The NFL’s toughest people aren’t always found on the field. In a week dominated by discussions surrounding a young quarterback who tapped out before a third-down play and a grandstanding defensive back who might have blown it on a Hail Mary, the most resilient, poised person in the NFL might have been a 58-year-old woman.
As the Dallas Cowboys prepared for a pivotal road clash against the San Francisco 49ers last Sunday evening, word spread in the visitors’ locker room that something was amiss. Players and coaches heard rumblings of a car accident that had imperiled a member of the team’s traveling party and that the person was being evaluated by medical personnel. The car was totaled. There was talk of a broken rib and a possible trip to the hospital. But Charlotte Jones was not missing this game.
Jones, the team’s executive vice president and chief branding officer, had, in fact, fractured a rib after an abruptly deployed rising barricade throttled the SUV she was riding in. Her younger brother, Jerry Jones Jr., suffered a head injury. This was all inside the stadium a few hours before kickoff.
Despite being in severe pain — over the years, I’ve spoken to dozens of players with fractured ribs, and most can barely laugh without piercing pain or breathe comfortably — Charlotte Jones took her spot in the family suite. She is pushing through pain while other NFL executives around the league are locked in at an important time of the year.
The trade deadline is looming, and even now, many franchises are still deciding whether to be buyers or sellers. In Dallas, there’s a lot of uncertainty about how the rest of 2024 will play out. They aren’t expected to make any moves before Tuesday’s deadline. I am, however, keeping close watch on a handful of teams as the deadline approaches, specifically the Detroit Lions, Cincinnati Bengals (you read that right!), Tennessee Titans, Arizona Cardinals, Carolina Panthers and New England Patriots.
This is what I’m hearing from around the league…
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