Double J Stands Out Among Owners For Good Reason

Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports unveiled his ranking of the top owners in the NFL this week and, as is the custom, Jerry Jones ranks second behind Robert Kraft of the Patriots.

The reasons are the same as every other time Kraft gets praised. He's built a model organization, his team has no drama and he's maximized the support of an entire region for a team that used to be a complete laughing stock.

That's all great, but I'll take Jones every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Well, maybe not twice on Sunday since that's the day that's been causing Double J's so many problems in the last few years. But, as someone with no stock in how well a team does on the balance sheet, I'll take the Jones school of ownership over any other. Another owner sums up the reasons why perfectly in Silver's article.

"Four words: Big vision, big testicles."

Sure, he should hire a personnel man to keep him from waking up in the middle of the night and signing the latest controversial jailbird and it would be swell if he stopped treating the draft like it was a random lottery instead of a way to actually stock your roster with talented young players. We don't need another guy who does things the right way, though.

The NFL has grown more and more conservative and more and more staid over the course of Double J's 20 years in the owner's box and that's made for a less interesting league. Kraft's club, via Bill Belichick, keeps spitting out these mealymouthed coaches who act like they're protecting nuclear secrets instead of the status of a tailback's hamstring and the whole league seems to think that there's something unconscionable about having an actual personality.

Nuts to that. Give me more Double J and his wildly extravagant stadium. Give me more sudden directional shifts in the franchise and more million-to-one shots, even if they don't pan out. Give me guys who make a billion and then turn around and spend it on the team instead of on themselves.