Want to Know How Jerry Jones Got Rich? Here's What We Know About the Dallas Cowboys Owner

If you are a fan of the Dallas Cowboys, a new documentary about owner Jerry Jones and the team, America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys, just dropped on Netflix.

In the documentary, Jerry reveals that when he bought the team in 1989 and fired the Cowboys' coach, Tom Landry, he received death threats. The eight-episode documentary also includes interviews from former Cowboys Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Deion Sanders, and Jimmy Johnson. So, how did Jerry Jones get rich enough to buy the team?

According to Forbes, Jerry is a billionaire with an estimated fortune worth $16.1 billion. After Jerry graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1964, he got his start in the 1970s by working as an oil wildcatter, a term used to describe a person who drills for oil in fields not previously known to produce oil. The oil wildcatter built his wealth by investing in oil drilling, retail ventures, and real estate projects.

Jerry also invests in art. The Dallas Cowboys owner reportedly owns several expensive works of art, including paintings by French painters Matisse and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and several by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso. Jerry's collection also includes "Coin Toss" by Norman Rockwell.

Jerry purchased the Dallas Cowboys in 1989 for $150 million, and in 2018, he became the number one shareholder in the Texas oil and gas company, Comstock Resources.

In the Netflix documentary America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys, Jerry said, "I was Darth Vader" after he bought the team and named himself the team's general manager and president, per People. The new Dallas Cowboys owner even received death threats at the time after he fired the team's coach, Tom Landry.

“They’re serious about their football in the state of Texas, almost as much as we are in Arkansas,” he added.

At least 100,000 people took to the streets of Dallas for a parade in honor of Coach Landry, who'd been the team's coach for almost 30 years, and Jones regrets his decision to fire the coach.

"The firing of Coach Landry was certainly one of the great PR missteps, maybe of all time," he said. "Because I still wear that."

He made Jimmy Johnson the new coach. Jimmy had been a teammate of Jerry's on the football team at the University of Arkansas.

Despite feeling the anger of Dallas Cowboys fans, Jerry felt he had no option to go forward.

"With all that hate, I could stop and cry, or I could just keep going," he said in the documentary. "But, I’m not gonna take my marbles and go home. I can’t, I burned all my ships when I landed."

According to CBS Sports, the team Jerry bought for $150 million in 1989 is now worth $12.8 billion. In 2024, Jerry was asked if he'd bought the team for his three kids.

"No. Just, no," he replied. "I bought the team, I think the first thing to come out of my mouth, somebody asked, 'Did you buy this for your kids?' I said, 'Hell no. I bought it for me.' And I didn't buy an investment, I bought an occupation, and I bought something I was going to do."

America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys is available to stream on Netflix.