'Screw You, Man!' Jerry Jones Invites Backlash from Cowboys Fans and Media

FRISCO - Maybe Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was sincerely angry at being questioned. Or maybe he intentionally created good theater by ranting in a way that keeps "America's Team'' in the news. Our theory, after covering Jones' Cowboys for 35 years? His uncomfortably heated Tuesday interview in which he threatened to have two Dallas radio hosts fired was the result of both .

But there is a backlash now, especially after Jones followed up his morning interview on 105.3 The Fan’s “Shan and RJ'' with another media visit in Atlanta at the NFL owners meetings in which his comments wrongly suggested that he pays the talk-show hosts.

In the court of public opinion, Jones is now being figuratively murdered. And Shan Shariff and R.J. Choppy are being figuratively martyred.

It should be established with clarity that Shariff and Choppy are not employed by Jones or the Cowboys. There is, rather, a simple and standard business partnership between the NFL team and the radio station, just as the NFL has with, say, FOX and CBS and NBC. Jones surely has the power to get most anybody fired, including Uber drivers and brain surgeons and media members - but has to do with his muscle and money, not with some odd and errant claim of who is employed by him.

Along the way, Jones' rant is not being well-received by the audience, which in our experience would've preferred the owner simply taking accountability for what's gone wrong with his 3-3 team and his "lame-duck''/"Blow It Up'' approach. Our quickie Twitter survey demonstrates that a large majority of fans find Jones' behavior much more "unforgivable'' than "show biz.''

It is clearly the opinion of the hosts themselves that a line was crossed.

“It’s really insulting, really demeaning, really insulting and again, out of nowhere,” Shariff said on Wednesday’s morning’s show. “We have done 14 years of interviews with this man.”

That is not to say there hasn't been conflict and awkwardness before. At the same time, Jones has often also taken a "buck stops here'' approach when things are going wrong. That approach would've served him well this week. Instead, Shariff and Choppy feel justified in fighting back - with Cowboys Nation seemingly on their side.

“I didn’t get upset with it, but it was like, ‘You know what? Screw you, man!” Choppy said.

Related: Cowboys Live Reaction: Fans All Saying the Same Thing on Jerry Jones’ ‘Unhinged’ Rant

"Screw you'' seems to be representative of the thoughts of many Cowboys fans who recognize that media members are their conduit to Jones and the team, and that in this case "Shan & RJ'' are asking questions by proxy - asking the questions you want asked. Jones' Tuesday unwillingness to understand that, in the morning and later than day, remains stupefying.

“If I’m going to be grilled by the tribunal, I don’t need it to be by the guys I’m paying. I can take it from fans and take it from other people,” Jones told The Athletic. "The wrong ones were doing the questioning. Now, if those had been real fans sitting there or if there had been people that knew what they were talking about, football people, I might have had a different answer.”

To close: Shariff and Choppy are "real fans'' in terms of what and who they represent - which is you. And the remark about listening to legit "football people''? As a result of this interview, Cowboys fans wonder: When his "football people'' here inside The Star dare consider questioning him, are they reduced to being "yes men'' for fear that Jerry Jones might threaten to fire them, too?