Jerry Jones wants the Cowboys to be known not just as America’s Team but as Mexico’s Team.
As the NFL continues to try to grow its popularity around the world, Jones is eager to develop a large fan base in Mexico, and he said in an interview for the team’s website that he would like to play in Mexico. Jones said the Cowboys prefer not to give up home games in Dallas but would be willing to do so to play in Mexico.
“To do a home game, you give up one of your games at your stadium,” Jones said. “So the Cowboys want to always be positioning for the visiting team slot so you can always play your full complement of games in your stadium. But even if it meant in the future moving a game from the stadium to Mexico, I would do that to make sure Mexico and our Mexican fans everywhere understand what our Mexican fans mean to us.”
Although those quotes have been portrayed as Jones being willing to sacrifice a Dallas home game to play in Mexico, the reality is the NFL has announced plays to play four games a year internationally and to require every team to give up one home game every eight years to play internationally.
In the interview, Jones repeatedly called the Cowboys by their Spanish name, “Vaqueros de Dallas,” and said that 54 percent of Mexican NFL fans pick the Cowboys as their favorite team. The Cowboys have never played in the regular season in Mexico, but Jones said a preseason game there was successful.
“We want to play games down there. Play preseason games and regular-season games in the future,” Jones said. “We had the largest international game that’s ever been played in Mexico in Azteca Stadium.”
Although the COVID-19 pandemic canceled all of last year’s NFL international games and resulted in only two this year, the league remains committed to playing even more games outside the United States than it has so far. Jones views Mexico as potentially lucrative territory for his team, and the league.
