In late August, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and three family members contributed a combined $250,000 to a political action committee tied to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Congress’ top sports-policy gatekeeper, campaign finance filings show.
The contributions come as the Texas Republican continues to use his chairmanship of the Senate Commerce Committee to wield power over pro and college sports. Cruz is co-author of the Protect College Sports Act, which passed the Senate last month, potentially establishing a sweeping new federal regulatory framework for intercollegiate athletics.
During his leadership of the committee, Cruz has also introduced other legislation and overseen hearings with potentially major implications for team owners such as Jones, not to mention sports investors, professional leagues and sports betting entities.
Neither Cruz’s office nor the Dallas Cowboys media office responded to the Current’s inquiries about the donations to the Truth and Courage PAC, a fundraising entity that lists its primary goal as ensuring Cruz’s reelection.
The Jones family’s latest donations to the PAC include $62,500 each from Jones himself; daughter Charlotte Jones, the Cowboys’ chief brand officer; son Stephen Jones, the team’s chief operating officer; and son Jerry Jones Jr., the team’s chief sales and marketing officer. All four family members have ownership stakes in the team.
The Jones family’s donations were made Aug. 26, less than three weeks before the Senate began taking procedural votes to advance the Protect College Sports Act, which the NFL has officially endorsed.
While Jones hasn’t publicly issued statements on the legislation, he has longstanding connections to college football, including serving on the National Football Foundation’s board of directors.
The Jones family’s late-August donations to Truth and Courage aren’t its first. Before the most recent $250,000 they pumped into the PAC, the four members donated a combined $500,000 on April 17 to Cruz’s fundraising entity, campaign finance documents show.
‘Questions about influence’
University of Texas at San Antonio political scientist Jon Taylor said he’s not surprised to see the Jones family throwing big money behind Cruz given Jerry Jones’ history of backing GOP candidates and the team owner’s eagerness to influence public policy that could affect the Cowboys franchise.
Even so, the size of the contribution and the family’s record of previous donations to Truth and Courage invite scrutiny, Taylor said.
“Let’s be blunt, it does raise questions about influence when someone is throwing around this kind of money,” the professor said. “Do contributions on that level at least get your foot in the door to talk to the chair of a very powerful Senate committee?”
The House isn’t expected to consider the legislation until after the November midterms, and its prospects there remain uncertain. President Donald Trump has been vocal in his support of the measure.
Cruz’s legislation would give the NCAA a limited antitrust exemption, allowing it to roll out new rules on athlete eligibility, transfers and compensation while shielding it from lawsuits and legal challenges. The proposal also would restrict conference realignment, including limiting the size of the nation’s wealthiest athletic conferences.
The senator co-authored the legislation with Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, and it enjoyed bipartisan support in the upper chamber.
The Senate’s passage of the act is a victory for the NCAA and its conferences, which have spent tens of millions of dollars lobbying for a federal law allowing the governing body to establish and enforce new rules with greater protection from antitrust lawsuits.
Support from pro sports leagues
Pro sports leagues including the NFL have lined up behind Cruz’s act, which supporters say promises to stabilize the college athletics system that serves as the principal pipeline for developing future players. The legislation would also allow colleges to negotiate television rights collectively, potentially generating additional revenue to fund sports programs.
Even so, the bill faces opposition from labor, athlete groups and the NAACP, who argue it places restrictions on the more than half a million athletes who compete in college sports without allowing them a seat at the table.
Critics argue that the bill would bestow the NCAA with considerable power and empower schools to regulate student athletes’ compensation without giving those same athletes bargaining rights and adequate control over their own futures.
“I think the better way to frame it is ‘The Protect the NCAA Act,’” Sam Ehrlich, an associate professor at Boise State University who studies college sports, told NPR. “It gives the NCAA significant institutional power to be able to continue to control college sports at the expense of athletes who have been able to push the NCAA on some of their illegal business practices over the years.”
UTSA’s Taylor said it’s hard to establish whether major political contributions from pro sports figures such as the Jones family amount to a quid pro quo. However, he said they do suggest those with deep pockets have better access to lawmakers such as Cruz as they craft and deliberate on consequential legislation.
Whether those donations become political baggage for Cruz as he chases another Senate term — or, as is widely speculated, another presidential run — may come down to whether voters have become inured to money in U.S. politics, the professor added.
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