Stephen A's Take: Dak Prescott's playoff time is now!

Published Sep 8, 2024, 10:00 AM

Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown. 

Let's get to my one on one interview with Cowboys owner extraordinary businessman, extraorda near one of the other, Jerry Jones, at his headquarters at the Star in Dallas, Dix. I want to thank Jerry first of all for giving me an hour of his time. He didn't have to do that. They actually gave me more than an hour, and actually he would have given me more than that. I just had to rush to catch a flight for crying out loud. But his hospitality obviously knew no limits. And I'm very, very grateful and honored to him him allowing me to sit down and interview him, because that's not something he does very often in terms of one on one interviews. Let's get that out the way. You may recall Jones bought the Cowboys in nineteen eighty nine at the time for one hundred and fifty million dollars. It's now thirty six years later. The franchise, or i should say, his thirty six season, thirty five years later, the franchise that is the Dallas Cowboys, is now worth well over ten billion dollars, more than double the value of most of the teams in the National Football League. So before we say anything. We got to salute a success as a businessman. The man knows how to make money playing it simple. It's nowhere around it. But check out Jerry's response when we're talking about football, specifically, when I asked him about the twenty eight years that have passed since his Dallas Cowboys made it to an NFC Championship game, let alone a Super Bowl.

Take a look, Well, I would say the one most responsible for it is the guy. They're answered to me, And that's what I've said from the very beginning. There's no slipping away from it. The buck stops. It does stop. It stops right here, and that doesn't mean much if it's just for show, or that doesn't mean much if there's not some tears and some sweat and blood. It goes with it.

What about those who argue? Is not a consequence because at the end of the day, you're not going to remove yourself, so you don't really have to pay the price for whatever mistakes you make, because you're not getting rid of you as most of us wouldn't get rid of ourselves.

Course, but that is absent a little deal call paying that price. You think for one minute that the way our season ended last year. Are there's anybody on this earth that bothered any more than me? No one. There's been no one that looks back that really can live with how long it's been since we've been with the Super Bowl? Do you think that I literally do go in here and say, well, but how many people have won three Super Bowls? Okay? Do you think I say? Of course, I do not. I do not say that I look at it as that was then, this is now. But I do look at it that way in that sense that ten years ago we obviously didn't win a Super Bowl, we had a different coach. That was then, this is now, Let's go do it now. Now. I've done this and things away from football all my life, and I have discarded in different directions, and I've gone in different businesses. The guy in the mirror is the man that I change out.

First things first, and I want to make sure that I educate folks about something. Maybe I'm stating the obvious, Maybe I'm not. Billionaires don't have to talk to anybody. You don't hear that often, but they don't have to talk to anybody. Billionaires are cutting checks, not just cashing them. That's number one they're usually the bosses, and as a result of that, they usually have people under them to point the finger out, to do interviews, to explain stuff to the masses, et cetera, et cetera. So when Jerry Jones not only showed the willingness to sit down with me, had no idea how long we were going to sit down, and literally said I don't care, it's with stephen A, that meant the world to me. It really really did. Then stop me from asking him about Ceedee Lamb. Didn't stop me from looking in his face and telling them I think they were gonna lose. Then stop me from looking in his face and telling them and question them about Dak Prescott and really bringing the light whatever questions legitimately exist about Dak Prescott, because I'm one of those people who sided with Jerry when it comes to Dak Prescott and the appearent procrastination to get him signed. Now, in Jerry's world, his mentality is there's no rush, there's no punishment for taking your time to get the deal done, as long as you get in in time when you need him and they're on the field for you fair enough. My attitude is simple. Dak Prescott and they're trying to saw Brandon Cooks the other day going off pontificating about you know, it's blasphemous that people are critical of Dak Presto. I stop it. Stop. Dak Prescott is a star caliber quarterback. He is big time as a talent who has led the Dallas Cowboys to multiple winning seasons and multiple playoff berths. And by his work in the regular season from September through December, Dak Prescott is worthy of the fifty five million that Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence, and Jordan Love already got this offseason, if not more, which will probably be more because he's the last dude on the market who's gonna get his money, and you know how that works. Don't act like Dak press got some freaking victim because he's being raked through the colds for having won two playoff games in eight freaking years. I mean, damn, you gotta win three Super Bowl You gotta win three playoff games in one year to win the Super Bowl. This brother, don't have him an eight. Come on, y'all, at some point in time, it's not right for us to point out, y'all. Man you're gonna win. You gotta win, you gotta win it. Come January, got the nerds ship up. They're holding out, talking about if they don't sign you, it'll say something. If you do get signed, it'll say something. But if you don't get signed, it'll say something to well, if you don't get signed before a Sunday season opening dark presscott, what's that gonna mean to you? Is it gonna mean they don't want you? Or is it is it gonna mean they want to flash a light in your A light bulb in your head that says, damn, bro, can you show up and produce in January? Y'all think of bullshitting. When I pointed out, I was walking around the Star. My team was there with me. I had some team members in there with me and my lionfellas. I was there. I walked down the halls, I walked around the Star. I walked to that practice facility. I went to that cafeteria. I ain't a delicious cheeseburger in the cafeteria. I didn't grab it and leave. I sat down and ate, hoping the players would come in there. They got some podcast booths podcast booths with Ephicon Wallas I was in there. I random in the Nate knew it couldn't find any of the players playing today. I wonder why. I wonder why ain't nobody running. You gotta produce. It's not being negative or disrespectful pointing out what you do on a public platform. When you pick the career that allows you to perform in a public platform, Come on, y'all, come on. As for Jerry, I'm just looking at some of these things. This is what he's done in the past, signed independent stadium sponsorship deals with American Express, Nike, Doctor Pepper, and PEPSI once irked the NFL's licensing arm in the process on the grounds that these partnerships violated league wide sponsorship agreements. The league sued them for three hundred million in nineteen ninety five. Jerry counted for seven hundred and fifty million in an anti trust suit a month later. And one that's Jerry Jones. I'm just looking at some of these things that this man achieved at and T Stadium, featuring eighty thousand steats, capable of expanding the one hundred thousand seats, a retractable roof, and the largest high definition center hung video board in the entire league, one hundred and sixty feet by seventy two feet long and fifty three feet by thirty feet wide. At least six billion dollar NFL venues have opened in thirteen years since the debut of AT and T Stadium by Jerry Jones. I mean, what can you say? A five hundred and ten foot square foot indoor practice facility. That's called the Sport Facility. That's where we were, that's where we did the interview. I can't say enough. It's called the Star. Open to twenty sixteen now includes the Cowboys headquarters, a seventeen story luxury apartment tower, the Omni Frisco Hotel, a three hundred thousand square foot sports medicine center, doctor Pepper's corporate headquarters, and two dozen shops and restaurants, including a Nike store and several Cowboys. The Eateies also Bolster Forward Center, which is used for indoor practice, high school football games, and other events like the Country Music Awards next year. This is from a dude that borrowed money to buy the Cowboys and had three billion dollar lawsuits in back to back years from nineteen eighty nine to nineteen ninety to nineteen ninety one. The man better on himself. They ain't winning no damn super Bowl in the foreseeable future as far as I can see. But it don't mean that I can't respect this man and his business acumen. I'm gonna give him that. I'm gonna give him that