ARLINGTON — You know what the problem is with the behemoth that is Monday Night Football? There’s a lot of content to fill. And Jerry Jones was more than willing to fill it.
So, as he is prone to do, things the Cowboys owner said became a bigger story than anything that went down on the field at AT&T Stadium in a 27-17 loss to Arizona, which actually elicited boos from the crowd of 92,211 in the third quarter. At least they booed until they showed up on the big screen. Then everybody appeared to be having a good ol’ time.
Anyway, it left Cowboys fans with lots to talk about, the least of which may be the team’s playoff chances. Somebody cue Jim Mora’s music. But, at 3-5-1 and with the bye week now upon them, here are five things that we’ll all be talking about until the next MNF appearance in two weeks in Las Vegas:
To trade or not to trade: The trade deadline may expire at 3 p.m. Tuesday, but we’ll still be talking about it all week (and linguists may be interpreting Jerry Jones’ answers for years to come). Monday began with Jones saying the Cowboys had a trade. When the 27-17 loss ended and Jones conducted his scrum, it wasn’t quite clear if the Cowboys had completed a trade, can complete a trade or whether they even should complete a trade. More than 10 minutes into his 14-minute session, Jones finally said, “I know I’m talking in circles, but I’m talking in circles because I’m in a highly competitive situation; that doesn’t end until tomorrow.” It was the most rational thing to come out of the whole session.
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But it also led us to wonder this: Why even tease a trade in the first place? We’re just not very good at four-dimensional chess.
Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones (left) shakes hands with Dallas Stars center Tyler Seguin (right) and left wing Jason Robertson (center) before an NFL game, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025, in Arlington.
Elías Valverde II / Staff Photographer
Hockey: No, that was not a Montgomery J. Burns lookalike contest before the game, but rather Jones and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman yukking it up after announcing the NHL would play its stadium series game at AT&T Stadium on Feb. 20, 2027. The Stars will play an undetermined opponent. Next question: Will it crack the 100,000 mark in attendance? There have been five events at AT&T to get over that hump, topped by the 2010 NBA All-Star Game (108,713).
Others: A Wrestlemania, an iced-over Super Bowl, George Strait and the Cowboys’ first regular season game in the place. Hopefully, for Jerry’s sake it does, so he won’t have to spend so much time wildcattin’ for natural gas just to make ends meet. It was a heart-warming story because it’s always good these days when two professional sports teams in town can get together and not have a lawsuit break out.
Jerry World: Largely thanks to the way the Cowboys played, the night became all about things Jones said before the game ever started. A product, perhaps, of the unfortunate choice to spend so much quality time with Stephen A. Smith.
While palling around with America’s most omnipresent sports voice, Jones made by far his harshest critique of Micah Parsons. While talking about Training Table Gate, apparently the last straw before the trade to Green Bay, Jones pointed to Michael Irvin and DeMarcus Ware and said: “Not one time, not even in the hottest of two-a-days in August in Texas, I never saw either one of these two go over and lay on a damn training table in front of a million people.” So, in case you were wondering, we’re going into Week 10 and still talking about Parsons.
Troy’s material: Back-to-back games on Monday Night Football means two weeks of Troy Aikman trolling his former team. The Hall of Fame quarterback doesn’t hold back on the Cowboys and Monday, he basically laughed in the face of trade talk.
On the defense and the impact of a trade: “He may want to cancel that trade.”
On Jones teasing a trade: “I think it’s interesting [Jerry Jones announces] there’s a trade, but you’re not going to announce who it is.”
Just imagine what Aikman might have in store for the Cowboys by the time they get to Vegas.
Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. (18) avoids a tackle attempt from Dallas Cowboys cornerback DaRon Bland (26) during the second half of an NFL football game at AT&T Stadium, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025, in Arlington.
Elías Valverde II / Staff Photographer
The defense: Listen, the less said at this point, the better. But to put into context: The Cowboys are one of 69 teams in NFL history to allow an average of 30 points a game through their first nine games. Only one of the other 68 to do that made the playoffs and they had a pretty good nickname: “The Greatest Show on Turf.” But even those St. Louis Rams, who were the defending Super Bowl champions, were running on fumes. The Rams finished 10-6 and exited the playoffs quickly. So, we asked the owner/GM what history said about the future for this Cowboys defense.
“When you’ve won only three games at this juncture, you recognize you’ve got a lot of ground to make up,” Jones said. “I’m very aware of that, and yes, I would agree with you, it is an uphill battle. Can we have the kinds of things we were counting on? I was certainly hoping we’d have a couple of more wins on the win column before we started taking advantage of any opportunities to change the roster. And so that’s still there under consideration.”
Yeah, we don’t know what that means either.
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