‘Not one time in my life’: Jerry Jones insists he’s never let money stop him from hiring a coach

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has heard criticism that he won’t pay up for a top head coach, and he thinks it’s “ridiculous.” Speaking on 105.3 The Fan on Friday, Jones insisted that money has never stood in the way of him hiring a coach. He even claimed that he has tried to lure successful coaches away from other teams, knowing full well he’d have to pay them. ‘Zero correlation’ Jones’ comments came just days after he made headlines for downplaying the importance of coaching salaries. On Tuesday, he argued on 105.3 The Fan that paying more for a coach doesn’t lead to more wins. “There’s zero correlation between how much you pay a coach or how many coaches you have, as to winning. There’s no correlation. That’s a random sample of years and all 32 teams involved, so put that in your hopper and smoke it,” Jones said, via 105.3 The Fan . Those comments didn’t go over well. The Cowboys are 3-5 after a 33-30 overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals, and they haven’t reached the NFC Championship Game in more than three decades. Jones has also faced questions about how he hired Brian Schottenheimer in 2025. The Cowboys didn’t interview several top candidates, including Ben Johnson, who went to the Chicago Bears. Schottenheimer’s salary is reportedly in the bottom half of the league. ‘Not one time in my life’ On Friday, Jones pushed back on the criticism that he has faced this week as he made it clear that he hasn’t ever let money stand in the way of hiring a coach. “Not one time in my life that I have ever, if I wanted to do it, let money stand in the way of doing it,” Jones said, via ESPN’s Todd Archer . “I have never on the basis of some coach saying, ‘I’ll come and I know you want me, but I won’t because you won’t pay me enough.’ That’s never happened in my life.” Jones then claimed that he has pursued big-name coaches behind the scenes, though he didn’t say who. “The facts are I have been out there, and I have been trying to lure very successful coaches away from the teams they were on and knew full well that I was going to pay them for their success,” he said. “No one knows that, but I do. And so it is absolutely ridiculous.” “And I actually grin when somebody says, ‘Jerry’s not willing to pay the money for what it would take to get the right kind of coach out there,'” Jones added. He also compared coaching salaries to his oil business. “I have five wells that cost more than any coach I know of, each one of them, in the NFL,” Jones said, via 105.3 The Fan . ‘It’s ambiguous’ Jones did admit that hiring a coach is never a sure thing, no matter how much it costs. “Now whether I get the right kind or not, we’ll all agree that it’s risky. Not risky, [but] you just know it’s ambiguous when you hire a coach because there have been many hired and not necessarily have won Super Bowl,” Jones said. “We all get that and we understand all the nuances in between, but the fundamental issue of me not paying money for something that has a chance to be as wonderful as a Super Bowl or a successful team is ridiculous,” he continued. The Cowboys haven’t won a Super Bowl since the 1995 season. Since then, Jones has gone through seven head coaches: Chan Gailey, Dave Campo, Bill Parcells, Wade Phillips, Jason Garrett, Mike McCarthy, and now Schottenheimer. Whatever Jones is willing to pay, it hasn’t brought Dallas any closer to a title. The post ‘Not one time in my life’: Jerry Jones insists he’s never let money stop him from hiring a coach appeared first on The Comeback: Today’s Top Sports Stories & Reactions .