Cowboys Contracts: Zeke, Dak, Amari and the origin of Jerry's 'Deadlines Make Deals'
OXNARD - It was in the spring of 1990, my first week after having moved to DFW to cover the Dallas Cowboys. And I found myself invited into owner Jerry Jones' Valley Ranch office to meet him, to interview him, but mostly ... to observe. He allowed me to listen in on a contract-negotiation phone call with the agent for a veteran cornerback named Issiac Holt who was due a new contract.
After Jerry hung up the phone, with obvious positive progress made as near as I could tell, I asked Jerry: Given how close you seem to be to agreeing, why not just stay on the phone and close the agreement.
"Well, Mr. Miiiiike,'' Jerry drawled, "Deadlines ... make deals.''
That was the first time I'd ever heard a phrase that is now part of Cowboys vernacular, and maybe even NFL vernacular. And it's a good lesson to remember as Cowboys camp here in Oxnard marches on, as several Cowboys players want new contracts, as all of them except running back Ezekiel Elliott have shown up for training camp, and as Jerry and son Stephen express great calm in the normalcy of tumult.
“Training camp is obviously a time when we have done many contracts,” Stephen Jones said. “Look at our offensive line. Most of that group was done during camp. This is just that time of year where we get things done. The good news is we are all here together. The players are here. The agents work for the players. Jason [Garrett is] here. I am here. Jerry [Jones] is here. . . . It’s a great time to have discussions. Our goal has been all along . . . was to work the three contracts we have been talking about. So this shouldn’t be any surprise.''
Those "three contracts'' belong to Dak Prescott, Amari Cooper and Ezekiel Elliott, the last one being the most troublesome one because he's the only one who is choosing to hold out from camp.
"We're optimistic we can make all this come together,'' Stephen said. "It usually works out. We will see if that is the case this year.”
It almost surely will, when it comes to Zeke's situation, as nasty as it threatens to be. A "deadlines-make-deals'' clock ticks toward the start of the regular season, which is when the Cowboys actually need the two-time NFL rushing champ.
“It just happens, most players and most people want all this to be done before the season starts,” Stephen said. “That is a natural deadline.''
Added Jerry following Sunday's Blue-White Scrimmage: You just know, like so many things, it will happen ... The results are too good for them and too good for the Cowboys. That always happens when it's that good for both (sides).''
The Cowboys believe they've made generous offers on Zeke, Dak and Amari and I think are prepared to both increase those offers (as soon as the agents pick up the phone) or move throughout the season with all three on their existing deals, in show-me form -- though Dallas doesn't at all want that latter thing to happen.
I'll also bet that the present offers to all three stars, should they sign them right now, would put each guy in the "top-five'' range at his position in the NFL -- and if I'm right there, we should quit accusing Dallas of low-balling here.
It's been theorized by some in the media (mostly media members who have never attended a Cowboys camp and never met Jerry Jones) that Zeke is "creating a sense of urgency'' meant to upset the owner -- a game of Chicken, if you will. Those people fail to understand that Jones has been doing deals for 30 years in the NFL, and for almost 60 years as a man now worth about $5 billion. Games of Chicken are "normal'' for him. "Tumult'' is "normal'' for him. What he humorously called "dangling participles'' -- meaning the loose ends of countless deals that are ever-present because this man is in the middle of so many of them -- is what he thrives on.
"This,'' Jerry Jones said of a life of deals and deadlines and deadlines making deals, "is the air that we breathe.''
