Jerry Jones’s lengthy sit-down with select Dallas media members on the Cowboys’ massive team-branded tour bus, parked streetside in Indianapolis, has become one of the mainstays of the NFL scouting combine. Never one to shy away from a hot mic, the billionaire owner typically opens up the floor and covers a wide range of topics with his quirky wit, making his combine presser a headline event, even with a who’s who of the entire league milling around the Circle City.
But not this year, for reasons that are, oddly enough for the Cowboys, vague and unspecified.
Jones, 79, will not be speaking with reporters at this year’s combine due to a “medical issue,” according to ESPN’s Todd Archer.
Jerry Jones will not be speaking with the Dallas media at the NFL scouting combine because of a medical issue.
— Todd Archer (@toddarcher) March 4, 2022
Jerry’s son Stephen is the team’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. He handled the task of speaking with the media on Monday as team personnel and over 300 college prospects were just descending on the Indiana capital for the combine.
Jerry last made news on February 25, when he made his first on-the-record comments regarding the Rich Dalrymple voyeurism scandal that surfaced last month. Speaking one-on-one with a Dallas NBC reporter, Jones maintained that it was “in the best interest of the organization” to come to a confidential $2.4 million settlement with four cheerleaders after the ex-PR man was accused of spying on them in a changing room.
Prior to that, Jones made an unscheduled call-in to a Dallas radio station on January 28 in an attempt to clear the air about his team’s coaching staff. He gave a rather convoluted explanation of the silence that was then surrounding head coach Mike McCarthy’s future, saying it was all part of a master plan to keep defensive coordinator Dan Quinn on the payroll.
That Jones took heat for his tone in both interviews certainly comes to mind upon the revelation that he will now opt out of speaking to a room full of journalists this week in Indianapolis. Both aforementioned topics have already come up for other Cowboys representatives in recent days.
On Monday, Stephen Jones was asked about ESPN’s report on the cheerleader settlement; he responded by saying, “I think Jerry has addressed it, and I really don’t have anything to add.”
And during a Tuesday press conference, McCarthy was asked about the rumors of Sean Payton waiting in the wings to be the next Cowboys coach. McCarthy told media members, “It’s a narrative I don’t want to be a part of.”
Jones himself apparently won’t be facing direct questions about either of those items- or any other Cowboys topics, for that matter- this week at the combine.
Jerry Jones is also handling some NFL business involving commissioner Roger Goodell a source said, that’s also preventing him from attending Indy.
— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) March 4, 2022
While it’s not known what the medical issue is that’s preventing Jerry Jones from addressing reporters in Indianapolis, ESPN notes that he was present at a Wednesday news conference promoting an upcoming boxing event at AT&T Stadium.
Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News and Clarence Hill Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram both report that Jones is also working on some unknown project with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell that is keeping him from making his usual combine appearance.
Stephen Jones tells Hill that his father “is going to be fine.”
[listicle id=694528]
[listicle id=692260]
[listicle id=693628]
[lawrence-newsletter]