Jerry Jones: Cowboys have high-character roster, have no tolerance for off-field issues

Under the ownership of Jerry Jones, the Dallas Cowboys have had some remarkable success. But for all of his success, Jones has had a tendency to make completely odd, tone-deaf statements at times. He made another on Sunday, saying that his team doesn’t stand for off field issues.

Those are strange comments to make.

Under Jones’ ownership, Dallas has had some of the best teams in NFL history. It’s also fielded plenty of underwhelming, and at times, bad teams. But one thing that’s been remarkably consistent has been off-field issues.

Off-field issues were a primary force behind the Cowboys winning only three Super Bowls in the 1990’s. It could have been four or five. But that was more than 20 years ago now. Times have changed, right? If that’s the case, the whole Greg Hardy experiment is hard to explain.

We can even look at the more recent group of stars. Dak Prescott seems like a fine, upstanding citizen. But before he was drafted by Dallas, Prescott was arrested for a DUI. That’s not an off-field issue? Is Ezekiel Elliott being investigated for domestic violence sure seems like an off-field issue, as does the recent bar fight he was reportedly involved in.

Defensive starters have been suspended before the season began the past three years, the latest being pass rusher David Irving.

Mind you, this only scratches the surface. If we were to go through and list all of the off-field issues that the Cowboys have tolerated under Jones’ watch, we’d be here all day.

Jones later clarified that overcoming the issues will make the team stronger.

That’s closer to being accurate. But the honest truth is that Jones has shown a remarkable ability to overlook off-field issues, as long as the player in question was good. Maybe he can’t say that so publicly. But he shouldn’t say things that are so obviously untrue.