Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones channels “The Godfather” to handle criticism.
Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, is one of the most polarizing figures in sports, even amongst his own fanbase. People love him, or people hate him.
Some of the criticism of Jones, at least lately, comes with curious decisions to over look red flags regarding players and their character. For instance signing free agent defensive end Greg Hardy, who allegedly threw a girlfriend on a bed of assault rifles and was initially convicted before an appeal overturned it because the victim didn’t testify.
Hardy then made some inappropriate comments about Tom Brady’s wife and melted down on the sideline, including slapping a clipboard out of a coach’s hands.
Jones stood by and supported Hardy publicly through it all, and he has been criticized for it.
And how does Jerry Jones handle it according to his daughter Charlotte Jones-Anderson, Executive Vice President and Chief Brand Officer for the Cowboys?
By channeling “The Godfather”… and suddenly it all makes sense.
“I think that’s probably been the hardest part of my job,” Jones-Anderson said of hearing criticism of her father, via the Dallas Morning News. “It has certainly been the hardest part of being his daughter. It’s hard for our children. It’s personally hard on all of us to hear any criticism. I think we all say we appreciate criticism and will take that constructively, but deep down it hurts.
“He has always been one who will be the one to cheer everybody up and say, ‘This is just part of that character-building process that we all go through.’ Sometimes, quite frankly, I just want to say, ‘I’ve had enough of building this character. Can we not just move on from this?’ He’s got a great quote that we all laugh about behind closed doors, and it actually comes from The Godfather. He says, ‘This is the life we’ve chosen.'”
Ok, so it Jones channeling the Godfather wasn’t as bad as expected. That’s actually a pretty solid quote for anyone in the spotlight trying to cope with criticism.
For what it’s worth, Charlotte Jones-Anderson said she had input on the decision to bring Greg Hardy on board, and stated that the Cowboys did an incredible amount of due dilegence.
Whether that part about the Cowboys interviewing in depth people around Hardy to do their due dilegence is true or not, who knows.
“Actually, I was involved in that,” Jones-Anderson said. “I had the opportunity to express my opinion and my concerns. We all did.
“I will say this, we performed the most due diligence on any player that I can recall in my lifetime of working here, interviewing people who had worked with him, who knew him from back in high school through his days of his professional career so that we could decide if this is someone we wanted to take a chance on.”