No television reporter is more associated with an NFL team than Ed Werder. He started covering the Dallas Cowboys in 1989 for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. That same year, Jerry Jones bought the franchise. Since then, the Cowboys have won three Super Bowls and become the most valuable sports team in the world.
The former ESPN reporter has a new gig now. Werder works for Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA as part of its Cowboys coverage. He and Matt Mosley also co-host The Doomsday Podcast. We recently caught up with Werder to talk to him about his new job and career.
Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Awful Announcing: How did the opportunity come about?
Ed Werder: “Once ESPN informed me that they were not going to extend my contract, I took some time and thought about whether I wanted to retire at 64. It was a quick decision that I wanted to continue covering the NFL and do so out of Dallas, where I’ve lived for the past 30 years, if possible.
“In 2017 when ESPN laid me off, Carolyn Mungo, who’s the station manager at WFAA, met with me. She offered me a full-time job that ultimately I had to turn down because I still had two and a half years left on my ESPN contract. When I turned her down, she said, ‘Well, I just want you to know that if there’s ever an opportunity in the future that you’re available, I want in on that.’ I said, OK, thanks, I appreciate that.’
“So, after this happened with ESPN, we got to the point where it was approaching training camp, and my contract was soon going to expire with ESPN. I reached out to her in a text and said, ‘I know it’s been seven years. I’m available. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be full-time.’”
How quickly did things come together?
“Within a few days, she arranged a lunch with our sports director, Sean Hamilton. The three of us sat down together. One of the things I stressed was: ‘Everybody at your station in sports wants to cover the Cowboys. They’re the game in town. I don’t want to come there and take opportunities from someone else. But if you could figure out a way to expand your coverage and include me, I would be interested.’ Two or three weeks later, they called with an offer, and it worked out. I’m glad it did. I’m fortunate to have this opportunity.”
What are your specific job duties?
“I guess I’m an independent contractor. I’m not a full-time employee. I’ve been signed to provide coverage of the Cowboys in a very specific way. I write two pieces a week for their digital platform. I do three television appearances a week. The day after Cowboy games, I go to the studio in Dallas and I’m on their morning show for a segment at 6.45 a.m. local time. So, I have to get up at 5 in the morning, get in the shower, get in a suit, grab a cup of coffee, and drive downtown. Then at their 5 o’clock show that night and on Thursdays, I appear live from the Cowboys facility.”
How does it feel that so many people think ‘Dallas Cowboys’ when they see you?
“Half the people think I’m a Cowboys homer. Half the people think I’m a Cowboys hater, which to me means I’m getting it right. I’m right down the middle where I want to be journalistically. Having a strong identity with the Cowboys is beneficial to me. I don’t know that I would have ever had a career in television, much less one that spanned 26 years at ESPN, if not for the fact I came to Dallas and covered the Cowboys for both local newspapers when they were winning championships.”
What is your working relationship like with Jerry Jones?
“I think Jerry and I have a great professional relationship. He is accessible. He answers my questions after games like he does with most journalists. Beyond that, there have been times when he has been supportive of our daughter when she went through a medical crisis long ago. I don’t socialize with Jerry. We have a very professional relationship. Sometimes that’s good. Sometimes it’s been bad. There have been stories he disliked that I wrote, and there have been times when I think he’s been punitive about that in a way that I objected to. We’ve discussed those situations. I guess it is the kind of relationship you’d expect an objective journalist to have with a controversial NFL owner.”
What’s the angriest Jones has ever been with you?
“It was the off-season after Jimmy Johnson left, and I was commissioned by Inside Sports magazine to write a piece about the chaos of the Cowboys. The first time I went to practice, Jerry was out there, not in business attire like I’d normally seen him. He was wearing a Cowboys golf shirt, a windbreaker, and a ball cap. He looked as much like the head coach Barry Switzer. My lede to that story was something to the effect of, ‘For all his wealth and power, Jerry Jones will forever want the one thing he could never have. He’d rather be Jimmy Johnson.’
“The next time I saw Jerry was at training camp. He, with a pointed finger in an angry tone, objected to my characterization. He assured me he would not rather be Jimmy Johnson. He told me he could be punitive, but he was going to choose not to be punitive. I thanked him for that.”
Did he keep his word?
“The next day, I saw Jerry talking to a journalist who worked for the rival newspaper. I went up to Jerry and asked him about every topic I thought Jerry could share with a writer that would hurt me. Jerry assured me that none of those things was on the table. One of them was putting Tom Landry in the Ring of Honor. He denied it. The next day, in the rival newspaper, the headline on 1A was that Jerry Jones is inducting Tom Landry into the Cowboys Ring of Honor.
“Jerry can say he doesn’t mind criticism. People have this perception that he enjoys it. I can tell you he does not always enjoy being criticized.”
What’s an example of Jones being kind?
“Our daughter had germinoma, a brain tumor. She had to have radiation treatments for it. Jerry sent her a huge bouquet of stargazers. He informed the nurses that whatever she wanted, she was to get.
“I was doing an interview with Jerry in his office when the Cowboys were two weeks from going to the Super Bowl in Arizona with Switzer as the coach. At the end of it, he asked how my daughter was. I told him she was ultimately going to be fine and live a long and normal life, which is what has happened. He said, ‘I don’t want to offend you as a journalist. I’m not trying to change our relationship. I certainly don’t want you to perceive this the wrong way, but how would your little girl like to go to the Super Bowl on my plane?’ I told Jerry I couldn’t accept that offer, kind as it was. The mistake I made was I told my daughter. She still thinks I owe her a trip to the Super Bowl.”
What is the biggest challenge with covering the Cowboys now?
“The expansion of competition for Cowboys information and breaking news. Everybody in the country wants to break news on the Cowboys. Everybody has an opinion on everything they do, especially everything Dak Prescott does. That’s the most difficult part. It’s navigating all that and having the players and the people you’re covering be able to separate your coverage from others and understand that the media is not just one big, bad thing where just the loud voices prevail. There are people who care about covering the team fairly and objectively.”
How is this Cowboys season going to end?
“It’s hard to say. I think we’re going to know a lot more after they play the Ravens on Sunday. I think they need to reestablish their identity as an invincible home team. They need to start well because of the circumstances they’re in. Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb got paid. Mike McCarthy and his coaching staff haven’t gotten paid. I don’t think they can afford to start poorly and have the players in the locker room begin to question who they’re accountable to. I think that would be a bad scenario for them.”