The Josh Innes Show - Jerry Jones v. 105.3 The Fan..My Thoughts

Episode Date: October 15, 2024

Jerry Jones seemingly lost his mind this morning on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. The morning dudes, Shan and RJ, asked some seemingly standard questions that didn't sit too well with the Cowboys owner. I think I have a unique viewpoint on this for a few reasons. I worked for their boss so I think I may have an idea of what it was like behind the scenes. I've gone to work thinking it was a normal day, only to have something unexpected send me into the viral stratosphere. I've had run ins with sports teams who were on my station. I've worked in cities like Houston and Philly. Those two cities couldn't be more different in the way they handle situations like this. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The following was recorded from inside an ice plunge. Ah! Woo! Okay. All right. When a Coors Light is cold enough, the mountains on the can turn blue. So the next time you want a cold lager, cold filter, cold package Coors Light, just wait until those glorious mountains on the can turn blue.

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Yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets. See app for details. Howdy, Jamokes. What's happeningats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets. See app for details. Howdy, Jmokes. What's happening? It's Josh.

How are you? Biggest story of the day today. And I love it when a radio dude or some radio dudes on a radio show get to have the biggest story of the day. Like, that has been my life at least once. Well, in Philadelphia, it was like a hundred times, but the biggest thing ever that accidentally happened to me. And that's the same thing that's going to happen to these guys. It all happens by accident. You don't know when you open the microphone on a given day, when something wacky is going to happen, that's going to take the world

by storm. I guarantee you that Sean, who's, I don't know that I've ever met Sean in person. I may have at a Superbowl radio road type of deal probably did, but I talked to him. I wouldn't say frequently, but we'll slide into each other's DMS to talk about our meat. And by that, I mean like I'll see a video that he'll post a smoke and some meat he's down in Dallas. And then he'll see something I'll post and he'll say damn that looks fucking amazing I'll say thank you that we're meat swapping here I appreciate we're swapping meat stories and pics that's essentially what we do um and he's been in Dallas for a long time at 105.3 he's there with RJ uh who's his co-host on the show and I think Bobby is the other guy that's a guy I don't know a ton about but I know the other two

guys because they've been there for a long time they predated my old boss Gavin who works there so um I know them at least I know of them and I talk to Sean I don't talk to RJ I don't know if he does meat or not we don't share meat pictures and meat commentary uh But I would love to see his meat if he has some. So there you go. But you don't know on a given day when you open the microphone, if something's going to be huge. A lot of days you go in with ideas thinking something's going to be huge and then it does absolutely nothing. It gets absolutely no traction. And you're like, what the hell? What I've learned in my experience and being in radio since I was 15 years old and being around it my whole life is on a given day it's the things you don't

even think are going to happen that happen that become the biggest thing like I didn't know that Mike Missanelli was going to want to have a fist fight with me at an Eagles practice. If I would have, I'd be a genius. I had no clue that it became the huge story of the game. I had no idea when I went to work, whatever day that was, when me and Spike and Tank were doing the show, that Mike Missanelli's brother was going to call me and that Mike Missanelli's brother was going to happen to be a fucking gynecologist that wanted to have a fight with me in the parking lot. I don't know that. I don't know these things are going to happen. I wish I did. I didn't know that Seth Payne on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning at Radio Row was going to stand

up and call me a bitch and want to throw down. I don't know these things. I wish I did. These are the biggest things that have ever happened to me in radio that have made the biggest news. That was the biggest one, the radio row. And that was like a national story that like Howard Stern talked about that. You know what I mean? So that's something that was huge. Like, I don't think Howard Stern talked about me and Mike Missanelli almost coming to blows at practice. But the Super Bowl radio row thing was obviously a huge story that every radio show every

TV show every news outlet was talking about so you know like I'll give you an example of something that I thought was going to be big and just wasn't as big as I anticipated when me and Jim uh got the uh the the uh the the boom lift and set up outside of Texans practice to spy on Texans practice because they wouldn't let us broadcast from inside. I thought that was going to be a far more interesting story than it was. No one in Houston gave a shit. Ultimately, because Houston doesn't really give a shit about a lot of things. And we'll get into that.

But if you don't know what I'm referring to today. So you've got Sean. You've got RJ. I think Bobby is the other guy. And they interview Jerry Jones every week because Jerry Jones, unlike any other owner in the universe, does a radio hit every week on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. So if you didn't hear this, this is part of the exchange. It was like a 15, 16, 17-minute interview. here's a small snippet uh really the snippet that's really going viral where you've got the owner of a football team threatening to whack dudes that interview him on a weekly basis

let me tell you what i'll do let me tell you what i'll do about it uh i will uh let us sit down and look at the decisions we've made over the last several years. Okay? I'll look at it. Now, if you think I'm interested on a damn phone call with you over a radio and sitting here and throwing all the good out with the dishwater, you have got to be smoking something over there this morning. I'm not.

And I really don't, and I don't even want our listeners to listen to me talk about, this is not your job. Your job isn't to let me go over all the reasons that I did something, and I'm sorry that I did it. That's not your job.

Well, my job is to ask why. Or I'll get somebody else to ask these questions, man. Jerry, we're trying to figure out why the team is. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. All right. So a couple of things there. First of all, in today's media world where having the rights to games is such a big deal,

teams do hold a lot of power. Let me give you an example here. Their boss in Dallas is Gavin. Gavin used to be our boss in Houston before he had the good fortune of getting the fuck out and getting to go work in Dallas again for the radio station that has the Dallas Cowboys so now again that's not to knock Houston I love Houston but Houston radio especially Houston sports radio does not have the impact that Dallas sports radio has this station 105.3 the fan is a big time station they're the second place sports station not to knock them they just

happen to be in the same damn city as the ticket that just won the Marconi and they win Marconi's pretty often and by some I don't know how it happens they just always have like 15 shares in Dallas don't know how that's been the case on their little dinky signal but they do it and more power to them but Gavin's station is a hundred thousand watt big time FM sports blowtorch that has the Rangers and the Cowboys big time station like a little different than being on a 5,000 watt AM station that carries the Texans who while they're the better football team in the state now we know that they're not the most relevant product or program if you want to call it that in the state that's the cowboys it always will be we get that right so gavin rolled out goes to to dallas and um and gavin when he was our boss in houston we had a couple of issues

where teams that were on the station like we would go back and forth with teams on the air and let me tell you this i was texting gavin this morning he didn't seem to be overly concerned about it you know what i'm saying he was like he didn't tell me oh I'm digging this this is awesome but I texted him I'm like well you guys are making a lot of news today and he's like hey look my guys asked fair questions and what happened happened you know but when Gavin was my boss I can assure you that if well let me just give you examples of shit that happened right so gavin the rockets were our big thorn in our side we didn't have the astros we had the rockets we had the texans the texans were never really an issue like i mean i would shit on the texans a lot i worked on a

morning show with the voice of the texans and we would shit on them all the time i never felt like a super duper pressure in talking about the texans Like I thought, oh God, we're going to get shot down by the Texans. The Rockets were the biggest group of pussies on the planet. Like they could not handle criticism at all. And look, I don't know that my boss was afraid of the Rockets, but I know that he didn't like having to deal with them being angry. So more time, like look more than once my man ran down the hall banging on the glass and we're in the middle of talking about the rockets giving me like the

shut the fuck up sign, like stop talking about this. That's what makes this so fascinating is that you've got the most powerful sports owner on the planet, the most famous sports owner on the planet, the biggest name name arguably the biggest name in football you could argue is jerry jones powerful guy and he's on the air telling your host that i'm gonna get you fuckers out of here because i don't like this line of questioning and my old boss who seemingly was afraid of the rockets the shitty rockets that nobody cares about my old boss is sitting there going we're fine my guys are doing fine here nothing to see and i was like holy shit what a world this is i'd give my left nut to have had that kind of uh leeway whenever i was doing these

things but um so that's some of the background there with with their boss there uh sports broadcasting rights deals are very weird now because some places, like in Philadelphia, I think WIP, Odyssey, they still pay to have the Eagles games. I'm not positive that 105.3 pays for the rights to Cowboys games. I'm not sure on that. I'm pretty positive. Actually, I know for a fact that 610 in Houston does not pay

to air the Texans games. The Texans just retain inventory. Like whenever they air a game, they control all the commercials so they can sell them. Whenever Mark Vandermeer comes in on a Monday morning to boot the morning show so they can do two hours of Texans radio, the Texans own that and get to sell the whole thing. That I do know. I don't know all the ins and outs of what the deal is with the Dallas Cowboys and 105.3 the fan I do know that that

I mean I would imagine I don't know this for a fact but I would imagine Jerry has some kind of pull because if Jerry picks up the phone and is like I don't want to do this shit with these guys anymore I don't know that Gavin or anybody at that station goes well we'll just lose Jerry Jones because you know we we'd have our guys and yet one of them maybe he would I'm not saying that like there have been examples of places where guys have had ultimatums thrown at them by teams that are on their station and the station has backed the talent in particular one that really stands out is in Detroit a guy named Mike Valenti who's like the biggest deal in radio there sports wise has 20 shares big star and he does a fucking killer job and I forgot which team

it was if it was the Lions or one of the teams they had on their station like wanted him out they were like we're tired of this guy and they're like well fuck you he's a bigger deal than you guys are he makes us money he's got 20 shares you guys suck we back him and in a lot of cities like if in the northeast you will get a situation where the talent is supported by the station like let me put it this way let me compare houston to other places because i know a lot of people listening are in houston in houston on a monday, when you're breaking down the Texans, there is the morning show that has Sean and Seth. They leave at eight o'clock in the morning so Texans radio can come in. And as much as I like Mark, Mark's one of my best friends. I love him. I adore him

as a human. Mark Vandermeer is an employee of the Texans. So every morning, Monday morning at eight o'clock, your morning show, your Odyssey Sports Radio 610 morning show gets kicked to the curb so team run media can come in there. On Monday afternoons, your afternoon show gets booted so team run media can interview the coach. If it were me listening, I would turn it off because I know that what I'm hearing is a team run thing and I have no interest in that. Houston's a weird town. Maybe Houston doesn't give a shit about that. Houston is a real talk. Houston is not a sports media tough market. It never has been. That's just not what Houston is, right? That might be why the stations or an FM station has never put sports on. I mean, I get 97.5, but that's a stick out of Beaumont. You can't hear it in half the city. So that is what it is. But that's why you don't

get these, you know, a 610 or a 790 on an FM station because I don't think anybody believes that sports radio there is truly viable because sports media there is pretty shitty. If we're being honest, Houston's a shitty sports market. It's not an overly passionate sports market. The media people aren't competitive there. It's just not like that. I'll tell you this. If you were in Philadelphia on a Monday morning and Nick Sirianni just yelled at the fans in the stands

and it's the next Monday and it's WIP, I can tell you one thing that's not going to happen. Merrill Reese, the voice of the Eagles, isn't going to come in to replace Angelo Cataldi to interview Nick Sirianni. Like, that's not going to happen. In Boston, they're not taking Toucher and Rich, even though that's not a show anymore,

but they're not taking Felger and Maz off the air if they have a weekly interview with Bill Belichick, which they didn't. That was actually WEEI that had that. But, like, they're not taking their big star personalities off the air so they can bring in the play-by-play guy to interview them. Houston is unique in that way. Houston is just not a strong sports media market.

It doesn't happen anywhere else like that as far as I know. So that is what it is. So give Dallas credit. At least Dallas has a pulse on this and I don't know what Gavin would do I don't know and maybe something's happened behind the scenes we don't know about today based on what I'm seeing from Sean and RJ and all these guys on Twitter and social media Instagram and everything else it sounds like the boss has their back because they're talking a lot of shit they're kind of relishing in this newfound kind of flavor of the

day you know your 15 minutes type of situation here, which they've had this before, but like they're kind of embracing it and people are giving them their kudos and their pats on the back and they're saying, fucking right, man, you guys went out and got him. You guys asked the tough questions.

And since they're getting to embrace that on social media, I'm going to guess that their boss, Gavin, who by the way is a fucking incredible boss. I wasn't trying to say anything negative about him when I said that he was afraid of the Rockets when we worked. I don't think he was afraid of them. Whatever reason, it was just one of those things where the Rockets are the most pussified organization in the history of sports. They have rabbit ears. And I don't know if that's still the case, but in 2009, 2010, 2011, they were pussies. And if you said anything about them on the air, it was a bad deal. That's still the case, but in 2009, 2010, 2011, they were pussies. And if you said anything about them on the air, it was a bad deal.

That's where all of my bad issues, that also happened at 790 in Houston. All my bad issues took place with the Rockets. I had no issues with the Astros, no issues with the Texans. Every issue I had was the Rockets who are just real. That's why I will never like that organization. I think they're softballville USA. But I'm going to guess that Gavin was like, look, you didn't do anything unfair. Like, okay, let me go this way. It just dawned on me. Gavin was my boss when I interviewed Daryl Morey once, and I forgot if this was after the draft or whenever it was, but I'm asking him some

questions. And Daryl, who also has gigantic rabbit ears, he tries to control the media. That's why he tries to be chummy and buddy and give access to people because he doesn't want them talking shit about him. He wants to own the media, right? So I forgot if it was after the draft or something that happened. And we're interviewing Daryl. And at one point, Daryl asked, and if anybody who's listened to my show for any period of time, you guys know this, but if you're new to this, then you don't know this story, but Daryl at one point during the questioning goes, hey, Josh, boy, is that all you got? Give me something harder, and I'm like, well, you asked for it, and I was like, so do you think if shit, and I was like,

you want something harder? We'll go, we'll go, and I was like, so do you think you should have a job if you don't get this thing turned around blah blah blah and he's kind of going back and forth at me Gavin was on my side on that because he was the one that initiated the shit so once you've initiated the shit let's go and Gavin actually had my back on that if I recall correctly I believe that was Gavin so um Gavin's a very supportive boss like I'm letting you guys like inside this like I don't know there's not a ton of people I guess that have this insight on this not that it's you know there might be people

going who gives a fuck but I think I have some sort of kind of insight as to how this would go um all I know is if those guys would have been the ones that really initiated the asshole assholedness of that gavin would probably be pissed at them based on my experience with him now he's not gonna fire him or anything like that but like he'd be like guys you were out of line i don't believe there's anything they did that was out of line in that i also don't believe there was anything overly tough that was asked of jerry jones like i would urge you to go listen to the whole thing I played the little snippet for you there but they were the part that's making its way around but like and this isn't to knock Sean or RJ or Bobby or anybody else associated with that I don't think they were asking like Colonel Nathan R Jessup if he ordered the code red you're damn

right I did like this wasn't like an interrogation these were just kind of i'm not gonna say they were they weren't softball questions they were just fair questions and i think the reaction that you got from jerry is why people are viewing this as like you're asking the tough questions couldn't have worked out any better for sean and rj because in reality they didn't and i'm talking about just'm going to tell you how I think their boss is probably looking at this because I know their boss very well. I haven't gone into great detail with him on this, but I know how their boss operates because I worked for him for like three years and he's one of my favorite people and we've kept in touch for 15 years. So I know how he thinks. I think today their boss looks at this as you asked fair questions you did the job you were

supposed to do he got defensive and now you guys get to reap the benefits of this by making it seem like you guys went out there and were like guns blazing flame throwers let's fucking go but in reality you're just asking fair questions and he got so defensive over it and so angry over it and threatened their jobs with it that he looks like the putz and you guys just get to sit back and reap the benefits, which I would imagine are like billions of downloads. Although in this era, people post the video on Twitter and it probably gets listened to more there than it does back to your own site. But I imagine that was big. I would imagine your video views on your particular video on your

YouTube channel were big today. Uh, your radio station, which is perennially, and this is not a knock it's reality perennially, uh, the number two sports station in town gets to control all the media in the Metroplex today. That's fucking gigantic, right? Because the ticket, I mean, last week they're winning Marconi's and everything else. Today, your front page news, probably at the Dallas Morning News website, DFW.com, whatever the fuck it is, DallasNews.com, like you are the front page story. Your morning show is being talked about by Stephen A. Smith. Your morning show is being talked about by Stephen A. Smith. Your morning show is talked about by, I mean, look, go down the list.

Everything on ESPN, everything on Fox, every syndicated show, every national personality, every local personality, and every Tom, Dick, and Harry in any podunk town is talking about you. The second I heard that, I happened to be up earlier than usual today, and I heard this. The second I heard it, I texted AJ Hoffman in San Antonio. And I don't know when this interview took place. I'm guessing 8. But it already made its way around. It was starting to make its way around with Dallas media people, right?

Like the Clarence Hills and people like that. And it had already started making its way around. And I'm like, shit, you guys carry the Cowboys. I think you need to get your producer on this ASAP. I started it like 14 minutes in, probably until about 16 and a half, 17. You guys need to be playing this. I texted it to AJ because he's doing mornings in San Antonio. I said, bro, you need to play this because this is going to be everywhere within an hour.

And sure enough, he plays it within 30 minutes. It's fucking everywhere. It's the biggest story in town. And I love it when it's radio dudes doing that. And like, good for them, man. Again, I have nothing negative to say about them. I think big things like that generally happen when you gump your way into them. In my experience in doing radio stuff, there's never been a time when I planned something big to happen and that something was

big. It's always those days where you show up and you're like, I don't know. And then Mike Missanelli wants to fight you or Mike Missanelli's brother wants to fight you or, you know, Seth Payne wants to fight you. We're seeing a trend. Um, that's when the biggest shit happens. Now, the difference in some of my situations versus what those guys are probably getting is their boss gavin and i guess purdy is purdy still in dallas yeah purdy's still in dallas god purdy's the fucking man i miss that guy a lot he was so fucking badass but um their bosses were probably like good fucking job you did your job you you he hung himself you did the job and

you come out of this smelling like fucking roses you're farting through silk underwear today good for you whereas my boss is every time something happened like at 790 it was hey go fuck yourself we hate you and we're embarrassed that you exist um i remember one time i got a call because i called hard and a douche and i got a call like a friday night at like eight hey did you call james harden a douche i'm like yeah don't you asshole i'm like okay well whatever um but i think they did a good job like i think what they did was solid i was thinking i think anybody who does this would think about how they would do it like to me and again i'm not being critical at all of how they handled it.

They handled it how they handled it. I think there was some nervous laughter in there because, again, like I'm trying to put myself in their position. Like, you're talking to the most powerful guy maybe and one of the most powerful men in all of American sports, right? So, and he's like, you think he's kind of effing with you, but then in reality he's kind of effing with you but then in reality he's not really effing with you and he's like trying to you know flex his cock a little bit at you

and you're like huh how do we do this so there's a little bit that awkwardness like yeah yeah what are you talking about to me and this is just how I think about things is if someone's going to come to me and go you know I'll get you out of here, essentially my response. And again, it's easy for me to say, not being in the moment, not having to worry about whether or not what's going to happen is going to cause me my job, whatever. Uh, I would have been like Jerry. And again, I have this with the benefit of having hours of hindsight, but I'd be like, Jerry, you just lost what what 49 to 7 or 47 to 9 at home you're 0 and 3 at home this year and you've been outscored by like 80 points at home and some of the teams that have

beaten you you know like the Saints they just gave up 51 points to Tampa at home your team has a lot of issues to me I think the last thing you need to be concerned about is trying to run some radio guys off an interview whenever you might not going to have maybe the best look for you. Now, again, I'm, I'm actually kind of a, not a docile person, but I've talked about this before. Like I'm pretty chill until I'm pushed into doing something. Like I'm kind of a laid back dude, but when you push me, that's kind of my opening to say, let's fucking dance. And if I'm on the air and I got Jerry Jones telling me he's going to basically get me fired, I'm like, let's fucking go. And

we'll see where it goes. And that might explain why I'm doing a podcast in my underwear on my couch. Maybe it's that kind of mindset, but that's how I think of these things. Try to think of another example. Well, it's kind of like this. Go back to Houston with it. So Houston, not a good sports media town. The teams basically control all of the content on the radio. It's just not good for the consumer. But then again, the consumer doesn't seem to care in Houston about that. So whatever. You can't get away with that Dallas, New York. You couldn't get away with like, hey, Mike and the Mad Dog, you're off the air at five o'clock so John Sterling can interview insert manager Aaron Boone, whatever. That wouldn't happen that way. It's just not possible. But that happened to me in Houston. So I was doing

afternoons with Rich and Rich and I did the Gary Kubiak show. It was a one hour interview show. And I thought I was pretty fucking good at it. I'm a pretty good interviewer and I ask fair questions. I'm not trying to fight with people. But Kubiak comes on there. We're at the radio station. He's on an ISDN or whatever it was at the time back at the back at the stadium in his office. So we would talk to him that way. And we did a good job of it. I thought it was kind of must listen radio. I want to say that was in 20, was that in 20, I guess it would have been in 2010 that we did it. I don't know. We did through 2010 and 2011 because they were good when I was doing it with him. And I would try to make it fun. Like this one gal called one time and wanted to sing a song to him and she sang a song and it was funny. We laughed. Wasn't that long after that, that Josh and Rich weren't the hosts of the Gary Kubiak show. It was Rich Lord and Mark Vandermeer who were interviewing Gary Kubiak. And to me, and I say, this is someone who loves Mark Vandermeer and loves all, I dig him. And I look, I have a great passion for him and I have nothing against him. But if I'm listening to sports on radio, I want people

that I at least think, think like me and are not bought off by the team or not employees of the team. The thing Houston does very poorly is Houston is like mafioso that's run by the teams and a lot of the cases and a lot of these bosses there. Now I have no idea how the new program director is and he seems like a nice dude but like I know how the management people were when I was at 790 and I know how a lot of these people are they're not here for you to do interesting shit they're here to protect their relationships with their teams and everything else I give Gavin credit because it's clear that he had his boys backs and he should have his boys back that's the way this should be you should have your dudes back

you should be out there supporting your guys because if not, then why do you employ them? You know what I'm saying? If you think the Cowboys are far more important to the station than your guys, then let Brad Sham host Morning Drive and let those guys go work somewhere else. It's good that you've got guys that you support. And I've had guys. Gavin was supportive. Andy in Philadelphia, supportive. I've had other people that weren't supportive at all. So give Gavin credit in this. Give those guys credit for milking it. They're milking it hardcore on social media.

Their fan base and others who might not be fans of theirs are now looking at them as like big Billy badass because they challenged the great Jerry Jones. And you're going to have people in town that think you're fucking heroic. You're going to have people across the country who hate Jerry Jones, and you're going to have people in town that think you're fucking heroic. You're going to have people across the country who hate Jerry Jones that think you're heroic. So, like, you win. This is a huge day for that radio station. Now, is that going to be something that catapults them to, like, number one?

Who the fuck knows? Maybe, maybe not. But there's not a negative that came out of that, because you represented what, in the minds of fans, you did what they wish they could have done, which is question Jerry Jones. And you got him to react. He made himself look like a dipshit.

Your bosses have your back. You're the biggest stars in the world today. Your name on everywhere. You could probably flip on ESPN right now, and it's probably that audio running on SportsCenter, on whatever show with Stephen A. Smith. You won, So good for you. I mean, like you didn't even have to do anything to win. Those are the best. As I said,

that's when I've had my greatest moments is when I didn't have to do anything. It just came to me. Pissed off, angry, ornery, 82-year-old guy came to you you fucking won good for Sean good for RJ good for Bobby good for Gavs good for Purdy good for 105.3 you guys fucking rocked it good for you all right I'll see you later