‘It’s Ridiculous’: Jerry Jones Rejects Notion He Won’t Pay Top Dollar For A Dallas Cowboys Head Coach

FRISCO, Texas — Three days after saying there is no correlation between what an NFL team pays its head coach and how often it wins, Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said Friday that money has never stopped him from hiring a coach he wanted.

Jones made the comments on 105.3 The Fan’s K&C Masterpiece, two days before Dallas (3-5) plays the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium. He called the idea that he will not pay what it takes to land the right coach “absolutely ridiculous.”

His first remarks on the subject came Tuesday on the station’s Shan & RJ, in response to the perception that he avoids paying top dollar for head coaches. Dallas had lost 33-30 in overtime to the Arizona Cardinals two days earlier.

“In the NFL, this is after years of looking at all the teams and all the coaches, there is no, there is zero correlation between how much you pay a coach, or how many coaches you have, as to winning,” Jones said Tuesday. “There is no correlation. And that’s a random sample of years and all 32 teams involved. So put that in your hopper and smoke it.”

Head coaching salaries are not made public. Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer is in his second season after Dallas promoted him from offensive coordinator in January 2025.

On Friday, Jones said he was aware of the conversation his Tuesday comments started. He called himself a risk taker by nature.

“When you hire a coach, you don’t know how it’s going to work,” Jones explained. “It’s an intangible of how it’s going to work going forward. All that counts is the past and making the decision. But going forward, it counts about what it’s going to go. I’m by nature an incentive person. I like to create an atmosphere. So the better you do, the more you get.”

“If I could do that, you’d be shocked at what I might offer somebody if they won a Super Bowl,” Jones continued. “But let’s all go in here, and I’d do the same thing with players. Let’s all put a little on the table. Let’s go out here and play. And if we win, we become [wealthy]. I’d love to do it that way. I’m an incentive guy.”

The topic lately, in Jones’ view, has been about the hiring itself.

“Not one time in my life that I have ever, if I wanted to do it, let money stand in the way of doing it,” Jones said. “Not one time in my life to the point of being ridiculous. That’s held true ever since the day I walked in the Dallas Cowboys about what I’m willing to do relative to football and football success.”

“I have never, on the basis of some coach saying, ‘I’ll come and I know you want me, but I won’t because you won’t pay me enough,’” Jones added. “That’s never happened in my life.”

Jerry Jones Says He Has Tried To Lure Successful Coaches From Other Teams

Jones did not name any coaches or say when those pursuits took place.

“Once you have decided the direction you want to go, financial is not [an issue],” Jones said. “No one will ever know. If I’ve ever been interested in somebody that at the time was known to have, let’s say, a substantive financial marketplace, no one will ever know.”

“The facts are I have been out there and I have been trying to lure very successful coaches away from the teams they were on, and knew full well that I was going to pay them for all their success,” Jones continued. “So that has been done. No one knows that, but I do. And so it is absolutely ridiculous. And I actually grin when somebody says, ‘Jerry’s not willing to pay the money for what it would take to get the right kind of coach out there.’”

Jones also compared what a head coach costs to the oil and gas wells he is drilling.

“Now, whether I get the right kind or not, we’ll all agree that it’s risky. Not risky. You just don’t. It’s ambiguous when you hire a coach because there have been many hired and not necessarily ever won Super Bowls,” Jones said. “We all get that. And we understand all the nuances in between. But the fundamental issue of me not paying money for something that has a chance to be as wonderful as a Super Bowl or a successful team is ridiculous.”

“It’s ridiculous,” Jones detailed. “The other thing I’d have to say about it, I make decisions almost every day that have one hell of a lot more outgo coming or money. I make decisions every day that put hiring a coach’s financial situation pale in comparison to it. And I drill wells. I have five wells going right now that cost more than any coach to drill, and will be done in three or four months. I have five situations that cost more than any coach I know of, each one of them, in the NFL. It’s ridiculous. That’s all I’m going to say about it.”

Later in the interview, Jones said pay has nothing to do with how hard a coach works once he has the job.

“I’ve never, ever witnessed or heard somebody coaching, especially coaching in the NFL, that because they didn’t get paid as much as maybe their agent thought they ought to have when they took the job, that they work less or they have less passion for it,” Jones said. “I’ve never seen coaches. Coaches don’t operate that way. When they walk out there, generally, they are hell-bent, put the blinders on to be the best they can and get everybody around them to be the best they can.”

“So, no, I don’t think that as far as an incentive to be a hell of a coach, that the money is a big thing,” Jones noted. “What we’re talking about is when they’re hired. And what I want to emphasize is, is never, ever have I ever let the financial aspect of it, once I have decided to hire the individual coach, keep me from hiring somebody. Frankly, I’ve never had that in any part of my life. And I’ve had times when I’ve paid people that I had to figure out how I was going to pay them.”

Jones Retells Jimmy Johnson Contract Story

Jones bought the Cowboys in February 1989 for $140 million and hired Jimmy Johnson away from the University of Miami that same month. Johnson coached Dallas to Super Bowl titles after the 1992 and 1993 seasons.

The two went weeks or months without a contract after Johnson arrived, according to Jones, because they wanted to work together.

“And then after we got down to finally getting to a contract, we wrote it all up,” Jones said. “And then I said, ‘Jimmy, the Cowboys sign it, and it isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. They’re broke. So I’m going to personally guarantee it.’ They didn’t ask me to. He and his agent attorney. I offered it. I put it on there. I’ll personally guarantee this, because I want you to empty your bucket.”

“He would have anyway,” Jones continued. “And I’m going to empty my bucket here. So that’s all you’re bringing everything to the table. I’m bringing everything to the table. Let’s go. Let’s get in here and go with it.”

No one can know what is in his mind when he sits down to make a decision on a coach, Jones said, and he pointed back to the price he paid for the franchise.

“When I got involved and had a chance to get involved in the NFL, I broke all records on earth about what money could be spent to be involved,” Jones said. “It was the most that had ever been paid for anything that involved sports in that sense at the time. It was very risky. It didn’t work. It didn’t make sense. Donald Trump was also in the business of being in ball teams at that time and said, ‘I feel sorry for that fool who paid that [for the Cowboys].’”

Jones played at Arkansas under Frank Broyles and was a co-captain of the Razorbacks’ 1964 national championship team. Jones said Broyles helped him land interviews with Paul “Bear” Bryant, Woody Hayes, and Paul Dietzel for his master’s thesis on how coaches communicate in modern football.

Dallas plays at Indianapolis on Sunday at noon CT on FOX.