In 1989 Jerry Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys. The Arkansas Oil Man played college football and like a lot of rich wealthy guys, wanted to own a professional sports team. So he bought was some might argue was the biggest brand in the NFL. Sure the San Francisco 49ers were the team of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and it had been more than a decade since the Cowboys last won a Super Bowl. But for brand recognition, few could touch the Cowboys.
Jones fired longtime Cowboys coach Tom Landry and ran off the longtime General Manager Tex Schramm, and put himself in the role of GM, and hired the wildly successful College Football coach Jimmy Johnson to run the team.