Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, left, talks with Rams coach Sean McVay following a joint practice in Oxnard. Jones (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Associated Press)
Most NFL owners are singularly focused on their franchise. Jerry Jones is different.
The Dallas Cowboys are first and foremost to Jones, naturally, but the team’s longtime owner also keeps a keen eye on the machinations to the west.
Few people were more involved in the NFL’s return to Los Angeles than Jones, who brings his players to Oxnard each summer for training camp. He was a staunch proponent of the stadium plan in Inglewood — what would eventually become SoFi Stadium — and had the influence to bring a lot of fellow owners with him.
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So there’s a sense of pride Jones feels not just in the league’s return to the nation’s second-largest market, but also the byproduct of the Raiders’ move from Oakland to Las Vegas.
“I’m so rewarded by the NFL fans in Southern California, the dominoes that took place with the Rams and Chargers being in that fabulous stadium, and the way the Raiders ended up in Las Vegas,” Jones said last week after one of the Cowboys’ final Oxnard practices of the summer.
“I had that all thought out,” he said sarcastically with a playful chuckle. “But still it worked out.”
After an impromptu gaggle with a group of reporters focused on the state of the Cowboys, Jones spoke with the Los Angeles Times on a variety of topics including L.A., the prospects of an 18-game season and the dramatic changes to kickoffs.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is in favor of expanding the regular season by a game, which would mean get the players’ union to go along with the idea. That number was bumped to 17 games in 2021 when the league and NFL Players Assn. forged a new collective bargaining agreement that runs through the 2030 season.
The league could go to 18 games before a new CBA as long as both sides agree…
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