Cowboys’ Jerry Jones, Stephen Jones nearly fought each other over Deion Sanders, Johnny Manziel decisions

Not everybody is on board with the Dallas Cowboys riding to the Super Bowl this season. But Brian Schottenheimer seems to think the pieces are in place to have a shot at big success. However, things haven’t always been peaceful at the top. Back in the day, Jerry Jones and Stephen nearly fought each other over the Deion Sanders and Johnny Manziel decisions.

It started back in the Cowboys’ heyday, according to The Athletic.

“As the championships piled up, the relationship changed,” Zak Keefer wrote. “The son became the sidekick, the confidant, occasionally the foil. Start with spring 1995, when Stephen threw his father against a wall after the boss decided to sign free agent cornerback Deion Sanders to a $35 million deal despite Stephen’s strident salary-cap concerns.”

“You really gonna do this?” Stephen shouted, shoving his arm into Jerry’s chest.

“What are you gonna do, hit me?” Jerry responded.

“Temperatures cooled, and 10 months later Sanders helped Dallas win its third Super Bowl in four seasons,” Keefer wrote. “Jerry filed away another lesson: Stephen was never going to be a yes-man.”

Cowboys co-owner Stephen Jones has stood his ground

One such instance came in the 2014 NFL Draft.

“In the nervy moments before the Cowboys made their first-round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, Stephen was the only one in the room with a strong enough spine to break the silence and talk his father out of taking Johnny Manziel, the talented but troubled quarterback out of Texas A&M,” Keefer wrote. “Dallas instead settled for an offensive guard.”

“I hope you’re happy,” Stephen remembers his father telling him that night, face red, jaw clenched. “You don’t do special things in life — I would have never bought the Dallas Cowboys — making middle-of-the-road decisions. And what you just did is down the middle. You’ll never be great.”

The guard they picked was Zack Martin. He became a nine-time Pro Bowl performer. Also, Martin was considered one of the best offensive linemen of his generation. As for Manziel? He played in just 14 NFL games in two seasons with a truly awful completion percentage of 57.0. He threw seven touchdown passes with seven interceptions.

“There’s a belief that sometimes Stephen is part of the mistakes Jerry makes,” says Mike Rawlings, a Jones family friend, ex-business partner and former mayor of Dallas. “There’s also the belief that sometimes he saves Jerry’s ass.”

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