Sports agent Leigh Steinberg joined SportsDay DFW's "Ballzy" podcast this week with Evan Grant, Kevin Sherrington and Barry Horn to talk all things Johnny Manziel. Here are some of the highlights.
Don't miss an episode:
Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes
Or if you're on an Android device through RSS
Find the Podcast on Stitcher here
Can't see the podcast? Tap or click here if you're on a mobile device to listen.
--
Could Paxton Lynch have been a Cowboy?
Barry Horn: During the draft you had a quarterback and there were rumors the Cowboys were interested in Paxton Lynch. Were the Cowboys that interested and did you think he might be a Cowboy?
Leigh Steinberg: You're sitting on draft day and there's communication going on between teams. There's a lot of talking going on behind the scenes, texting, tweeting, so to the best of our knowledge, the Cowboys started trying to trade back up into the round or round for the 19th pick and they couldn't get a trade done. The 20th was the Jets. Denver started around 17 and eventually Kansas City came into the mix. I know that the Dallas tried with the Jets, the Jets wouldn't trade; they tried with Cincinnati, Cincinnati wouldn't trade. They were probing all up and down, and then when it got to Seattle, Denver and Seattle were bidding and I think Jerry could've offered. Seattle wanted a third and he wanted to give them a fourth as part of the package. And then Denver offered what they offered, and it was better and that sort of happened. Paxton would have been awesome for Dallas because you go ahead and play Romo for as long as his career is and then you've got Paxton like a bun in the oven. But the football gods smiled on Paxton anyway because he goes to the team who just won a Super Bowl with a Hall of Fame quarterback as the executive and an ex-quarterback as the coach and a killer defense.
There's nothing like playing quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. I had all those years with Aikman and then Jason Garrett and Wade Wilson behind him. Dallas has a national following so you feel like you're in the concentric vortex of the football universe because there's so much excitement. So that would have been wonderful but it didn't happen and Denver's been great.
Jerry Jones to thank for NFL today
Barry Horn: What was dealing with Jerry Jones like?
Leigh Steinberg: Oh I found him to be exhilarating. I think the NFL owes a lot to him. It was the first time we had an owner who thought outside the square, who really understood the potential for football to develop multiple ancillary revenue streams, to be a fusion of entertainment as well as a sport. And some of his innovations opened up the way for football to leap up and dominate the United States in a way we've never seen a sport do it before. Also he could make the quick decisions.
Kevin Sherrington: When he cut out the middleman, you went straight from owner to GM so you didn't have to worry about the layers there.
Leigh Steinberg: Yes, and again those were very heavy days because they won three Super Bowls and he was so exciting. There was an old guard in football that wanted to keep the TV contract with CBS and they were making $17 million per team per season. I urged them to open it up to competitive bidding and now they make $226 million per team per season so a lot of new thinking about how to use the internet, state-of-the-art stadia, the ability to move into fields like fantasy football, new apps. Jerry and later Bob Kraft led the chart.