Stephen Jones aims for success, not succession with Dallas Cowboys

IRVING — Stephen Jones removes his jacket, folds it and carefully lays it across a chair in his office. The light-blue pocket square sparks a story.

Every morning at 8, when the Dallas Cowboys were building their stadium, Jones had a standing appointment to meet with Bill Parcells. Whenever Jones walked into the head coach’s office wearing a suit and a hanky, as Parcells liked to call it, he knew what was coming.

“I’m getting Stadium Steve today,” Parcells would bellow. “I guess you’re into things that aren’t important to Bill. I’m trying to win games, and you’re trying to build a stadium.

“Now we have a conflict.”

Jones laughs as he remembers those days. In three hours he’ll be wearing his jacket as he announces Ford will have its name on the Frisco practice facility scheduled to open in the summer of 2016.

The successor

Two days later, on Sunday evening, he’ll be sitting with his family in their suite at AT&T Stadium as the Cowboys open the regular season against the New York Giants.

As the team’s chief operating officer, Jones was the point person in securing naming rights for the stadium. He spearheaded the Frisco project. The discipline to ignore Johnny Manziel and other shiny objects in recent drafts and the fiscal restraint shown in letting DeMarco Murray and DeMarcus Ware go over the last 18 months are other examples of his growing influence.

Stephen has learned the business of football from legendary coaches and, above all, his father, Jerry, since he left a brief career in chemical engineering behind. The young man who once had to push his father against the wall of an upscale Dallas hotel to make his point no longer has to go to such lengths to be heard.

“When you’ve been doing something for 25-plus years, then you really start to have experience,” Stephen said. “I think people just have more respect and tend to listen to you. Your voice is a little louder, no question. I think Jerry has more confidence in me.

“I know a lot of people want to say that Jerry is stepping back. To the contrary, I don’t think anything has really changed at all.’’

Those who have worked for the Cowboys, like Jimmy Johnson, Parcells and Larry Lacewell, who spent 13 years as the team’s director of college and pro scouting, say that’s true.

Stephen has always had a stronger presence behind the scenes than most knew. He has been, Lacewell said, “the guy in the middle of the storm, the reasonable guy.”

The difference in recent months is that Stephen has assumed a higher public profile. His father turns 73 in October and has no plans to retire, yet Jerry has consciously set out to assure fans that once he is gone, the franchise is in good hands with his sons, Stephen and Jerry Jr., and his daughter, Charlotte Jones Anderson.

Stephen understands the importance of a seamless transition but doesn’t like to talk about it. His voice cracks and tears come to his eyes when the topic shifts to a succession plan.

Jerry said he is often asked when he is going to turn things over.

“It’s hard to turn something over that’s been turned over almost since the day you walked through the door,” he said.

The teddy bear, grizzly

Jerry Jr. was talking to Stephen’s wife one day, complaining about how his older brother did this and that.

“Oh, you know Stephen is just a teddy bear,” Karen said.

“Yeah, he’s a teddy bear until you poke him,” Jerry Jr. responded. “Then he’s a grizzly.”

Stephen was given a big title to leave his position as a reservoir engineer in the family’s oil and gas business in Fort Smith, Ark., and join his father with the Cowboys.

The two were so busy in those early days they rarely went into Dallas. They would drive from their hotel to Valley Ranch day in and day out, usually staying well past midnight as they tried to get their arms around this new venture.

Stephen did a lot of listening. He soaked up all he could from Johnson and people in every department. He was well liked and treated people with respect, but Lacewell said that the owner’s oldest son was stern when needed.

“I thought because I was older I could push him around a little bit, but that wasn’t true at all,” Lacewell said. “He would fire back at my ass in a minute.”

Jerry likes to tell the story of how Stephen threw him against a wall at the Mansion 20 years ago when the club was about to sign cornerback Deion Sanders.

Stephen thought the seven-year, $35 million contract was excessive and would create problems with Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith. When Jerry said he was going into the next room to tell Sanders’ agent that they had a deal, Stephen grabbed his father by the arm and pushed him.

“What are you going to do, hit me?” Jerry asked.

“I’m not going to hit you, but let’s talk a little more,” Stephen said.

The Cowboys did sign Sanders, but Jerry went to Aikman, Irvin and Smith first to secure buy-in.

When Parcells was being wooed as the Cowboys coach near the end of the ‘02 season, Parcells wanted to bring in Mike Tannenbaum as general manager. Jerry told him that wouldn’t work and that he and Stephen handled those duties. Parcells met with Stephen and decided to proceed.

The two got along really well. That doesn’t mean they didn’t have their moments.

One day, Parcells began to yell at Todd Williams, now the team’s director of football administration, telling him to stay out of the training room. The coach then caught Stephen out of the corner of his eye.

“You keep your ass out of there too,” Parcells said.

“Just so we’re clear, Todd is going to be in the training room,” Stephen shot back. “He’s there when I can’t be and will be as long as we own the team. And as long as we own this team, I’ll go anywhere I want.”

Fifteen minutes later, all was forgotten.

The team peacekeeper

Stephen thinks the world of Parcells and calls him “one of my favorites.” The two still talk, with the Hall of Fame coach calling earlier this month to tease the 51-year old executive and chat about the upcoming season.

“He’s very smart,” Parcells said. “He has good people skills. He has a good sense of humor, is a good-hearted person and is thorough.”

Lacewell believes Stephen kept peace between his father and Parcells by serving as the mediator both men trusted. He filled the same role for his father and Johnson before that relationship ended.

“Watching him grow and actually take responsibility in the Cowboys organization is really something,” said Johnson, who first met a 16-year-old Stephen at Johnson’s summer football camp. “He’s very talented, works very hard, is passionate about the job and around the league is recognized as one of the best at what he does.”

Jerry wasn’t the most popular figure in Texas after purchasing the Cowboys and firing head coach Tom Landry. The split with Johnson a few years later didn’t help.

A lot of times the club would have Stephen go out and talk to groups rather than his father. Jerry and Rich Dalrymple, the team’s senior vice president of public relations, gave him a standard line to open every talk: “Give me a chance before you judge me,” Stephen would say. “I’m a lot more like my mother than I am my father.”

Carmen Policy, the vice president and counsel for the San Francisco 49ers in the ‘80s and ‘90s, came to the same conclusion, once saying it was clear that Stephen took after his mother, Gene. He intimated that was a good thing.

“There’s a lot of truth to that,” Stephen said. “I think I’m more that way. Dad would be the first to tell you that, too.

“My brother and sister are much more like my father personality wise.”

What Stephen works to do is build consensus in the organization. That’s big when it comes to the draft.

The draft day stalwart

The owner’s fascination with Manziel in the ‘14 draft was no secret.

The interest went beyond the quarterback’s flamboyant nature and marketing panache. Jerry had endured five frustrating years of trying to find Aikman’s successor. He didn’t want to go through that again once Tony Romo’s career is over.

Coaches and scouts spent nearly one full day discussing the pros and cons of Manziel in front of Jerry and Stephen the week of the draft. No conclusion was stated at the end of the session.

Stephen decided to press the issue the morning of the first round. Jerry felt that Manziel would be gone when the Cowboys were on the clock at No. 16. Stephen wasn’t so sure.

“Let’s not assume that, Dad,” Stephen said as he took a seat in his father’s office. “We need to have this conversation. He could be there. We can’t wait until tonight.”

Jerry asked Stephen what he would do. Stephen said he would pass on Manziel in the first round. Jerry said he would, too, if one of the defensive players the team liked was available.

Stephen thought there was a chance one of those players - linebacker Anthony Barr, defensive tackle Aaron Donald or linebacker Ryan Shazier - would be on the board. He then made a case for offensive lineman Zack Martin and detailed his reasons again why he wouldn’t take Manziel.

“I never knew you felt that strongly,” Jerry said.

Stephen suggested that his father talk to the coaches and scouts over the course of the day to dig deeper on their thoughts about Manziel and left it there.

Later that evening, everyone gathered for the draft. Barr went No. 9 to Minnesota. Donald went No. 13 to St. Louis. Stephen thought Shazier would land in their laps, but he went the pick ahead of the Cowboys to Pittsburgh.

He looked over and saw his father’s eyes light up.

“Who do you all want to take?” Jerry asked.

Martin was the top-rated player on the Cowboys board. Stephen knew everyone in the room loved him. Will McClay, the senior director of college/pro personnel, spoke up and said Martin. Head coach Jason Garrett said he believed the team should take Martin.

“I don’t know about that,” Jerry said. “Let’s go over this quarterback thing one more time.”

McClay and Garrett spoke again for Martin. Offensive coordinator Scott Linehan voiced his support for the Notre Dame offensive lineman. Jerry then turned to Stephen and asked what he thought the club should do.

“We need to take Martin,” Stephen said.

Less than a minute remained before the Cowboys had to submit their pick. They considered moving back, but there was no trade to be made.

“OK, I guess that’s what we’ll do,” Jerry announced to the room.

The Cowboys selected Martin. Jerry, the former college offensive linemen, leaned over and whispered in his son’s ear.

“Son, if you want to do special things in life, you can’t keep picking and doing things down the middle,” he said. “What we just did was down the middle.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Stephen responded.

The influencer

One month before the Cowboys took Martin over Manziel, the club released Ware, a Pro Bowl fixture with a high salary. They made no attempt to retain defensive tackle Jason Hatcher in free agency. These were overt signs of Stephen’s growing influence.

That was followed by the decision six months ago to allow Murray, the NFL’s rushing champion, to leave in free agency.

“That was a tough one,” Stephen said.

It’s even tougher for Stephen to talk about the day his father no longer runs the team. His eyes fill with tears, and he falls silent for 13 seconds before he composes himself.

“You’ve got to be smart about it,” he said. “If you don’t address it, then it does end up a mess. Boy, but it’s a hard thing to address, especially with someone with as much energy as Jerry.

“When you talk about these things that would mean Jerry is not here - that’s a hard thing for him, for me, it’s a hard thing for the crew to talk about. But we do it, and I think it’s going to be very well done and in a way our fans deserve.”

Now, on the eve of a season with so much promise, is not the time for that discussion.

Lacewell wasn’t in the draft room the night the Cowboys passed on Manziel. He wasn’t part of the discussion on Ware or Murray or the other personnel moves that have been made of late.

He didn’t have to be there to know what’s taking place.

“When push comes to shove, Jerry listens to Stephen,” Lacewell said. “This isn’t something that’s happened suddenly.

“It’s been forever.”

The only difference is Stephen Jones no longer has to push his father against a wall to get his point across.

Follow David Moore on Twitter at @DavidMooreDMN

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