Credit: ESPN
By Drew Lerner on

For a team that hasn’t reached a conference championship game since 1995, the Dallas Cowboys sure get a lot of attention from ESPN.

There’s reason for that, of course. The Cowboys are America’s Team after all. And the data shows, if you talk about the Cowboys, people will watch. But Pardon the Interruption‘s Michael Wilbon doesn’t necessarily subscribe to that philosophy. On Monday’s episode of PTI, Wilbon took aim at his own network, along with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

“There’s nothing Jerry Jones says that I pay any attention to. Nothing,” Wilbon said about Jones’ comments about Micah Parsons’ ongoing contract negotiations. “Because the point of trying to decipher what he says and assign meaning to it is a damn waste of time, and I don’t  have that much. Jerry Jones likes to hear himself talk. He likes to talk. He likes to stand in a room with reporters and talk. I’m sure if there’s nobody in the room, he’d stand there and talk.

It’s fine. He’s earned it. He’s a cranky old man, he can do whatever he wants. But I’m not paying any attention. So I assign no meaning to it. It’s what he likes to do. He likes to be on stage. …He’s a showman, and he wants all your attention all the time and I’m not going to give it to him. …I don’t give a DAMN what Jerry Jones says.”

There’s certainly a lot of truth to what Wilbon is saying. If we know one thing about Jerry Jones, it’s that he likes to speak with the media.

But Wilbon took it a step further, criticizing ESPN for focusing so much time and energy on Jones and the Cowboys.

“The Cowboys, they’re not in the big action late. They’re not relevant in January. So he could be hurting his team while he’s doing it. Again, I don’t care about that because I don’t care about the Cowboys, even though I know most of the programming on this network is devoted to Jerry Jones and the Cowboys.”

It’s far from the first time Wilbon has taken aim at ESPN on its very own airwaves. Earlier this year, he criticized the network’s coverage of Bronny James. There’s few people that can get away with these types of jabs on-air, but Wilbon certainly falls into that category. PTI is going on a quarter-century as one of ESPN’s top-rated shows. Wilbon has earned the right to say what he wants.

About Drew Lerner

Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.

View all posts by Drew Lerner