That night, Jones had the lights of the stadium turned on so he could lie down on the midfield star to ponder what he had done.

In June, the Cowboys' new $1.1 billion stadium in Arlington will open for business, and Jones might have a similar moment.

"We have a giant star that you can see looking down on the scoreboard from the open roof," Jones said. "That thing is 300 feet off of the floor. I may get up there and lay down on that."

Jones' tenure has been marked by swings, good and bad. He fired Tom Landry and hired Jimmy Johnson. He traded away the Cowboys' best player at the time, Herschel Walker, mostly for draft picks that helped build a dynasty.

Jones' first draft pick was Troy Aikman, but he failed to find a capable successor after Aikman's retirement until the unheralded Tony Romo in 2006.

The Cowboys won three Super Bowls in Jones' first seven seasons, but they have not won a playoff game in his last 12.

Jones expanded the scope of marketing and sponsorships that led to him being sued by the NFL, but he has also been on the preliminary lists for consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

"It's beyond anything I ever could have imagined, being part of the Cowboys, the NFL and sports for 20 years," Jones said. "The positives far outweigh the negatives that I can think of. I'd like to have won more Super Bowls. I really would've liked to have won more Super Bowls."

But what Jones will be remembered for most will be the new stadium, with its retractable roof and 60-yard digital scoreboard that he believes will revolutionize the live viewing of games.

But he does not want it called his legacy.

"I want it to be the Cowboys', I'm not trying to be modest," Jones said. "I don't prefer the reference of Jerry's Place or Jerry's World. I really don't. Because it really is not what our commitment was made to do. ... I really did up the investment in the stadium for one and one reason only - the visibility and the tradition and where I hope the Cowboys are 30, 40 and 50 years from now."

Standing inside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Monday, Jones spoke with a glint in his eye about the possibilities of the new stadium that has already attracted Super Bowl XLV and next year's NBA All-Star Game, among others.

His goal is to make the stadium an extension of the home, with field-level suites, seat locations, club areas, plaza platforms and, above all, the digital board.

"We want it that way, because that's one of the foundations of the NFL - to make games special in the living room or entertainment center," Jones said. "But we also know that you can't get the emotion and the feel of going to the event from your living room."

Jones envisions eyes darting from the field to the board for the fine detail in the middle of the action.

"I think it's going to be a sense of the periphery, that when you leave, it'll be hard to have recollected what between the two that I saw, but all I know is that I saw it great," Jones said.

Jones said there will be eight cameras around the stadium that will show the game and the crowd from angles that will supersede a network feed.

"What I hope is when you're sitting in [your section], you've seen everything that went on at this stadium," Jones said.

DigitalExtra

TAKE A LOOK at what Texas Stadium looks like these days, as the Cowboys' former home waits to be demolished.

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