Jerry Jones called out the Bengals for not being as popular as the Cowboys

Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images

Jerry Jones was not shy in naming a team he feels is not as popular as his Dallas Cowboys.

It is rather difficult to find an NFL team lacking in popularity. Today’s sport’s world, entertainment world really, features the National Football League at the center so that even the least popular NFL team is doing alright for themselves relative to other organizations and teams in the same sort of business. The NFL is king.

Grabbing a slice of the NFL pie is a financially-rewarding thing which is why when ownership stakes have become available in recent history we have seen some of the wealthiest people in the world do everything that they can to jump in. If you have the ability to cut a check to get into the club you can set yourself up with a money-printing machine for the foreseeable future.

This is true because the league as a whole is so popular, but within that there are teams that do some heavier lifting. It is not a secret that the Dallas Cowboys are far and away the most popular/visible/whatever-else-you-want-to-say team in the league even despite the fact that they have not had major on-field success in almost three decades.

Jerry Jones took it upon himself to remind people of that recently.

Jerry Jones called out the Cincinnati Bengals for not being as popular as his Dallas Cowboys

In case you were unaware, the league is currently in the middle of a trial regarding the Sunday Ticket product. The Ticket is what allows people to watch teams out of their market. If you are, for example, a Jacksonville Jaguars fan living in California then the likelihood of you having your favorite team on one of your local channels is incredibly low. By purchasing the Ticket, you give yourself the ability to watch them regardless of where you are.

There are many BTBers who are “out of market” for the Dallas Cowboys in terms of what would be defined as the local one. Given who the Cowboys are, their games are generally broadcast to most of the country anyway (if they are not nationally televised on primetime) so the Ticket may not be as much of a draw as it would be for less-popular teams who don’t get national coverage.

Back to the matter at hand though, the trial taking place is based on the way that the league sells the Sunday Ticket. PFT’s Mike Florio provided a great TL;DR during Monday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show that you can see right here.

"It seems like nobody is paying attention to this & this is a case that goes back to 2015..

Roger Goodell is testifying & it challenges the way that the NFL sells the Sunday Ticket package"@ProFootballTalk #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/su3uysyG93

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) June 17, 2024

In the interest of brevity, if the NFL loses here then they may have to restructure the way that they sell the Sunday Ticket. It is possible (using that word grandly here) that we could wind up in a world where they sell things by team or by week or by game or by month or by whatever, the point is that they would no longer only be able to sell it as one product that you have to purchase for the entire season which is the current format.

Jerry Jones testified during the trial on Monday which is a big enough deal in its own right (Roger Goodell also testified if you are still unaware of how significant this whole thing really is). The league’s position seems to be that the Sunday Ticket product is perfect as is and does not need any reconstruction. NFL owners tend to stick together on matters and prohibiting change here ensures that the teams who have less popularity don’t lose any revenue share which they would stand to do if the league had to adjust the way it sold the Ticket as noted.

Florio also happened to find what Jerry had to say, and during his testimony he noted that he stood to gain as the owner of the Cowboys and referenced a team who likely would not, and he outright named them.

Quick background note. From time to time, I’ll explain the consequences of the NFL losing its broadcast antitrust exemption. If that ever happens, the teams would sell the rights to their home games individually, like Notre Dame does. In discussing that scenario, I’ll explain that the Cowboys would get multiple billions per year for its games. In lieu of naming the teams at the other end of the spectrum, I’ll typically say, “They know who they are.”

Jerry has an opinion regarding who one of them is. In defending the broadcast model despite the fact that he would profit handsomely from it, Jones sent a stray in the direction of Cincinnati.

“I am convinced I would make a lot more money than the Bengals,” Jones said, via the Associated Press. “I’m completely against each team doing TV deals. It is flawed.”

While Jones is accurate, given the immense value of a Cowboys-only package, it was unnecessary to single out the Bengals. He could have just said, “Any other team.”

It is, um, noble of Jerry to spew the company line in the name of everyone continuing to thrive in the way that they have for so long, but calling out the Cincinnati Bengals by name did seem a bit harsh.

To be fair and defend (weird use of that word!) Jerry’s point though, he is certainly not wrong. As of last year’s Forbes rankings, the Cowboys are (shocker here) the most valuable team in the NFL where the Bengals are last. Dallas is valued at $9 billion whereas Cincinnati is an “embarrassing” $3.5 billion.

Fans of teams don’t care about things like this though, and the Bengals have had more on-field success than the Cowboys over the course of the drought that Dallas has been in since their last taste of it in 1995. What’s more is that while Cincinnati does have a reputation for some tight purse strings, they have really re-made their image in that sense. Consider that the biggest contract in NFL history still lives on their books with what they gave Joe Burrow last year. The Bengals took until the NFL’s kickoff game to get it done, but they did still ultimately take care of their franchise quarterback as soon as possible in that Burrow’s deal got done prior to his fourth season with the team. Not to say that Dak Prescott is Joe Burrow, but Dallas has shown a significant lack of understanding of the financials (ironically) of the game relative to the Bengals.

But hey, valuations, baby.