Jerry, you don't seem overly concerned
about Zeke Elliott not being here. Why not?
I feel like reasonableness.
What will ultimately get it done?
And when you're talking about,
as Dax says, generational money.
That usually can come to its senses.
I feel that certainly Zeke is
or right there with the best
players that we have on the team.
On the other hand, even as good as he is,
we've got to have some other very
talented players around and we're
going to have to pay those guys too.
So I have a plan.
I don't expect to rule any players
day about what the Cowboys plan is,
but I do know this. The.
Ultimate responsibility is to put a team
out there that can win the ball game.
The way I'm handling that, Dax,
I mean Zeke should ultimately see that
that's in the best interest of everybody,
but but isn't the whole problem that
you deal with in terms of keeping
players happy as a salary cap?
And the ramifications of a salary cap?
Well, it really isn't.
You know, in the NFL,
10% of the players make 2/3 of the money.
And so you've got to have,
it's a team, it's a team sport
and it's a physical team sport.
And so that you've got to have enough
to go around on a reasonable basis.
And so I don't call that a
salary cap problem at all.
I call that a management problem.
And if you've got to basically
not pay everybody what they want,
which would be impossible
to do to manage your team.
That's a part of the art of the deal,
that's part of managing,
that's part of getting it
there. But actually it would
be possible to do, wouldn't it?
I mean in an industry that
makes billions of dollars,
I mean your franchise valued
at $5 billion now, why do free
market capitalist loving owners?
Have a salary cap to control
the salaries of players.
Isn't that a a socialist type of system
so that they do not kill
each other financially?
Who the players are the owners.
So you you need the players
to protect the owners.
No, no, the owners don't need
to kill each other financially.
And so we make as a part of our game
the rules that say let's have a cap.
Now your players have to agree to that.
That's called a collective bargain agreement.
You just can't arbitrarily do it.
Many leagues are set up, Dale.
That are wholly owned by 1 entity,
many leagues.
MLS Soccer is done that way.
And so then that that one entity gets
to set the salaries for all the players
and that's the way that's organized.
We don't have that in the NFL.
So we collective bargain with the players
about how much the players will receive.
You mentioned getting the best players
on the team on paper front to back.
Is this not the best team?
Talent wise you've had in maybe 20 years,
you know, I'm reluctant to because we
had some teams that I thought should
have at least gone to the Super Bowl
and we missed and I thought they
were some pretty talented teams.
But this is right there with it and
it's right there with a couple of those
that Romo was the quarterback that I
will go to my grave regretting that we
didn't get in a Super Bowl with those teams.
But we've had talent in the past that
should have gotten us to the Super Bowl.
And of course.
If and not butts or candy and nuts
or whatever, that deal goes.
But the bottom line is we've got a
great team and we're going to get it as
prepared as we can and we got a shot.
Not
necessarily the Super Bowl, but if you
don't get closer than you have been,
can you bring Jason Garrett back next year?
8 1/2 years, head coach of the Dallas
Cowboys with two playoff wins.
There was an owner that 30 years ago said
winning is the name of the game and that
winning is the only thing that matters.
If you bring Jason Garrett back for
another year with only two playoff wins,
you can't say that anymore, can you?
Well, I think that not in fairness
to any individual, but in fairness
to the opportunity to win again or
to win the Super Bowl the next year.
You've got to ask yourself
when that time comes.
Does having that coach,
with this makeup of players give
you the best chance right now,
or does changing that out
give you the best chance?
I'll make that decision based
upon the best chance to win.
If it's next year, next year,
what are you going to do if a player
takes a knee during the anthem?
Well, again, we don't do
that with the Dallas Cowboys.
Our players stand and we know
what our stance is on that.
Just so we're clear, you told me I
couldn't ask you that last year,
but you didn't say anything about this year.
Well, I know you're sneaky to say the
very least, but I do will answer that.
We certainly stand with the Cowboys.