Jerry Jones returns to argument, avoiding $186 million in risk

1 week ago 2

Being the general manager of professional sport’s most valuable franchise is guaranteed to come with a fair amount of criticism. As owner and GM of the Dallas Cowboys, much of the criticism towards Jerry Jones is as welcomed as it is warranted.

Jones is no stranger to controversy and loves the media attention that comes with it. So, when this particularly bombastic attention seeker shipped the Cowboys’ best player off to Green Bay in a cloak-and-dagger trade over the summer, many assumed it had as much to do with the attention as it did football. The Packers then signed him to a four-year, $186 million extension.

Speaking on 105.3 The Fan, Jones spilled the beans on some of the logic behind the Micah Parsons trade. He acknowledged many of the previous reports but also added a nugget that had largely been glossed over: risk avoidance.

Investments are often weighed between risk and reward. Avoiding risk is almost as valuable as reaping rewards. It’s why many retirement plans are based on diversified investments which spread risk across sectors in order to minimize the chance of catastrophe. If risk didn’t exist, retirees would just invest in lottery tickets.

Spreading risk on the football field means not putting all of one’s eggs in a single basket (I.e. don’t give one player all the money). It’s here where Jones argued his case.

Overall, the logic checks out, especially in the wake of Parsons’ season-ending knee injury that could bleed into next year. Paying Parsons the combined salary of four or five other players is fine as long as Parsons is healthy and producing. But if he gets hurt it is borderline disastrous because all of those financial eggs are in one basket: Parsons’ basket.

Splitting up one mega-contract into a handful of modest ones might not be advisable in a vacuum where injuries don’t exist, but in the real world where risk must be weighed, the argument is sound.

Even with the injury, trading Parsons may go down as one of the poorest moves in franchise history. He’s a generational player with the pass rush production of an entire team. He’s also a lot of risk that some investors would seek to actively avoid. It goes to show every investor has their own strategy. It’s just funny the gambling oilman was the one who focused on the risk and not the reward.

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This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Jones speaks on how Cowboys dodged $186M in risk by trading Parsons

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