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Well, how ’bout them Cowboys, huh? The 3-3 team is 0-3 at home and their owner, Jerry Jones, went 0-1 on his weekly radio hit on 105.3 The Fan. By now, you’re aware what Jones said on Shan & RJ on 105.3 The Fan this week. Most likely you have seen a lot of the reactions from various pundits and formed your own opinion on what happened and perhaps why it might have happened.
I’m of the belief Jones gave us way more of a look behind the curtains than he intended. “I’ll get someone else to ask these questions, men,” Jones said to hosts Shan Shariff and RJ Choppy when the interview got a bit contentious. Is this how he reacts whenever employees dare disagree with him or question him? He’ll just get someone else.
Would you really be surprised if that were the case? I think most people believe the problem with the Dallas Cowboys in the first place is that too many people just agree with Jones because they don’t want to be replaced. The results pretty much speak for themselves.
The team on the air of Shariff, Choppy and Bobby Belt handled the situation about as well as it could have been handled. With as much attention as this part of the interview received, many aren’t aware that the interview continued and as Choppy told Dan Patrick, “We ended it as normal.”
You have to think that even in his heated moment of anger, Jones at least had to respect the fact the hosts didn’t back down and cower down in fear. I’d like to think they had earned that respect with Jones over the 14 years and almost 300 interviews. They may have also not backed down because Jones’ threat was fairly ridiculous. For Jones to even have said those words like he was talking to a maid at his house or someone who cleans his gutters was just frankly disgusting.
The relationship between radio stations and teams they have partnerships with to carry play-by-play has always been a bit strange. Sports radio is partly based on analyzing players, teams and coaches. By nature, sometimes that needs to be negative analysis. In this case, the Cowboys have made a lot of mistakes and have not come near their stated goal of winning championships.
I have been in these situations before, including right as my on-air career had started. The Rams had just moved to St. Louis and I was a young sports talk host who figured the louder I spoke and the more bashing I did of local teams, the more the listeners would like me. When I took a couple of shots at the Rams, I got a phone call from a team executive wanting to talk.
I was very lucky. The executive was a fan of the format and the station and knew I was just starting out. He kindly offered advice about things like if you are going to criticize the team and the management of it, come out and meet some of the people, talk to them, ask them questions and then make an opinion. He also reminded me that the team and the radio station had a business partnership and that while he nor anyone at the team thought they should be immune to criticism, he suggested I choose my words wisely and keep that business relationship in mind.
What I came to learn is that you have to analyze what you see and gain insight from the people you talk to. You can never make it personal, and you have to be careful about over-generalizing statements. Just because we watch Hard Knocks and a lot of games doesn’t make us experts on football or have in-depth knowledge of what goes on behind the scenes.
If anything, when Shariff said, “…there was a lot of criticism that you guys didn’t add, didn’t spend and don’t add and don’t spend and are not aggressive enough with some of the problems that are still haunting the Cowboys today that we see play out on the field,” the only part I think someone maybe could question is him saying, “…don’t add and don’t spend and are not aggressive enough with some of the problems that are still haunting the Cowboys today…”
I can see where that may have set Jones off a bit, because that could be translated as ‘you’re not trying’ when Jones most likely spends every waking minute wanting to make the team better, he may just not be very good at it.
Jones clearly crossed the line here when he threatened the hosts on the air. Bad look. Dumb thing to say.
Kudos to Shariff, Choppy and Belt for the way it was handled. This could have turned into a much bigger deal had the hosts turned it into an argument and been more combative or even hung up on Jones to make it all stop. Younger broadcasters may have done so. Shariff and Choppy showed they are veteran hosts and won’t be bullied by anyone, including one of the highest profile and wealthiest people in the city.
I assume this will end here and later today Jerry will make his regular Friday appearance on the station and be back on the morning show on Tuesday. He should apologize and the hosts should then thank him on behalf of the radio station for all the publicity.
And with that, the Cowboys will have gotten a bunch more time in the news on tv, radio, the internet and all the other places Jerry Jones likes to see his name and the team’s name. Jerry will still be Jerry.
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The Best/Worst Thing I’ve Heard/Watched/Read Recently
This isn’t one singular thing, but the best thing I have heard and watched recently is Jim Rome. The reason for that is the way Rome has upped his game with distribution and is embracing the technology available to him to get his show out in front of new people. As someone who spends most of the day scrolling through social media, I like that the product comes to me.
Many times, I will see the show is live on X and tune in to see what the topics are. Rome also recently announced a FAST channel and is distributing through a few different outlets. Rome seems rejuvenated and really digging what is happening.
Nothing has changed with his radio distribution, and it is quite entertaining to hear Rome try to explain to his older listeners what is going on. If you want to view The Jim Rome Show live on X you can do so by clicking here.
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In Case You Missed It
Speaking of Dallas radio, congratulations to Jeff Catlin and the team at The Ticket. Not only have they now won several Marconi Awards for Sports Station of the Year, this year they took home an even bigger prize – Major Market Station of the Year. Catlin is the longtime program director and Derek Futterman caught up with him after winning the award.
The station has been celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and while the Marconi is for 2024 it might as well be for the contribution the station has made to radio since launching. It really developed its own space in radio, its own format with sports as a base. It is a model guy-talk sports station that few have ever been able to come close to replicating. Not the content and not the relationship between a station and its listeners.
Catlin told Derek, “I think what we try to do is we talk about what people care about, and it seems like a real big radio cliché to say that, but it’s absolutely true, and we’re lucky because of the relationship that we’ve built and have with our listeners over the last 30 years. They allow us to do that.”
You can read the full feature by clicking here.
Dave Greene is the Chief Media Officer for Barrett Media. His background includes over 25 years in media and content creation. A former sports talk host and play-by-play broadcaster, Dave transitioned to station and sales management, co-founded and created a monthly sports publication and led an ownership group as the operating partner. He has managed stations and sales teams for Townsquare Media, Cumulus Media and Audacy. Upon leaving broadcast media he co-founded Podcast Heat, a sports and entertainment podcasting network specializing in pro wrestling nostalgia. To interact, find him on Twitter @mr_podcasting. You can also reach him by email at Dave@BarrettMedia.com.
