers. I’ll take the numbers every time.”

Alas, finding a way to get the Cowboys back to Super Bowl contention is, ultimately, the goal for Jones. This is a franchise that has won five Super Bowls but none since the 1995 season. That season was also the last time they made it to the NFC Championship Game. That’s the longest NFC Championship Game appearance drought of any team in the conference. 

In the end, Dallas sent Parsons to Green Bay for two first-round picks in the 2026 and 2027 NFL Draft, as well as three-time Pro Bowl DT Kenny Clark. In return, the All-Pro pass rusher Parsons is expected to sign a four-year, $188 million deal. It will make him the NFL’s highest-paid non-quarterback with an average salary of $47 million annually.

It remains to be seen if Jones is proven right or wrong, but he has conviction, as the least. The Cowboys will be front and center once again on Thursday, in the NFL’s season-opening contest in Philadelphia.

— On3’s Dan Morrison contributed to this article.