It didn't take a genius to fire coach Tom Landry, who by 1989 was well past his expiration date (sorry, old-school Cowboy fans). Nor did it necessitate a mastermind to draft Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith. But in the 1990s, Jerry Jones oversaw and rightly took credit for the Cowboys' return to dominance with three Lombardi trophies.
An offensive lineman and co-captain of his University of Arkansas 1964 national championship team (read: football know-it-all), Jones went on to make a small fortune in the insurance business, a chain of pizza parlors (reportedly financed by Jimmy Hoffa's Teamsters union), and oil and gas mining.
He bought the Cowboys in 1989, asserted himself as the team's general manager and, win or lose, ever since has been despised by fans who wish he'd stop playing "puppet master" with coaches and let them do their job.
OK, maybe not with Dave Campo, but you get the picture.