Cowboys owner Jerry Jones explains himself to The Athletic following heated radio comments on Tuesday

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made headlines Tuesday morning when he became angry and defensive during one of his weekly radio interviews when asked about the franchise’s lack of offseason moves to improve the roster.

Jones appeared to take exception to the nature of the questioning, speaking on the team’s flagship radio station, 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. Jones conducts interviews with the station on Tuesday and Friday mornings. He also takes part in a pre-match interview with the broadcaster.

While attending NFL meetings in Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon, Jones explained in an exclusive interview with The athleteThat’s Dianna Russini why he reacted like that.

“I don’t know if I would go so far as to call the loudness connotation screaming,” Jones said. “OK? But the facts are: if I’m going to get screwed by the tribunal, I don’t need it from the people I pay. I can take it from the fans and take it from other people. I’m very proud of how fair and how much I try to cooperate with the media, we are brothers and sisters But I was a little frustrated there today.

“We got in there because we took into account decisions that were made in the offseason. OK? They might as well have gone back to the decisions made in 2010. My point is, and this is no question from my point of view, I’m sure they would have liked to test me in the way that the fans think: “What are you doing?” do about it? I understand it. I understand all of this. And I’m really going to go along with it.”

Jones further explained that his frustration came from the people asking the questions and not necessarily the topic itself.

“The wrong people conducted the survey. Now if those had been real fans sitting there, or if there had been people who knew what they were talking about, footballers, then I might have had a different answer.”

Jones also made it clear that he has no plans to make any significant changes to his coaching staff. Most of Dallas’ coaches are either on one-year deals or are in the final year of their contracts. Coach Mike McCarthy is in the final year of his five-year contract.

The Cowboys suffered a 47-9 loss to the Detroit Lions at AT&T Stadium on Sunday, the worst home loss in Jones’ 35 years as owner and general manager.

“Of course,” Jones said when asked if he wanted to stay loyal to McCarthy and his coordinators. “I didn’t even remotely think about it. But the game is repetition. We clearly know what we did wrong. You can see that. The same people who got it wrong have gotten it right many times over the last few months. So I know they can go out there and do it right.

“The point is, what are you doing? What you do is go out there and use your techniques or put in the effort and do all those things and you do it more right and you’ll be in games that don’t get out of hand and you can win.”

Jones said he still believes in the team, which enters the bye week at 3-3.

“Of course we do,” he said. “We have great staff. I’m proud of our staff.”

Will Dallas look to improve the roster by making any moves before the trade deadline?

“I don’t think so,” Jones said.

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(Photo: Sam Hodde/Getty Images)