The Texans are the toast of their local cheerleading team, but the unquestioned NFL team of Texas remains the Dallas Cowboys. This Glenn Hunter/D Magazine interview of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones confirms that the Cowboys business model is performing very, very well:

With the Cowboys, you’re said to lead the league in corporate sponsorships. Can you give me an idea how much those relationships are worth each year?

We’ve got significant, long-term relationships with Dr Pepper, Miller Lite, Pepsi, Bank of America. If you would aggregate those key, basic long-term sponsorships, that would exceed $50 million annually. We have smaller relationships through our broadcasting, radio and television.

And for merchandising, would $50 million be a good number?

The wholesale-merchandising area is a very, very proprietary number that has a lot involved with it. Let’s see, how to say this? Our wholesaling and retailing combined, as far as financial viability is concerned, is on par with what we do with sponsorships. They are equal in their contribution to the Cowboys.

For the team as a whole, what are you looking at for revenue this year? A few years ago, the figure was north of $200 million; are you going up every year?

Yes, we are. I think it’s fair to say that we will be north of $300 million.

And yes, Jones really is sorry for the way he handled the firing of longtime Cowboys coach, the late Tom Landry:

You really turned around the Cowboys franchise in the early 1990s, and to do it you had to shake up the status quo, including firing the longtime coach, Tom Landry. To this day we hear complaints from longtime Dallasites about that. If you could do things over, would you have handled that differently?

Yes. I understand the criticism; I actually understood it then. I didn’t have a sense of how significant the emotional attachment was to Coach Landry, and to some degree [Cowboys President and General Manager] Tex Schramm, but especially to Landry and the franchise. He had actually transcended the franchise. I actually had very prominent consulting people—not one but two firms, Hill & Knowlton, out of Washington D.C., and one firm from Dallas—that were advising me all during this time. And they advised me in many ways to do it the way I did it. Bum Bright—the individual I bought the team from—offered, to his credit, to make all these changes and to sell the Cowboys to me with no one here, a clean slate. But I was advised, and I concurred with it, that everybody knew the reason the changes were coming was because of me, so I should be a man and directly do it myself, as far as Coach Landry’s and Tex Schramm’s situations—in other words, do it face to face.

Having said that, it’s not something I would do that way again. I would have been more sensitive. I don’t know if I would have gone so far as having Coach Landry coach one more year, then having a transition period of a year. Or work longer with Tex; come in and let them kind of mentor you, show you the ropes, talk about their fundamental vision for the Cowboys. In hindsight, that’s what people say I should have done. But again, unfortunately, I’ve always tried to get there quicker and consequently, as I said earlier, taken more risk by getting on with things.

Finally, just what does Jones think about this whole QB Tony Romo-Jessica Simpson thing?:

Speaking of the quarterback position, does Tony Romo’s high-profile relationship with the entertainer Jessica Simpson bother you, like it does some Cowboys fans?

Tony’s relationship with Jessica Simpson doesn’t bother me at all. It’s good for the franchise—adding sizzle and show business and interest—and it doesn’t affect Tony’s performance in any way.

Maybe so, but I’m not taking a chance on Romo in my Fantasy Football League’s draft. ;^)