ARLINGTON, Texas _ The death of Houston Texans owner Bob McNair at 81 in November has Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones with an increased sense of urgency to get back to the Super Bowl heading into Saturday's wildcard game against the Seattle Seahawks, per vice president Stephen Jones.
The Cowboys have just three playoffs wins since their last Super Bowl title in 1995 and Jones, 76, has no interest in waiting much longer to get back to the championship as he knows now more than ever that next year is not promised to him or the Cowboys.
"He has a made it real clear during this run he would do anything he can to put his finger on it," Stephen Jones said on ESPN 103.3 FM just hours before Saturday's wild-card game against the Seahawks. "I think the passing of Bob McNair hit home with him. Bob, this time last year was healthy and running the finance committee and just seemed fine. And when you get to be a certain age you start to understand that maybe you aren't promised the next year.
"He certainly had his buzzer out, making sure all hands are on deck that we are doing everything we can to pull out each football game. Our backs are against the wall ever since we have been 3-5 and we certainly feel like our backs are against the wall against the Seahawks. We just got to go work."
Jerry Jones also spoke on the issue of his timing running out on 105.3 The Fan Friday. And while the Cowboys are a young team with a seemingly bright future, he says they headed into the playoffs with some momentum after rebounding from a 3-5 start to win seven of their last eight games.
He believes they have as good a shot as any to make it happen this season.
"I don't have time to have a bad time. It's not on my schedule," Jones said. "And, so, I'm smiling when I say that. The facts are that it does create more urgency. But it's always been our goal to get in this game or one of these playoff games and go from here. The next thing you say is get into the playoffs with a team whose arrow's pointed up, get into a playoff that you give yourself a chance health wise, get into the playoffs with a motivated situation, young team in our particular case, all of those things you have in the mentality of playoffs as well. It's a tournament."
"It's a new day. Let's get in there as good as we can be. Consequently, we've done some personnel decisions that pointed toward let's hope that this culminates right around playoff time."
