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USATSI

Early in the 2024 NFL offseason, Dallas Cowboys legend Emmitt Smith worried aloud that team owner Jerry Jones is "losing credibility [and] losing respect" over the franchise's inability to live up to lofty expectations. Just don't expect Jones to cede his post anytime soon, with the 81-year-old executive telling DLLS this week "there's nobody that could" run the Cowboys "better than I can."

"I've done it all," Jones said of his track record. "So I have an ordinate [sic] amount of confidence that, f---, if anybody can figure out how to get this shit done, I can figure out how to get it done. ... So hell no, there's nobody that could f---ing come in here and do all the contracts … and be a GM any better than I can.

"Plus, I'm where the buck stops," Jones continued. "When it f---s up, I got to cover it. ... There's nobody can do it. ... [Running] this thing, that's who I want to make the last call. Now, when I can't f---ing think, when I'm old and I can't even do it ... but I'm a long way from not being able to do it, too."

Jones pointed to his business acumen, turning the Cowboys into the NFL's most valuable franchise, as reason for trust in his leadership. Critics would note that Dallas hasn't achieved nearly the same success on the field, failing to advance to an NFC championship since 1995 and totaling just five postseason victories since that time. Yet Jones, who's owned the team since 1989, has no qualms about his operation.

"The reason I don't let somebody else be the GM is because I don't have anybody that I will let do it to actually do it right," he told DLLS. "And they're gonna have to come to me and because I know where it is that you're going to pay for it. ... If I didn't give a shit, if this wasn't fun for me to do, or interesting for me to do, whatever you want to call ... The point is I love this. And you know I do."