Following the 48-32, first-round humiliation at the hands of the Packers in the playoffs, Cowboys Nation was in a state of near revolt this past winter. Not only didthe  heavily favored Cowboys lose to a lower seeded Green Bay team at home, but they lost in spectacular fashion, marking the second time in three postseasons Dallas was embarrassed at home.

Roughly 30 years since their last trip to the conference championship, Jerry Jones had to do something to quell the dissent within the fanbase. Things were boiling over in Cowboys Nation and the most valuable sports franchise on the planet had an infuriated customer base marching at the gates.

So Jones said “all in.”

Less than a year after son Stephen Jones spoke on the shortsightedness of an all-in strategy popularized by the Rams, Jerry Jones uttered the words his prized customer base needed to hear.

“It will be going all in on different people than you’ve done in the past,” Jones said. “We will be going all in. We’ve seen some things out of some players that we want to be all in on. Yes, I would say that you will see us this coming year not build it for the future. It’s the best way I’ve ever said. And that ought to answer a lot of questions.”

It sounded like an approach different from previous offseasons. Most importantly it was an approach that stopped the angry mob of fans in their tracks. Jones said “all in” repeatedly. He spoke of “this coming year” and said “not for the future” as a point of clarification. He even commented on the plainness in which he spoke, implying no reading between the lines, semantics, or follow-up questions are needed.

The NFL’s ultimate salesman sold his fans that things will be different in 2024. Some believed it while others did not. But the plain English used nipped the situation in the bud which was exactly as it was intended to do.

Not long after the pitchforks and torches had been returned to Amazon did the younger Jones start to walk back his father’s statements. Suddenly the definition of “all in” was up for debate and the Cowboys’ meaning of the phrase might actually mean the exact opposite of what the entire sports world knows it to mean.

In an unscheduled discussion with reporters, Jerry Jones spoke again on the issue at the annual owner’s meetings.

“We’re all-in,” Jones said as reported by Jori Epstein. “As a matter of fact, this is rolling the sleeves up and more all-in here than we were last year or the year before. It can impact us, in some cases, five years down the road.”

Indicating contract extensions for Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons will run up to five years into the future and possibly reset the market in the process, Jones effectively redefined “all-in” to just mean work hard and retain the biggest star players on the roster. It’s the same actions every other NFL team takes with their star players and in no way a departure from the Cowboys usual way of treating an offseason.

When Jerry Jones spoke to the media in January, he used “all-in” to sound like things would be different in 2024. In actuality it appears to be business as usual in Dallas only repackaged and rephrased into something misleading.

NFL teams that have spent the least this offseason.

This includes free agents, extensions, waivers, and trades: pic.twitter.com/2bsu5YSLnp

— Bobby Belt (@BobbyBeltTX) March 25, 2024

The Cowboys have lived on the extreme end of frugality most recent offseasons, often justifying it by the high cost of re-signing of their own star players. They traditionally retain their box office hits without flexing for anything extra. It’s been a trademark of theirs. All-in means something entirely different than that. Until now that is.

Redefining a word or phrase everyone already knows to be different harkens memories of Bill Clinton saying “it depends on what the meaning of the word is is” in grand jury testimony, or George Bush prematurely declaring “mission accomplished” on the deck of a carrier.

This is not an aw shucks, Jerry, ya got me again moment. It’s insulting. Not because everyone believed but because the Cowboys expected everyone to believe it and then forget it. It’s almost impossible to look at this as a simple miscommunication. Think back to the fervor in Cowboys Nation at the time of the first “all-in” decree by Jones. Nothing less would have sufficed.  He said what he needed to say. The fanbase demanded it. Maybe words don’t have meaning after all.

The 2024 Cowboys are officially all-in.