John Stephen Jones

Scion of the Dallas Cowboys’ fortunes, this former quarterback for Catholic High School, ex-UA linebacker and confirmed prankster Stephen Jones is still filling the gaps on and off the line.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/JOHN SYKES JR. - HP Cover - Stephen Jones
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/JOHN SYKES JR. - HP Cover - Stephen Jones

LITTLE ROCK -- He's Jerry Jones' No. 2. His right-hand man. His eldest son.

Stephen Jones' main title is chief operating officer of the Dallas Cowboys. But he's also executive vice president, director of player personnel and president of AT&T Stadium.

And he says he has no idea whether one day he will become the head of the Cowboys -- the most valuable sports franchise in the country.

"I don't worry about that. At the end of the day, that part of me is sad because that means he won't be here," Stephen says of his dad.

Stephen says coaching great Bill Parcells said it best when he called Jerry "a 10-toes-high guy."

"He is going to be working and running this thing until they carry him out on a gurney and he's 10-toes high," Stephen said.

Jerry and son have a unique relationship. Both men call each other "best friend." But Stephen also calls his dad "boss." It's a relationship that Stephen has come to respect.

"Sometimes to be great in this world, you have to be a little selfish and he can be that way and I am not that way," Stephen says. "I tend to want to give a lot of people a whole lot of credit and I am not worried about getting the credit.

"My role has always been -- and I think that's why we get along -- to make sure we are successful but, at the same time, when you are working with someone like Jerry, he's the boss and I know he is the boss."

Jerry describes the relationship as one of "mutual respect," but he said Stephen will push back when he thinks it is necessary. He recalled the day in 1995 when he was attempting to sign Deion Sanders. Jerry said he had talked with his son about recruiting Sanders but never indicated just how serious he was about getting the football great to the Cowboys.

Jerry met with Sanders and his agent in a Washington hotel room. Stephen was in the other room. After several hours of negotiations, Jerry persuaded the football player to sign with the Cowboys.

Afterward, he went to find his son to tell him about acquiring Sanders.

"He shoves me up against the door ... and says, 'You really haven't done this, have you,'" Jerry recalls. "I said, 'Son, what are you going to do? Hit me?'"

Stephen eventually told his dad he wasn't unhappy with the acquisition, only that he could have crafted a better deal.

"He will bite, but his relationship with me is one of honesty," Jerry says.

His son also has a lighter side and loves to pull pranks on his family and friends. There was the time he squeezed habanero pepper juice around the rim of Larry Lacewell's water bottle. When the Cowboys' scout and former Arkansas State University head football coach took a sip, it was almost "hospitalization," Jerry says. And he also put a friend's pet python into his college roommate's bed.

"He is a serious prankster," Jerry says.

His father is a frequent victim of the pranks, including when Stephen and a few friends dumped a wash tub full of icy water on top of him as he slept at duck camp.

"I haven't quit getting back at him for that," Jerry laughed.

Stephen has been his "right-hand man for 26 years," Jerry says. When the family got into the professional football business in 1989, there was no "blue book" for how to run an NFL franchise, Jerry says. Since those early days, Stephen has been involved in all areas of management.

"He is probably at the top of the list of capable execs in the NFL," Jerry says of his son.

Gene and Jerry Jones' two other children -- Charlotte Jones Anderson and Jerry Jones Jr. -- also both hold the titles of executive vice president of the Dallas Cowboys. Anderson is chief brand officer. Their youngest child, Jerry Jr., is chief of sales and marketing.

Jerry said he decided against naming his firstborn Jerry Jr. based on advice from his father, Pat Jones, who didn't like the idea of his son being called "Junior."

But when his second son came along, Jerry changed his mind and decided to name him Jerry Jr. And Jerry recalls fondly that when he returns to his hometown of North Little Rock -- especially the Rose City area -- everyone calls him "Little Pat."

THE FAMILY

A tightknit family, the entire clan watches Cowboys games together in their luxurious suite at AT&T Stadium. Jerry spent $1.2 billion to build the stadium five years ago.

After a Cowboys win, Anderson says the rest of the family brace themselves because "Stephen comes at you like a freight train." If the team loses, Stephen's day is ruined, she says.

"He is so passionate and so emotional about the game," his sister says. "You try to put together the best team you can ... but you can't control the outcome of the game."

Stephen says it used to make him crazy when the media criticized his father after a Cowboys loss.

"Early on, it bothered me a lot that people were negative about someone I love -- my father," he says. "At the right time, that could make me hostile. People in the media I had disdain for because of the things they would say about my father. But then you see the thing go full circle and you say 'Hey, they are doing their job.' If you don't do well, they need to be critical. If we do do well, they give us a little bit of love and give Jerry a little credit."

Anderson says being a part of professional football is like a "roller-coaster ride. The highs are incredible and the lows are intense."

Just 21 months apart, Anderson and her big brother grew up together.

"I admire his intensity and wisdom and passion for this game and what he does," she says. He is constantly striving to make things better.

Longtime family friend Sheffield Nelson of Little Rock agrees.

"He is extremely intelligent and he is tough as a boot both mentally and physically," Nelson says of Stephen. "The word 'quit' is just not in his vocabulary."

Stephen was born while his mother was visiting her family in Danville. His father was working in Oklahoma but drove at "breakneck speed" to get there before his birth. His mother thought she would have a girl and picked out the name Stephanie. When he arrived, she changed it to Stephen.

The Joneses lived in Little Rock and Stephen attended Pulaski Academy through the eighth grade when he decided he wanted to play football for a larger school. The family chose Catholic High School for Boys.

At the parochial, all-boys school, Stephen became a favorite of the principal, Father George Tribou. The monsignor selected boys to take on trips. He took Stephen on trips to New York and Europe.

"I think what most people think about when they think about their education and their experience at Catholic High School is Father Tribou," Stephen says. "He, to me, was the heart, the heartbeat and the soul of the school."

Tribou died in 2001.

In 2013, the Jones Family Charities of Dallas, Denise and John York of San Francisco and an anonymous alumnus gave $10 million to Catholic High.

During high school, Stephen became the star quarterback. His father leased an office in the neighboring Plaza West high-rise so he could watch his son practice from his window. Afraid of interfering with practice by being on the field, Jerry watched his son through binoculars.

Stephen was offered a football scholarship at Princeton University but wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and play football at the University of Arkansas.

The senior Jones told him he could do it on one condition -- that he pick a major that was challenging. Stephen offered to major in business. His father countered with engineering.

A four-year letterman linebacker and special teams standout, Stephen chose to major in chemical engineering, one of the least popular majors in the locker room.

After graduating, Stephen went to work for his dad in the oil business. He helped his father sell JMC and Arkoma Production Co. to Arkla Gas Co. The elder Jones used the proceeds to buy the Cowboys in 1989.

At that time, Stephen was living in a one-bedroom apartment in Fort Smith.

"He called me up and said 'How would you like to work for the Cowboys?' I said 'I'm coming.'"

AMERICA'S TEAM

Legend has it that sportswriter Bob Ryan coined the name "America's Team" for the Cowboys in 1979 because he needed some extra copy for a sports highlight package. The nickname stuck.

But after several sub-par seasons, some sports enthusiasts question whether the Cowboys are still America's Team. The Cowboys are considered the most valuable team, worth an estimated $3.2 billion.

"I think the fans determine that," Stephen says. "I think the ratings determine that, and I think merchandise sales determine that. I believe it is not for me or for someone in the Cowboy organization to say we are America's Team."

Though there have been some painful losses this year, Stephen says he thinks the team is turning itself around. Its record certainly supports this. After ending each of the last three seasons at exactly .500, the Cowboys have done markedly better than that. A lot of money has been poured into drafting a good offensive line.

"When you have good offensive linemen, several things start to happen for you. You run the ball better and you protect your quarterback. We have a lot of money invested in Tony Romo and he is a top-tier quarterback and we want to protect him."

The night before this interview, Romo injured his back during a game against the Washington Redskins, and the Cowboys lost in overtime.

In past seasons, Stephen says, the Cowboys "didn't run the ball a lot and counted on Tony to throw it around."

"The good news is I don't think this is a team that's going to go down the wrong path again," he says.

THE NEXT GENERATION

Stephen met the woman who would become his wife, Karen Hickman of El Dorado, at UA. Her brother, Joe Hickman, one of Stephen's best friends, asked him to take his sister on a date.

The couple dated for more than two years before marrying. They have three daughters -- Jessica, 22; Jordan, 21; and Caroline, 17; and son John Stephen Jr., 15.

Like his dad, John Stephen is the quarterback for his school team.

If the Cowboys lose, the Jones kids sometimes take criticism from their own classmates, Stephen says.

"My kids don't wear the gear. They don't wear Cowboys T-shirts," he says. "They want to be normal. They don't want to be the grandkids of Jerry Jones and the daughters and son of the Cowboys. They just want to be normal kids walking the hallways with their friends."

Jerry is a frequent target of online gossip sites, and Stephen found himself the subject of online gossip when he was videotaped on a bus with some young women.

"You know, it hurts," Stephen says of the gossip. "It makes you more aware. I've told my kids ... times are different than when we grew up. You have these phones that record what you are doing. There's zero privacy."

"When that happened to me, I got a call from Dad," Stephen added. "He said 'I know you didn't do anything wrong but you've got to remember you can get your picture taken anywhere."

With his own kids, Stephen says he tells them that they can learn from their mistakes.

"I tell my kids, 'I am going to be the hardest on you before you make a mistake. ... When you do make a mistake, I will be there for you.'"

Stephen says he rearranges his schedule to spend as much time as he can with his family. For example, he missed a pre-season Cowboys game so he could go watch his son's game.

"It's just something that is a priority to me," Stephen says. "Everyone says it's faith, family and football around the Cowboys and that surely is the case for me."

NW Profiles on 11/30/2014

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