Jerry Jones' Old Quote About CBA Negotiations Is Going Viral
LANDOVER, MD - OCTOBER 29: Cowboys owner Jerry Jones meets with fans prior to the start of the Dallas Cowboys against the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field on October 29, 2017 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
Long-time Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has been one of the most polarizing figures around the NFL for decades. Some old, recently-excavated quotes from the oil tycoon billionaire have only strengthened that perception.
On Tuesday morning, ESPN's Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham released a long-form feature story highlighting the career of NFL Player's Association executive director DeMaurice Smith (2009-present).
A large chunk of the story highlighted the heated 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations between owners and players that ultimately resulted in a significant offseason labor dispute. In March of that year, the NFL owners proposed a deal that would significantly increase the players' overall salaries -- but heavily decrease their overall share of league revenue.
Smith urged the players to deny the deal -- which they did. But, that initial offer ended up being $1 billion better than the final offer players agreed to before the start of the season.
In a meeting between owners and NFL executives after the deal was finalized, Jones gave a strange analogy for what had just gone down.
"Look, my daddy grew up on a farm in southwest Missouri," the Cowboys' owner said. "Every so often in the spring, the wind would come from a different part of the country, and the moon would set a different way, and the owls would start f------ the chickens. ... The owls are f------ the chickens. It makes no sense that they turned this down, but it's a great thing for us."
That wasn't the only wild quote from the piece. Co-author Seth Wickersham took to Twitter to share his favorite Jones colloquialisms.
You can read the full feature here.
