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Cowboys Legend Troy Aikman Calls Out Franchise's Major Problem

Originally posted on The Spun | By Tzvi Machlin | Last updated Sep 3, 2025 4:39 PM ET

Few people are more responsible for the Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl dynasty of the 90s than Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman. But with it being nearly 30 years since the team's last Super Bowl appearance, Aikman had some strong opinions on why the team has remained so far from hoisting the Lombardi Trophy again.

Appearing on The Rich Eisen Show, Aikman admitted that he's not sure if the team is as focused on winning as they are at having people talking about them. He levied that specific criticism as team owner Jerry Jones, who he believes has a knack for stirring things up when people are ignoring the team.

"I saw Jerry talk about the fact that, having the Cowboys as a discussion point is meaningful to him. And if people aren’t talking about the Cowboys, then he’ll do things to stir it up. So, he kind of walked into that and has given the impression that supersedes winning,” Aikman said.

Winning?

Aikman believes that while winning is important to Jones, raising the value of the team matters to him too.

“In some ways, I’m sure Jerry and the Jones family, and everyone is tired of the fact that they haven’t been to a championship game, let alone a Super Bowl in 30 years. So, then when you deflect that, then essentially the valuation of your franchise or the attention and the exposure, or the drama or as Jerry said, the fact that the Cowboys are a soap opera 365 days a year, that then becomes the scoreboard instead of winning and losing on the field. And do I think that winning is not important to Jerry Jones? Not at all. I think Jerry wants to win more than anything else and I think that he’s very exhausted of the fact that this team, although they’ve won a lot of regular-season games… they’ve only won four playoff games and that’s hard to stomach.”

It's a sentiment shared by tons of Cowboys fans these days. Many of the actions Jones has taken, ranging from promoting Brian Schottenheimer to head coach to the infamous Micah Parsons trade have fans realizing that Jones seems to care more about running the team his way than running it well.

The real question is whether Jones' players can prove that his way was the right way. They'll get their chance to start when they take on the Eagles tomorrow.

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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