The 2025 NFL season kicks off on September 4, pitting the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles against the Dallas Cowboys in primetime. Once regarded as "America's Team," the Cowboys' success has long hinged on the impulsive whims of its fickle billionaire owner, Jerry Jones, who is the subject of Netflix's popular new docuseries, America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys.
Perfectly timed to get football fans pumped for the upcoming NFL season, the eight-part docuseries charts the unlikely rise of the Cowboys in the 1990s under Jones's ownership, the team's ascent to three-time Super Bowl-winning glory, and the competitive downfall that ultimately resulted in the last 30 years of mediocrity. While most hardcore football fans know that Jerry Jones marches to his own drumbeat in pursuit of publicity over on-field success, The Gambler and His Cowboys paints a complete picture of the iconoclastic team owner.
What Is 'America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys' About?
Directed by Chapman and Maclain Way, America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys is equal parts a story about the titular NFL football team and its maverick, megalomaniacal owner, Jerry Jones. After winning two Super Bowls in the 1970s, the Dallas Cowboys were affectionately dubbed "America's Team" by the media, a moniker that has stuck since but has not been merited in the last 30 years.
Following a down period for the team throughout the 1980s, Arkansas oil and gas business entrepreneur Jerry Jones purchased the Dallas Cowboys in 1989 for $135 million. The acclaimed football documentary chronicles how Jones accrued massive debt as a young businessperson and gambled on himself by investing in the Cowboys. An iconoclast from day one, Jones instantly fired the team's well-respected Hall of Fame head coach, Tom Landry, who was the only coach since the team was formed in 1960.
The gamble eventually paid off, with Jones hiring successful college football coach Jimmy Johnson to lead the team. Jones and Johnson soon drafted quarterback Troy Aikman, who, despite struggling mightily in his rookie season (1-15 in 1989), led the Cowboys to three Super Bowl titles in the 1990s with fellow future Hall of Fame players Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin (among others). The Cowboys became one of the most beloved and loathed teams at once, with the rest of the league attempting to recreate their success.
During the height of the Dallas Cowboys' success and popularity, the label "America's Team" returned to prominence in the 1990s. Of course, everything is fine and dandy when the team is consistently winning at the highest level. But what happens when "America's Team" becomes a winless media circus that lasts for three decades?
Jerry Jones Prioritizes Team Value Over Winning
As America's Team concludes, the glitz and glory of three Super Bowl victories soon sours with decades of winless football. The longer Jones has owned the team, the more control, power, and influence he has had over the entire football operation. Jones isn't just the team owner, but he is also the general manager and team president. That means Jones has full control over personnel and decides how much they deserve to be paid.
Jones's abundance of power as owner, president, and GM has been detrimental to the team's on-field success since the '90s. The Cowboys have not made the Super Bowl or the Conference Championship since 1996. But what the must-watch sports doc does a great job of conveying is that, for Jerry, on-field success does not hold as much weight as the team's financial valuation. The Cowboys are currently valued at $12.8 billion (via News9), making them the most valuable NFL franchise for six consecutive years.
As long as the Cowboys remain the most lucrative team in the NFL, Jones has made it clear he is not that interested in winning on the field. The Cowboys hardly resemble "America's Team" of yore, with the current media circus surrounding All-Pro pass rusher Micah Parsons' contract negotiations becoming uglier by the day. Parsons recently scrubbed all affiliations to the Cowboys from his social media.
Yet, for Jones, even the negative publicity is worth the attention to his brand and its bottom line. Jones is currently making the media rounds to discuss the untenable Parsons situation, which many believe is simply a ploy to promote this new Netflix doc. Shrewd business owner or cynical raconteur? While watching the doc about the past, that's the question that leaps to mind in the present. Luckily, there's plenty of classic NFL action to keep viewers distracted.
'America's Team's Throwback NFL Action Will Pump up Fans for 2025
Between charting the rise and fall of the Dallas Cowboys under Jerry Jones' ownership, America's Team lingers in the team's halcyon days of the 1990s. In depicting how Jones and Johnson dealt with outsized personalities and off-field legal drama, throwback footage of the Cowboys in their heyday will pump NFL fans up to no end. The thrilling sports doc emphasizes the difficulty of building a championship-caliber team and the difficulty of winning back-to-back Super Bowls, which the Cowboys did in 1993 and 1994 before winning again in 1996.
Whether watching Troy Aikman launch deep touchdown passes to Michael Irvin and Alvin Harper or seeing all-time great running back Emmitt Smith return to the field after separating his shoulder and leading the Cowboys to a must-win victory, America's Team shows a physical brand of football that the league has been recently trying to legislate out of the game.
Yet, for those who grew up with that type of football, America's Team is a nostalgic sight for sore eyes that hardcore fans can live vicariously through until the 2025 NFL season kicks off with the Cowboys facing the defending champion Eagles. Watching the Cowboys' elite offensive linemen, Larry Allen, Mark Tuinei, Nate Newton, and Leon Lett brutally maul opponents is pro football purism at its finest. Defensively, watching Charles Haley bend the edge to swallow QBs and Darren Woodson's acrobatic ball-hawking skills will jack up even the most casual football fan.
One of the most telling parts of the doc features Hall of Fame cornerback and punt returner Deion "Primetime" Sanders, who defected from the rival San Francisco 49ers to join the Cowboys in the 1995 season. Sanders sheds insight into the intense rivalry between the 49ers and Cowboys in the mid-'90s, and how he felt going from one side to the other at the height of each franchise's success while also juggling his MLB career.
Between Sanders' massive personality and star wide receiver Michael Irvin's recurring struggles with cocaine during the team's quest for a Super Bowl-winning repeat, the doc highlights the untamed, Wild West culture within the Cowboys' locker room that drove and halted their success in the '90s.
Yet, for all the glory the Cowboys enjoyed in the 1990s en route to securing the America's Team name, the gamble for Jerry Jones has not paid off on the field for the last 30 years. While the gamble has paid off financially, in the immortal words of coach Herm Edwards: "You play to win the game." For as glorious as it is to relive the Cowboys' past triumphs in America's Team, they haven't done much winning of late.
Fortunately, hope springs eternal for every NFL team with the start of each new season, and the Dallas Cowboys will get another shot at reclaiming the "America's Team" label when facing the Eagles in Philadelphia on September 4, 2025. America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys is streaming on Netflix.