When NFL owners run their football operations, the results land everywhere on the map
Jerry Jones, Jeffrey Lurie, Jimmy Haslam and the McCaskeys offer four very different case studies in what owner involvement actually produces.
ESPN's Seth Wickersham filed a long-form piece this week looking at how NFL owners actually use their authority over football operations. The conclusion: there is no single template. Some owners are passive checkbook signers. Some are full-time general managers. The outcomes range from three Super Bowls (Jerry Jones in the 1990s) to two decades without a playoff win (Cleveland under Jimmy Haslam).
What does Jerry Jones' actual track record look like?
Jones has been the Cowboys' owner and GM for 38 years. The early run delivered three Super Bowls (XXVII, XXVIII, XXX), much of it tied to Jimmy Johnson's drafting and Jones' willingness to spend. Since Johnson left in 1994, Dallas has won three playoff games. The 2014 pre-draft moment where Jones reportedly pushed for Johnny Manziel before the room talked him into Zack Martin (a future nine-time All-Pro) is the textbook example of how owner involvement can either save or sink a franchise depending on whose voice prevails.
What about Jeffrey Lurie in Philadelphia?
Lurie is the model that football people cite when they argue for engaged but not hands-on ownership. He hires general managers, gives them authority, fires them when results don't follow, and stays out of the draft room on game day. Philadelphia has won two Super Bowls under his watch (LII, LIX), reached three others under his ownership, and posted a winning record in 22 of his 31 seasons.
Why does Cleveland keep showing up in these stories?
Jimmy Haslam has owned the Browns since 2012. The franchise has reached the playoffs twice in that span, won one playoff game, and given out two of the worst contracts in NFL history (Deshaun Watson's fully guaranteed $230M deal in 2022 and the trade package that came with it). Multiple reports across the past three years describe Haslam as deeply involved in personnel decisions, particularly the Watson trade, against the strong recommendation of his football staff.
Where do the McCaskeys fit?
Bears chairman George McCaskey and his family represent the opposite extreme. The McCaskey ownership group is famously deferential to the football side. The criticism, fair or unfair, is that the family has been too deferential, allowing weak general managers to extend their tenures past the production they deserved. Chicago has reached the postseason once since Lovie Smith's 2010 NFC Championship run.
What's the broader pattern?
Wickersham's piece argues that the variable isn't whether an owner is involved. It's whether the owner is involved in the right things. Jones is at his best on labor negotiations, broadcast rights and macro league strategy; the Cowboys' personnel decisions have been worse than league average since the late 1990s. Lurie's involvement is high-level: he picks coaches, sets organizational philosophy and gets out of the way. Haslam's involvement on individual personnel calls has produced consistent failures. The takeaway is that owner activism is a tool, and a tool only works if used for the right job.
Players in this story
Sources
- ESPN: When NFL owners get involved with football decisions, results are mixed
- ESPN: Jerry Jones' maverick ways changed NFL's business model
- Wikipedia: Jerry Jones
