‘America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys’: What we learned from the Netflix docuseries on the Dallas Cowboys

DALLAS — Netflix’s new docuseries on Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys revisited well-known moments from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s but offered fresh perspectives that shed new light on some situations.

The series spans everything from the Herschel Walker trade that built a Super Bowl dynasty to the fallout between Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson. Just about everything that unfolded when Jones took over ownership in 1989 was covered. 

So, here are some of the key things we learned from America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys:

This is likely not a revelation for most, as Jones has been a more prominent figure in his organization and the media than just about every other owner in the NFL. However, what the series revealed was a closer look at the way Jones conducted business and the mindset behind it. 

For Jones, when he bought the Cowboys, he admitted to his family that he really didn’t have a clue what he was doing — but that didn’t matter. He knew how to talk, and he knew what sold. 

“How bout glitz and glamour, big city Cowboys? The Midnight Cowboys,” Jones said in the show. “I think it could be a soap opera 365 days a year. I could get the eyeballs and the platform and I could juice it up a little bit.”

From prolonged contract negotiations to consistently pushing the boundaries and going against league norms when it came to brand partnerships and building alternative revenue streams, Jones has remained the same to this day. 

One of the major deep dives in the docuseries was on the relationship between Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson. 

The two were roommates in college when they both played football at the University of Arkansas. There, Jones and Johnson forged a relationship that would last decades — for better or worse. 

As soon as Jones decided to purchase the Dallas Cowboys in 1989, he knew exactly who was going to lead the team: his friend Jimmy Johnson. All was going according to plan until little things started piling up. 

Johnson started to wonder if this was everything he had signed up for when Jones started putting cameras in the draft room, speaking out about how trading Herschel Walker, which allowed the Cowboys to build their championship teams, was his idea. Everything began building and building, leading Johnson to flirt with a new expansion team in Florida, even though they were on the brink of winning two Super Bowls. 

And then everything hit the fan when Jones said that 500 coaches could’ve won a Super Bowl with the roster they had built. For Johnson, this was an extremely hurtful remark, one that would lead him and Jones to decide to part ways. 

For three decades, Jones and Johnson traded occasional jobs in the media while remaining cordial in person. Their relationship didn’t begin to mend until 2023, when Jones inducted Johnson into the Cowboys’ Ring of Honor — the franchise’s highest recognition.

Dallas sports fans in 2025 are familiar with the shock of seeing a star leave town. The reaction to Luka Doncic’s trade to the Lakers earlier this year mirrored the outrage that swept the city in 1989, when Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys and fired legendary head coach Tom Landry.

Landry had brought the Cowboys to prominence in the 1970s, winning two Super Bowls and changing the public’s perception of Dallas and the franchise. In the 1980s, the Cowboys began to flatten out and weren’t able to make it back to the Super Bowl, and even missed the playoffs for three consecutive seasons prior to his firing. 

Though these ebbs and flows are pretty natural in the game of football, Jones didn’t want to move forward with Landry and opted for a complete overhaul. 

When it was announced that Landry would no longer be the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, he took it hard — but the Cowboys faithful took it harder. 

A couple of months after his firing, Landry was honored with a parade through Downtown Dallas, where more than 100,000 people showed up to wish him farewell. And with all the praise for Landry came threats of violence towards Jones. The Cowboys owner recalled receiving tons of death threats following the decision, even referring to himself as “Darth Vader” in the eyes of the fans. 

In the end, Jones recognized that this was the biggest public relations misstep of his career and he still feels it to this day. 

In the final episode of Netflix’s docuseries on Jones and the Cowboys, his daughter Charlotte and sons Stephen and Jerry Jones Jr. were asked about a succession plan for ownership.

Each became emotional when asked about the future without their father, now 82.

“My answer is, I want to enjoy every moment that my dad’s — I want to enjoy every moment. The rest will take care of itself,” Stephen Jones said.

Charlotte noted the family is running out of “We’ll get them next time,” adding it’s something they all recognize. Whether or not the Cowboys can make it back to their prominence of the 90s anytime soon has yet to be seen, though hopes remain high for fans and the organization each and every year. 

The series retraced Jerry Jones’ life as an entrepreneur, oilman, Cowboys owner and father. It explored both sides of front-office and locker-room conflicts, while also providing a glimpse into what it’s like to live in “Jerry’s World.”