Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is famous for seizing the spotlight, but his takeover story is far from easy. Buying the Cowboys came with fierce struggles that extended well beyond the purchase. Now, Jerry revealed the three $1 billion legal battles that hit him shortly after owning the team.

“About a few months after I bought the Cowboys, I got three $1 billion lawsuits filed against me,” Jerry Jones said on the Dallas Cowboys official podcast. “I couldn’t even go to the state of Arkansas. I’d gotten one from California, two from the state of Arkansas. I couldn’t even say it. That was the kind of climate.”

While Jerry hasn’t gone into exact details about each lawsuit, one of the most notable legal battles was when the NFL filed a $300 million lawsuit against him. The league claimed that Jerry’s deals with companies like Pepsi, Nike, Dr Pepper, American Express, and AT&T broke the NFL’s revenue-sharing rules. 

Jones fired back with a $700 million countersuit, and eventually it was settled. But Jerry shed light on why the lawsuits came about.

“These were people that I had been doing business with,” Jerry revealed. “And they said, ‘If that idiot made enough money to buy the Cowboys, he must have been stealing from us. Something’s wrong.’ So that was the basis of that kind of allegation.”

In the end, none of those lawsuits amounted to anything solid. As Jerry explained, those suits were nothing but “baloney.” Hence, the legal cloud lifted, but the ordeal is part of what shaped the path he took from then on.

Jerry’s legal troubles didn’t just stop in the 1990s. He also faced a paternity lawsuit in 2022, which was dismissed in 2024 after he countersued for defamation. Another 2018 assault allegation is pending, set to go to trial in 2026.

But through it all, Jerry’s resilience has been a defining trait. And why wouldn’t it be? After all, the man who built his fortune from scratch was always a hustler and a business mastermind. 

How Jerry Jones turned game tickets into a smart side hustle

During the podcast, Jerry, alongside his wife Jean, also reflected on his early hustle days. He shared how he made money back in college through football games. 

“When I was a sophomore, a junior, and a senior in school, a student ticket cost a dollar to go to the games. A regular ticket was about seven or $8, but any ticket you could sell for $20,” Jerry said. 

So, he created a system. When calls came in from people out of town wanting game tickets, Jerry rounded up freshman girls who weren’t planning to attend the games. Using their student IDs, he bought about 20 low-priced tickets.

On game day, dressed in disguise, he’d escort these ticket holders through the players’ gate and into the stands without raising suspicion. Meanwhile, Jean helped by driving to pick them up at the airport and shuffle them back after the game.

“So, we were working the problem hard when we were in school. And at that time, I think tuition was about $120 a semester. I was making $400 a football game,” the gambler added.

But when asked what his wife, Jean’s, share was? Jerry responded, “Jean got to be with the man.”

From hustling college game tickets to facing billion-dollar lawsuits, Jerry’s journey has been anything but smooth. Those early legal storms set the stage for a new era. Sure, the man is the ‘most disliked owner,’ but there’s one thing even the critics can’t deny: Jerry Jones is a business phenomenon.