Jerry Jones perhaps doesn’t need anyone to tell him what the Dallas Cowboys are worth. But when the Lakers just sold for $10 billion, the internet decided to remind him anyway. The Los Angeles Lakers just rewrote the sports ownership playbook. On Wednesday, June 18, ESPN’s Shams Charania dropped a bombshell. Guggenheim Partners CEO Mark Walter agreed to buy the NBA franchise for a staggering $10 billion, the highest price ever paid for a sports team.

Although the deal keeps Jeanie Buss as governor, it marks the end of an era for the Buss family’s majority control. And that number—$10 billion—sent shockwaves beyond basketball. Because when you’re talking about record-breaking franchise sales, one name inevitably comes up: Jerry Jones and his Dallas Cowboys.

Forbes already crowned America’s Team as the NFL’s most valuable franchise at $10.1 billion last August. But the Lakers’ deal changed the math entirely. Nobody knows which team will sell next or for how much. But if Jerry Jones ever puts the Cowboys on the market, all bets are off. That wouldn’t just be a sale, it’d be a moment. We all know that the Cowboys, like the Lakers in the NBA, are untouchable. Iconic! It doesn’t matter if they’re winning or not; people want a piece of that star. And with team values climbing every year, this one could shatter records. $10 billion? Try $15 billion, maybe more. As John Machota said, the number could be wild, something “$15 billion.”. So, if Jerry ever lets go of the Cowboys, it won’t just shake the NFL, it’ll shake the entire sports world.

The Cowboys were already valued at $10.1 billion by Forbes last year, before this Lakers deal reset the market. Unlike the Lakers, Dallas owns AT&T Stadium outright and dominates the NFL’s revenue charts. Even Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports directly addressed the Cowboys’ valuation in his report, stating, “The reported $10 billion sale of the Lakers would mean the Cowboys, who own their stadium, would go for a number much higher than their perceived valuation.“

But here’s what we know for certain. Jerry Jones, who bought the Cowboys for just $140 million in 1989, has consistently said the Cowboys aren’t for sale. In a 2023 interview with the Dallas Morning News, he stated, “This is a family legacy. We’re building something for generations.” His son Stephen Jones has echoed this sentiment multiple times. Yet that didn’t stop the avalanche of reactions across social media. On X, fans immediately began speculating about the Cowboys’ potential price tag.

Jerry Jones hears from impatient fans

The Lakers’ record-breaking deal didn’t just shake up the sports business world—it sent Cowboys fans into a frenzy. Within hours of the news, social media exploded with reactions aimed squarely at Jerry Jones. “Lakers sold majority ownership for 10B I know Jerry Jones senile a– somewhere smiling,” tweeted one fan, capturing the mix of humor and frustration that defined the online chatter.

Many saw the sale as proof that the Cowboys could fetch far more. “If I’m Jerry Jones, I’m selling the Cowboys for 20B if Jeanie Buss just sold the Lakers for 10B,” argued a user, noting Dallas owns AT&T Stadium while the Lakers don’t even control their arena. Financial analysts agree—Forbes already valued the Cowboys very high, and that was before the Lakers deal reset the market.

But for some fans, the dollar signs brought deeper grievances. “I wish Jerry Jones would sell the Cowboys,” lamented another, echoing a common complaint that the 82-year-old owner meddles too much in football decisions. The sentiment popped up repeatedly, like when a fan posted a photo of a young Jones staring intently with the caption, “Jerry Jones looking over at the Lakers sale right now.“

Not everyone agreed on the numbers: “Lakers just sold for 10B Jerry Jones losing his mind rn.” But most agreed on one thing: America’s Team could break records too, if Jones ever let go. As one tweet put it, “If the Lakers are selling for $10 billion, you would think Jerry Jones could get at least $15 billion for the Cowboys.”

The message was clear: after this Lakers deal, every fan with a calculator sees the Cowboys in a new light, whether Jerry likes it or not.