ARLINGTON, Texas — It was Jerry Jones’ dream to play host to Super Bowl XLV in his crown jewel of a palace, which will hold a record six-figure crowd when the Packers and Steelers meet Sunday night. He has been humbled enough to guarantee nothing about whether he expects the Jason Garrett Cowboys to be representing the NFC in Super Bowl XLVI.
But he’s willing to bet that there will be a Super Bowl XLVI.
“If you were a betting man,” The Post asked him last night, “as we’re standing right here right now, what would you tell the American public about: Will there be football in the fall?”
“Just because I want to bet on my will . . . my want-to . . . I would bet we have football,” Jones said.
Is that a realistic want-to?
“I’m just saying I would bet that, if I were betting because I think there’s a lot of resolve,” Jones said.
On both sides?
“Yes,” Jones said, “but certainly on the owners’ side,” he said.
Jones had been asked earlier at a press conference about the central issue in the labor dispute between the NFLPA and owners.
“In our country, and probably some other countries too, there are systems in place for labor or for management to basically change your business model on either side of the fence,” he said. “You have strikes and you have lockouts. And they’re there for a reason. The reason is the threat of, ‘I’m gonna create enough angst and enough pressure so that there’s enough urgency to get a decision made.’
“I would hope that you and our fans would understand that what counts is, are we gonna be playing in the fall? Not hang our hats on how many OTAs, how many offseason workouts, how much of all of that is . . . Are we gonna be playing in the fall?
“I am one of the leaders of the pack on playing in the fall. I’ve got 31 right even with me as far as the owners are concerned. It is incumbent upon us to recognize that what we have in place is not a good model. And rather than waiting until we’re in the shape the country’s in, or the world is in when things have gone to hell in a handbasket economically, that we make some of those changes we’d love to make 10 or 15 years ago in this country or other countries. You do it before you’re off the cliff rather than as you drive off.
“We’ve obviously got a great game. We all are so impressed with the popularity of our game, the viewership of our game. . . . The art is to basically channel the resources that we’ve got from all this popularity and grow the pie for the NFL. I built this stadium not based upon the system that was in place. I based it on just common thought and a gut feeling that we will redo the business model that we have.
“A good friend of mine one time said to me, ‘It’s important that both sides get tired.’ Not just one. Both.”
