Getting NFL back in LA put Jerry Jones over the top in Hall vote

Getting NFL back in LA put Jerry Jones over the top in Hall vote

Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/jerry-jones-played-key-role-in-rams-relocation/article_6bcc4435-190b-5fb6-8adc-a5c81a34fc67.html

It was probably only a matter of time before Jerry Jones got the call to Canton as a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. After all, he has those three Super Bowl titles from the 1990s, the gaudy palace that is AT&T Stadium, and now, the mother of all practice facilities in The Star in Frisco, Texas.

Jones knows how to brand, make money, and … make even more money.

But what put him over the top in terms of his 2017 entry into the Hall of Fame may have been helping get the NFL back in Los Angeles after a two-decade absence.

This, of course, came at the expense of St. Louis, with the Rams returning to LA in 2016. It’s safe to say it may not have happened without Jones helping Stan Kroenke’s stadium project and then intensely lobbying and twisting arms at the league owners meeting in January 2016 that resulted in the relocation vote.

During a conference call Thursday previewing his Aug. 5 induction into the Hall of Fame, Jones was asked if he took pride in helping get the Rams back to LA.

The answer in so many words: Yes.

“The Los Angeles area … is the entertainment capital of the world,” Jones said. “It was such a unique opportunity for us to have the right team, the right situation, and really do it right in Los Angeles.

“I think the fact that the Rams, and certainly the Chargers are back there, that’s gonna do it. But we don’t get many opportunities. We certainly make a lot of waves relative to viewership. We make a lot of waves relative to television. All of those things.

“But we have to recognize when we have an opportunity to do something special, and I think Los Angeles is one of those to help drive a flag, if you will, as a landmark opportunity for the NFL.”

The opportunity came in Rams owner Kroenke’s willingness to build a $2.6 billion stadium complex at no cost to the NFL. The “landmark” itself, the new stadium, won’t open until 2020.

Although he grew up in Arkansas, Jones actually was born in 1942 in Inglewood, just outside of LA proper, where the new stadium is under construction.

“My parents were there during World War II,” Jones said. “So I have always had an affinity; many of my relatives live in the Southern California area.”

Jones has been a maverick in many ways since purchasing the Cowboys in 1989 for $140 million. But the newer generation of league owners has become followers to a degree — appreciating his marketing touch and ability to maximize revenue.

Jones said he’s proud of and in some ways still amazed at the interest in the NFL game.

“That has always been so appealing and interesting,” he said. “And has really in my view given us many of the great opportunities. Certainly a lot of things that I’ve been privileged to be a part of in the promotion of the game, the marketing of the game, has to do with that kind of interest.”

Jones has never been afraid to buck convention or think outside the box. Nowhere is that more evident than the fact that he doubles as the team’s general manager.

“I followed in the footsteps of Tex Schramm,” Jones said. “The Cowboys have had only two general managers.”

With Jones holding the dual titles of owner and GM, there was no middleman between owner and head coach. That meant streamlined communications and the ability to make decisions quickly.

“I knew that ultimately as an owner, this is pro football,” Jones said. “Every decision is about financial. You don’t make one that’s not financial. So I knew with the commitment that I made, which at the time was the largest that had ever been expended for any sports team — I had no partners — I knew that I had to understand and manage where everything would be going.”

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Lawsuit claims Jerry Jones conspired with Kroenke on Rams move

Nearly a full page in the St. Louis relocation lawsuit is devoted to the Cowboys owner and what the suit claims is his intentional interference with the plaintiffs’ business relationship with the Rams.