Ed Werder has covered the NFL for 30 years. If you have ever watched football coverage, you have no doubt seen his face on the tube, offering sideline reports and live shots from practice facilities across the league and providing Super Bowl coverage. If you’re from Dallas, then you spent years reading his beat columns about the beloved Cowboys and their trials and tribulations. From three Super Bowls in four seasons, to a now 30-year NFC Championship drought, Werder has seen and reported on just about every story from Valley Ranch to Texas Stadium and now The Star and AT&T Stadium. Although his relationship with Jerry Jones has been tumultuous at times, a mutual respect is still there, and Werder continues to dig into the Cowboys and the stories that surface from season to season.
Werder is also an ardent golfer, having played more than a few rounds at Cowboys Golf Club, a property named and branded for the very team he covers on a weekly basis. AVIDGOLFER spoke to Ed at Cowboys Golf Club in June to discuss his career as a journalist and TV personality, the current state of affairs surrounding the Cowboys and his passion for teeing it up.
Tell me about your journey at ESPN. Was that always something you aspired to do?
Yeah, sure. I went to college at Northern Colorado and double majored in communication and journalism. I really wanted to do TV first. In fact, I did a TV internship at a Denver station right as Jim Gray left.
But I really just got a better start in newspapers. I liked writing. I worked at the [Dallas] Morning News. My time there got me noticed by the TV people. The great Peter King helped get me a job at CNN-Sports Illustrated when they launched. He convinced them to take, of the six reporter positions, three of them and hire somebody who’s a print reporter who has good news judgment, contacts, and interview lists, and teach them the TV business. 14 months after that, I got hired by ESPN with the help of Chris Mortensen.
That has to be a fairly fun ride, doesn’t it?
I love it. I mean I basically get to go to one of the three best games in the NFL every week, and I have covered the Super Bowl for 32 years. It’s pretty awesome. It’s really hard to complain.
From a guy that has worked at newspapers and in media your whole adult life, what’s your impression of the current state of media?
My impression of all of media is that it’s less trustworthy and more difficult than ever to discern the truth than it has ever been.
How much of that do you feel is part and parcel to social media and the internet?
I feel like a lot of it is. Breaking the news and reporting accurately are paramount. And if I am being honest, there are a lot of people that just want to get the news out there as quickly as they can.
Are you more concerned with breaking stories or making sure they are correct?
Well, even when I was at ESPN, you recognize that [Adam] Schefter was going to break most of the news. There were some occasions where I could and did, but for the most part, I always viewed it as he’s going to break the news and put out just a couple sentences. There’s a lot of explaining that you can do beyond that. And that’s where I would like to excel. I’m wanted to go find the why and tell the story that way. That’s what I try to do. It’s always evolving, and it’s different thing now than it was, even five years ago. And five years from now, it will be totally different than it is now.
How is your relationship with Jerry Jones these days?
I mean, this has always been an evolving thing. There have been periods of good and maybe not so good. Right now, I would say it’s pretty good, I think …
Any examples of a time where maybe it wasn’t as great?
There have certainly been times where I wrote something he didn’t like, and he pointed that out to me.
I mean, people will say, and he will say he doesn’t mind being criticized, but he’s just like anyone else. I think he does mind to an extent. He just conceals it very well … at least, most of the time. But I know that if I had not come here and covered the Cowboys when I did, I am not sure I would be in the same position I am today.
What was your first year covering the team?
1989 was my first year. Jimmy was new, Troy was a rookie. So, it was a good time for somebody from out of state to come in and establish relationships. Other papers were doing the same thing with the new regime, so it worked out well.
Do you still maintain a lot of those relationships?
Sure. A lot of them. Obviously, I still cover the cover the team, so I have maintained contact with all the people in charge like Jerry, Stephen [Jones], Will McClay and other executives and front office contacts. But there are a lot of the players I covered that I still maintain relationships with. Guys like Darren Woodson, Charles Haley, Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith. Those relationships are a little different than they were when all those guys were still playing. Back then, for me it was about being honest. And I think a lot of those players appreciated that. I think most of those players recognize that I was in it for the right reason, and I was generally fair. Some of the public may not feel that way, but I think looking back, most of those guys I covered from that era do.
We have this perception in Dallas that the Cowboys are a franchise that is habitually in the news, whether it be good or bad. Is it that way in every market and we just feel that way because we see it every day or are the Cowboys legitimately focused on staying in the spotlight no matter what?
It’s Jerry’s philosophy, and he’s acknowledged that, right? He said when there’s nothing going on, I’ll stir it up. And he’s always been that way. From the from the time he bought the team in 1989. And I think when you have an owner who talks, who’s as readily available as Jerry is, that person’s going to create a lot of headlines and a lot of attention. And when that person is doing it for that purpose, it’s going to be exacerbated. Let’s be real, Jerry is a marketing genius, and he’s proven that over and over again.
Do you think the Cowboys would have won another Super Bowl by now if they had a different General Manager?
Well, I think the general manager they have now, after 30 years, probably couldn’t get an interview for another general manager’s job. I tend I tend to think the Cowboys would have been better off the past 30 years if they had a true General Manager who does the things a General Manager does, which is go out and watch college games and scout players. Jerry doesn’t really do that.
Can you give us one story in particular that stands out since you’ve been covering the team? Maybe one of those I can’t believe that just happened moments.
There have been a lot of those, but seeing where they were in when I first came to Dallas at 1-15 in 1989. Jimmy was settling in, they had an owner with no experience in the league and seeing him take on the NFL in the way that he did … to four years later, in Pasadena on a perfect day, I just watched them destroy the Buffalo Bills to win the 1st Super Bowl of that era. That was totally unexpected from where they were just a couple years before that. Another one of those moments was being there for the owner’s meeting where the breakup began between Jimmy and Jerry.
What was the vibe like after Jimmy and Jerry parted ways?
That was a unique experience. I remember those first few minicamp practices with Barry [Switzer]. Jerry was out there in a wind suit with a whistle. That was surreal. I was still taking on some freelance work at the time, and I wrote this feature, and the first line was something like – for all his wealth and power, Jerry Jones will forever want the one thing that can’t happen – he’d rather be Jimmy Johnson.
What happened when Jerry read that?
Next time I saw Jerry, it was the first day of training camp in Austin.
I remember he stabbed his finger in my chest repeatedly and said that was the worst thing ever written about him. Of course, I volunteered some other pieces I thought may have been just as negative or worse. He said, no, his entire family agreed, this was the worst. The next day, we’re out at the practice field, and my competition from the Fort Worth Star Telegram is talking to Jerry off the side of the field. And I knew something was coming. The following day, in the Fort Worth Star Telegram there was the story about Jones adding Tom Landry to the Ring of Honor. He let them break it. That was my punishment.
Who is your favorite personality you ever worked with at ESPN?
For me, it’s Chris Mortensen. He was a mentor of mine who helped get me to ESPN and somebody I really respected for the way he practiced journalism.
He was a reporter’s reporter. And he had amazing contacts, and he could get a hold of anybody in the league, and he was very careful about how he presented the facts, and very rarely did he get any of them wrong. But he was a great colleague that I could confide in. He also worked a lot for the benefit of others, myself included.
Another one is Chris Berman, I obviously took a lot of live throws from him during Sunday Countdown, and I played golf with him several times, including last week at TPC Sawgrass in Tom Coughlin’s charity event. Boomer has always been great.
Enough about football, Jerry and ESPN. Let’s talk some golf. You said you played in Coughlin’s charity event at TPC Sawgrass. What are some other notable courses you’ve played?
I was fortunate enough to play Pebble Beach a couple years ago. I was in the area, but not staying at the resort. So that meant I was only able to get on the cancellation list for the day. Sure enough, they called me and said I had gotten a tee time. So, I made a beeline to the course and was able to get out there. It’s such a wonderful time. Funny story, I was on No. 7 and heard a voice coming from the other tee. It happened to be The Ticket’s Bob Sturm. Somehow, we ended up at Pebble on the same day in groups right next to one another.
What about some courses you haven’t played?
Augusta [laughs]. I’d love to play Augusta. If anyone is reading this that you know … has some pull. Somebody asked me recently, because I grew up playing competitive tennis, if I would rather play a set of tennis at center court at Wimbledon or play Augusta National, which I would choose? I think I would prefer center court at Wimbledon, but that’s probably the only thing I’d rather do in the sports world than tee it up at Augusta.
What about somewhere that’s maybe a little more reasonable?
You know what? I’d like to play
in Kohler. Black Wolf Run and Whistling Straits. Yeah, Whistling Straits. I would love to play there. Another one I would love to see is Chambers Bay. I’ve been fortunate to play a lot of really great places. And to me, that’s part of the appeal of golf. Sometimes, even if it’s a bad round, you can look around and appreciate the beauty.