The Jerry Jones Photo Explains a Lot
A 1957 image of the Dallas Cowboys’ owner highlights long-standing inequities in the NFL.
If you’re wondering why, in professional football, so few Black coaches get hired and Black players struggle to be heard, you can learn a lot from a 65-year-old image of Jerry Jones. In a 1957 photo published late last month by The Washington Post, the future owner of the Dallas Cowboys, then 14, stood among a group of white teenagers who were blocking six Black students from desegregating his Arkansas high school.
In an interview with the , Jones minimized his role in the event. “I don’t know that I or anybody anticipated or had a background of knowing … what was involved. It was more a curious thing,” , which has published a series of stories about the NFL’s failure to promote Black coaches over the course
