National Football League

He can't stands no more — Jones sounds off on Rice, Romo, losing

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 5:36 p.m. ET

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Jerry Jones said very little in the 48 hours after his Cowboys' season-opening meltdown against the 49ers.

But apparently enough time had passed — or Jones could simply no longer keep quiet — and the most famous owner/general manager in football finally sounded off Tuesday on 105.3 FM The Fan in Dallas.

And he covered quite the variety of topics.

Despite his team's struggles on Sunday, Jones started where everyone began on Tuesday, talking about Ray Rice and the league's handling of the situation in the wake of Monday's release of the video showing Rice hit his then-fiancée in February.

"In blocking terminology we have recovery. That's when an offensive lineman obviously gets beat on the first move but he has the athletic ability to recover and try to get it right on the second move. I know that we're doing that, trying to get it as good as we can get it on the second time around. I think that's happening. There's no question in my mind the emphasis that we have on spousal abuse in the NFL and the lack of tolerance for it. It's intolerable and it will be adjudicated accordingly."

Then came the subject Cowboys fans were waiting for, the star of Sunday's "show," Tony Romo. (To refresh, Romo threw three interceptions and had plenty of people questioning his decision-making — again — in the 28-17 loss at home.)

Jones is notoriously famous for sticking with Romo despite the growing perception the QB falls short in big games and big situations. And Tuesday was no different, Jones attributing Romo's struggles to his lack of offseason work after back surgery.

"I think we added it up, seven days that he didn't practice that he might, should've, could've practiced. If I've ever seen a player —€“ and again, we've got to say this, he's your quarterback, now it's the quarterback position — but if I've ever seen a player with his background, with his experience, could come out and execute and play, and miss some practice time, it would be Tony."

Jones went on to say he could see Romo struggling with mechanics and setting his feet Sunday before addressing a missed assignment after Romo checked out of a run play that resulted in a sack.

"We've said this so often about Tony, to get the good, you got to go with some of the foibles that come with the good. I hope that you could say that about me, and other things that I do. We know we've all got them. Sometimes they're the part that makes us do well, too."

Jones also addressed the hot-button issue of Sunday's crowd, as TV cameras repeatedly caught swaths of 49er fans in the crowd, their cheers often far louder than those of the home team's fans.

"There are several things to point out. We're so used to seeing all that blue color when we travel away. We see it all the time. And there's a lot of it. Some places we go, Arizona, it feels like a home game. So we know the kind of interest that a team like San Francisco has.

"A lot of times we look at the stands, you look back over in the party pass area, you're only looking in the stands directly . . . You got people in the suites, you got them in the party pass area, so you're looking at that . . . when we sell a suite or seats, we sell to about 11,000 or 12,000 people that write a check, 11,000 or 12,000 that counts. Not 80,000 but [11,000] or 12,000.

"The point is that you can have [5,000] or 6,000 people that decided for their particular group or family, they're going to sell. And you can make a big difference in the terms of the people that are in there.

"The other thing that happened is our tickets, that's the highest premium that we've had since we've opened the stadium for a football game. We had 91,000 people there. And a $90 ticket was going for $300, for example. We might have fans that might take the premium, watch the game on TV. [It would] be a good way to average out for the year for them on their overall price of watching the Cowboys.

And finally — are the Cowboys just not good enough to compete with the 49ers?

After falling behind big with all the early turnovers, the Cowboys shut the 49ers out in the second half, outscoring San Francisco 14-0 in the game's final 30 minutes.

So, did Dallas get it together at the break and show it could trade blows with San Francisco?

"Not necessarily. I think it's probably a little dangerous, and Jason [Garrett] pointed this out to his staff: Let's not just make this about those turnovers, because there was more here to look at where we did some good things about and then there was some there where we didn't do good things about. I don't have it as a given that the turnovers were the difference in the game. I'm not being negative. I think we would've been right there, but San Francisco plays that game different in the second half if they don't have that big lead."

— FOX Sports Southwet's Jon Machota contributed to this report

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