In a Dallas Cowboys documentary filled with drama, Jerry Jones expected even more.
Earlier this week, Netflix held the Hollywood premiere for its 2025 documentary titled “America’s Team: The Gambler and his Cowboys,” centered on Jones’ acquisition of the team in 1989 and the ups and downs the franchise experienced in the 1990s.
The 82-year-old owner spoke to Sports Business Journal’s Ben Fischer about the documentary days before its public release on August 19. In the interview, Jones admitted that he was “surprised” by one pivotal storyline during his early years as Cowboys owner that was not addressed in the documentary: the 1989 NFL draft.
The Cowboys famously selected franchise icon Troy Aikman with the first overall pick in the 1989 draft. But Dallas later chose fellow quarterback Steve Walsh with the first pick in the supplemental draft, instantly creating tension in the team’s QB room heading into the 1989 campaign.
Jones called the Aikman-Walsh era “the most trying time of all and was “surprised they missed that.”
As Cowboys fans are well aware, Aikman won that battle and led Dallas to three Super Bowls in the span of four seasons.
However, there’s an alternate reality where Walsh won that QB battle and altered the course of Cowboys history. Two years before Jimmy Johnson became Dallas’ head coach, he coached Walsh to a national title at Miami. Johnson reportedly favored Walsh but decided later to trade him in favor of Aikman.
The rest, as they say, is history.
