It’s pretty clear by now that when you’re the billionaire owner of America’s Team, nobody will ever tell you to stop talking. But somebody really should.
Just a day after Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett had made it clear that Hardy’s comments earlier in the week were not the type he should be making as a human, let alone a member of the Dallas Cowboys, Jones went on Dallas radio show “G-Bag Nation” and made similarly vague, nonsensical comments attacking the media for taking Hardy’s comments about coming out “guns blazin’.” As quoted by Mike Fisher of CBS Dallas-Fort Worth:
“Well, I specifically have commented on it. It’s just where we are and where he is and where we are. Most of comments are going to go the wrong way if they have any element of being positive, of being aggressive, of being the way you want to be as a football player as far as your attitude is concerned. He has that attitude. It’s not just talk. It’s not just in front of a bunch of cameras. That’s what he is. And he is that way. He is very aggressive out there. He is very positive. He is very confident in his ability to make a difference. Where he is and where we are is any time he is there, any time he is a point of discussion, which you guys maybe you were out there. But they probably asked him so many questions. I’ll get so many questions and then I’ll have five or six of them that have nothing to do with what the writer ultimately writes and he has it put on by some colleague of his the other way. So, you never know where it’s coming from.”
But then, Jones began to veer off course, commenting on Hardy’s remarks about Tom Brady’s wife and others, leading eventually to a comment about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor:
“Here’s the deal: is that unless he looks like he’s contrite, unless he looks like he’s just absolutely whipped, and so really obviously sorry for what his situation is, he’s going to get criticized. And we all know that. But he was in a football setting. Those questions that were being asked him. Those people that were asking that question, those were not workplace. We know some things are out of order. We know if an attorney is talking to you or if a sales person is talking to you and they’re the opposite sex. We know some things in today’s society that is behavior that we don’t have today. We know that. But, now, I can remember when they talk about Richard Burton. And you’d say I don’t know about Richard Burton, but anybody good enough to be married to Elizabeth Taylor has got to be ll right. Elizabeth Taylor made her life wanting people to say she was pretty. She made her life. That was her complete life. That was the people she hired to make them when they said ‘Elizabeth Taylor’ to enhance people saying she was pretty and interesting. And, so, when you did talk about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, you talked about how pretty she was and Elizabeth Taylor. Nobody thought that you were being disrespectful of women or the workplace. Well, Tom just happens to be married to a lady that is just absolutely one of the premier people in the world of working and making people say she is beautiful. Do you agree with me? That’s what they do. They get up in the morning and go to bed at night having people say she’s beautiful. So that a lot of people when they talk about Tom Brady talk about how beautiful she is.”
Jones went on to state his case as a champion of battered women, referencing his work and philanthropy with various organizations that support victims of domestic violence both in Arkansas and Texas, which of course is all very admirable. Obviously Jones and the Cowboys organization have taken a ton of knocks for signing Hardy after his conviction for assault.
We get it, Jerry, you’ve got a lot of microphones in your face and people expect the face of the franchise to say things. And maybe it’s not fair, that if you were to just say “no comment” or “We’d like to stick to football” you’d get mocked for avoiding the issue. But if you’re truly not capable of saying the right thing, like Garrett, or not even capable of knowing what the right thing to say should be, like Hardy, just shut up. You’re only going to make things worse.
(via CBSDFW)
