Friday, August 9, 2002

What is Jones’ face next to in the dictionary?

By Danny Reagan
Reporter-News Staff Writer

SAN ANTONIO — In Abilene, I told the intense-looking man in the beige shorts, beige polo shirt and beige face, we like to ask people the same questions.

“Whether they’re short-order cooks or the owner of the Dallas Cowboys,” went my feeble attempt at a concise explanation of the drill that was to follow.

He appeared bewildered.

I don’t think he was expecting anyone to jump ahead of the HBO crew.

Jerral Wayne Jones was born on Oct. 13, 1942, in Los Angeles. He was a starting guard and co-captain of the 1964 Arkansas team that went undefeated (11-0), beating Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl for the national championship.

Today, he is still vilified as the guy who fired Tom Landry AND Jimmy Johnson (he gets a pass on Chan Gailey and Barry Switzer), but he’s also one of the biggest supporters in Texas of the Salvation Army and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

Of the dozen or so questions regularly asked of real people in the pages of the Saturday morning Reporter-News, I had pegged seven to rapidly fire at the owner and general manager of America’s Team, knowing full well I’d be lucky to get two or three out of my mouth before being cold-cocked with a boom mike from America’s Cable Channel.

I knew not to ask Jones what he’d do if someone gave him a million dollars, because he probably would just say, “Put it next to all my other millions.”

After a rocky start on the first question (“You want me to answer that?”), Jones played along until right after the fourth question when he spotted HBO’s “Hard Knocks” camera crew and politely shooed me away.

I didn’t get to ask him: 1) What was your proudest moment; 2) Which three people would you invite to dinner; and 3) In the dictionary, your face is next to what?

Truthfully, I skipped that last one because I knew he would think I was just being a wise-acre about the face-lift.

If I were a betting man, though, the answers to those questions would’ve been: 1) when I bought the Dallas Cowboys; 2) Stephen, Charlotte and Jerry Jr. (his kids); and 3) I don’t think that’s funny!

Here are the questions to which he did respond:

Q. What did you want to be when you were a kid?

A. I wanted to be a ballplayer. I wanted to be both a baseball player and football player. Baseball in the summer and football in the fall.

Q. What’s the worst advice you ever took?

A. Probably when my coach wanted to move me to a pulling guard from the fullback slot when I was at Arkansas. My coach came in and sat down with me and said, “Hey, look at the handwriting on the wall. We need pulling guards because we have a lot of fullbacks.” I balked, but I probably didn’t balk enough. I would’ve liked spending my senior year carrying the ball.

Q. What’s the best advice you ever took?

A. As a young man to hang out with people who were older than me as I became an adult because they had experience and because they probably had — me starting with no resources — they probably had resources. They let me be the energy and the worker part of the partnership, and they provided some experience as well as financials.

Q. You would drop your plans tonight to do what?

A. I don’t think I would drop them for any other reason than to have us play in a ballgame. We’re going to be grading film tonight and meeting on personnel. The only thing better than that would be to be involved in a Cowboys ballgame.

Q. What …

A. OK, thank you.

Coming Sunday: The Cowboys have hit the wide receiver jackpot.

Contact executive sports editor Danny Reagan at reagand@reporternews.com or 670-5213.