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Response continues to come in after yesterday’s happenings on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones grew agitated by the line of questioning from hosts Shan Shariff, RJ Choppy and Bobby Belt during his weekly radio visit, following a disastrous 47-9 loss at home against the Detroit Lions on Sunday.
Shariff asked Jones why the Dallas Cowboys didn’t make more moves during the offseason. Jones immediately shot back.
“This is not your job. Your job isn’t to let me go over all the reasons that I did something and I’m sorry that I did it. That’s not your job. I’ll get somebody else to ask these questions,” Jones said as Shan Shariff and RJ Choppy chuckled. He did not take kindly to the laughter.
“I’m not kidding,” he said, sternly. “You’re not going to figure out what the team is doing right or wrong. If you are, or any five or 10 like you, you need to come to this (NFL) meeting I’m going to today with 32 teams here, (because) you’re geniuses.
“Y’all really think you’re gonna sit here with a microphone and tell me all of the things that I’ve done wrong without going over the rights?” Jones continued. “Now, listen, we both know we’re talking to a lot of great fans, a lot of great listeners. And I’m very sorry for what happened out there Sunday. I’m sick about what happened Sunday.”
On Wednesday, the show began with Tom Petty’s I Won’t Back Down, and the hosts reviewing the incident from the day before. They also shared the amount of phone calls and text messages they received.
Shan Shariff said he had trouble trying to listen back to the segment. He said, “It got cringy for me. It got uncomfortable, the belittling, the bullying, cutting us off, the threat was in there as well. It sounded even worse listening back.”
Shariff later added, “what [Jones] did though with the threatening part, that is an all-time bad loss for him with the way it’s being received. I know how irritating I can be, and I fight back and go back at people on social media. To get zero negativity yesterday upon thousands and thousands of messages, that tells me and shows how big of a mistake that was for Jerry Jones, and how little and small and petty that was.”
The hosts said they did not hear anything from their bosses or anything from the Cowboys. They also cleared up the financial partnership between the team and the station which, according to the hosts, does not have a financial transaction involved. The Cowboys own the ad time for the games, and the station gets ancillary programming to sell. Regardless, Jones does not employ staff at the station, which is owned by Audacy.
The hosts then read what NFL reporter Dianna Russini wrote after talking with Jones following the NFL owners meetings. That set Shariff off even more. Jones said he didn’t mind the questions but doesn’t want those questions coming from the flagship station of the team.
Choppy said, “It takes a lot to get me upset, but I was like, you know what? Screw you man.”
Shariff replied, “It’s really insulting. Really demeaning, insulting, and again out of nowhere. We have done 14 years of interviews with this man, and never had fights or anything close to that. We’ve covered segregation, scandals, Kaepernick, and kneeling. We’ve covered Garrett getting fired and never, never had this type of venom, anger, and disgust from Jerry. I can’t figure it out. I have no idea and here’s the biggest thing that’s boggled my mind, it’s not even what Jerry’s saying about us personally, they don’t know football, put me with real fans, which I promise you Jerry, that’s the last thing you want. You wouldn’t be able to handle it. I promise you that.
“The second biggest mistake I think Jerry made yesterday, besides I’ll threaten your jobs, was destroying the well-earned reputation of not controlling the media. Giving the impression that you want state-run media like you’re Vladimir Putin. ‘I’ll get guys in to ask me the questions I want, I’ll replace you. I don’t want the flagship asking me tough questions after a disastrous loss or when my head coaches on the hot seat. That is so damaging to him.”
