Troy Aikman 'nitpicks' Jerry Jones' Cowboys documentary, praises overall product

The Jerry Jones-centered Dallas Cowboys documentary America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys debuted over seven months ago. Although Troy Aikman views the film positively, he does have some nitpicks. And, he does have a slight bone to pick with his former owner.

He believes the film portrayed everything well overall. But he also sees how Jones’ editorial rights may have skewed some narrative.

“You know Jerry had editorial rights,” Aikman said on the Rodeo Time podcast. “Whenever anyone has editorial rights, it’s probably not a good thing that someone gets to slant the narrative in their favor, or however they want it told.”

Aikman noticed some liberties with sound bites, particularly with past interviews and press conferences used out of sequence. Interestingly, the nitpicks Aikman saw had little to do with crafting a narrative about Jones but more about the Hall of Fame quarterback.

“And of course, I am sensitive then to how it reflected on me,” Aikman recalled. “We lost to the 49ers in the ’94 championship game at Candlestick; they cut to a press conference — they implied that it was the press conference after that game — and they had me joking about something. And I can promise you you can go back to that press conference, and there was no jokes that I was telling or in a good a mood at the end of that game. That one bothered me.”

Troy Aikman explains second Jerry Jones doc nitpick

Aikman wasn’t finished. He noticed a second out-of-sequence event in his old footage. And, while it might be unnoticeable to anyone but the biggest NFL historian, it changes the events quite a bit.

“There was another one where we’re getting ready to play the Eagles in my first playoff start, and it had me saying how nervous I was before the game,” Aikman said. “Not accurate. That came about before our first Super Bowl.”

The out-of-order use of footage may seem small, but depending on how many other former Cowboys can say the same thing, it could add up. For his part, Aikman, clearly bothered, didn’t take extreme offense. He still views the overall storytelling as an accurate telling.

But knowing Jones’ love of entertainment and controlling narrative, you wonder just how accurate. For Aikman, it’s accurate enough.

“So it’s just little thing like that,” he concluded. “It’s nitpicking. I think in general the experience that I’ve heard from people that watched it, they really enjoyed it, learned a lot. By and large, they did a good job of telling it. “