Women's History Month: Charlotte Jones' unexpected NFL career
FRISCO (CBSNewsTexas.com) — When Charlotte Jones was a young girl, a career in the NFL was the furthest thing from her mind.
But everything changed in the late 1980s, she says, when her dad had the crazy idea to buy the Dallas Cowboys. After she successfully helped him manage an early crisis, she was asked to stay on in the front office full-time.
"I said, 'Why? I don't know anything about running a professional sports team.' And he said, 'That's okay, neither do I. I just need somebody around me that I can trust.' And the first charge of action was, okay, we're bleeding money. We're losing $75,000 a day and over a million dollars a month," says Jones.
"He said, 'Find a way to stop the bleeding. But whatever you do, don't tarnish the star.'"
She says it took her awhile to understand what that meant.
But she eventually began to appreciate the depth of feeling fans have for America's Team - and the awesome responsibility involved in not only growing the brand, but keeping it pristine.
It was during one of the highest points in team history, shortly after winning Super Bowl 30 in 1996, that things took a sudden and dramatic turn.
"It was really challenging time for the Cowboys. And, you know, we had just come off with great Super Bowl success for the last couple of years in a row. And then, one of our players made a really bad decision off the field, and overnight, you know, the image of the Cowboys just changed. It went on its head," Jones says.
"And we realized at that point, if people are going to be as interested in what we do off the field as they are interested in what we do on the field, then rather than look at that as a challenge, we should look at that as an opportunity."
That's when Jones devised the idea of using the nationally televised halftime show at the annual Cowboys Thanksgiving Day game as a worldwide stage to kick-off the Salvation Army's Holiday Red Kettle Campaign. It became her mission for the team to become a visible force of good - not just on the field, but in the community.
And it's worked; since that first National Red Kettle Kick-off, the Cowboys have helped the Salvation Army raise about $3 billion.
Jones acknowledges that it's not always easy being a woman in such a male-dominated field. But often the scrutiny is intensified not because of her gender, but just because of who she is.
She says "I probably have more pressure on me being Jerry's daughter than I do being a female in the NFL. And I look at that in like two ways. You know, the pressure of, 'Oh, you got your job because of your dad.' Well, I think I kept my job because of me."
"It's the 'Why am I here?' And I think the reason that I'm here and doing what I'm doing is because I have a voice that is different than what my father says. I have a voice that is different than what my brothers bring to the table. And I think that makes us the best that we can be."
Jones says she's made her share of mistakes in her career. And if she has one piece of advice for other women, it's not to be afraid of them. She says the best thing you can do is pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and try again.
And when it comes to her family, Jones wants people to know about the one member who she says deserves a lot more recognition.
"There's probably a misperception out there that they think that my father is the strength of our family. Well, that is not true. It is my mother. She is the basically the glue to our family... I don't know that everyone knows how involved she is strategically," Jones says. "And so her impact and her input into how we, as a family, navigate all of what the Dallas Cowboys is about is so powerful."
She adds, "You know, my father has this enormous amount of passion. My mother has this enormous amount of compassion. I hope that I am a blend of both and the best of that, but she doesn't get near enough credit."
Passion and compassion - working together to keep the Cowboys' star shining bright.
