Long before Jerry Jones became the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, he had already decided that professional football was where he wanted to be. His first serious attempt to make that happen, however, ended with his father convincing him to walk away from the San Diego Chargers. Decades later, Jones still remembers how badly that decision hurt.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
Jones recently revisited the story in an interview with WFAA, which was spotlighted in America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys, a Netflix docuseries, recalling how he tried to finance the Chargers through the Teamsters and a connection to union president Jimmy Hoffa. Jones said he had been borrowing money from the Teamsters when the connection helped him get a meeting with Hoffa. Hoffa told Jones the union could back his attempt to buy a team, but the plan changed after Jones took the idea to his father, J.W. “Pat” Jones.
“I was shattered. My dream of football had passed me by,” Jones recalled.
Pat Jones had plenty of reason to be cautious. He was a successful businessman who had built his career through his grocery business before becoming president and chairman of Modern Security Life Insurance Co. Jerry had worked in his father’s grocery store as a boy and later joined the insurance business after graduating from Arkansas. His father therefore knew exactly how much financial risk Jerry was considering to take.
The Chargers were not a small investment. In 1966, hotel magnate Barron Hilton was seeking $5.8 million for the franchise, and Jones was only in his early 20s. ESPN reported that Jones had assembled wealthy investors and obtained a $1 million letter of credit to help get a meeting with Hilton. He also spoke with Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt, who warned him about the American Football League’s financial struggles and its lack of substantial television revenue.
Jones’ father ultimately focused on the debt. In an earlier account of the episode, Jones recalled telling his father, “This is my lifelong dream,” only for Pat to respond, “You aren’t old enough to have a lifelong dream.” Pat also warned that taking on the Chargers’ financial burden could leave his son “behind the eight ball.”
Jones eventually listened. And almost immediately, the decision became one of the biggest what-ifs of his business career. Soon after he abandoned the purchase, the AFL and NFL announced their merger. The Chargers’ value jumped dramatically, with historical accounts placing their subsequent sale at around $10 million to more than $11 million depending on the transaction being referenced. Pat Jones reportedly joked for years that he had talked his son out of making millions.
Yet Jerry never came to resent his father for the decision. In ESPN’s extensive profile of Jones, he explained that Pat had been speaking to him as a father who believed he was protecting his son’s future.
“I knew how much he loved me,” Jones said. “And so he was giving me advice selfishly as a father. I guess we’re all selfish as fathers. But he certainly was doing it for my best interests.”
There is another fascinating detail in the story. Jones’ attempt to buy the Chargers did not end his ambition to own a professional football team. More than two decades later, he finally got that opportunity when he purchased the Cowboys in 1989 for $140 million. The investment that his father once viewed as too risky had been replaced by an even larger gamble, only this time Jones was the one making the final decision.
The Chargers episode therefore remains more than an old missed opportunity in Jones’ history. It was his first serious attempt to turn his football obsession into ownership. Jones eventually got his team, but the memory of the one he almost bought in San Diego never disappeared.