In the midst of a down year, Dallas Cowboys players got some cheering up from their team owner before a crucial Christmas Day game against their rivals.
Prior to their matchup against the NFC East rival Washington Commanders, owner Jerry Jones decided to spread some Christmas cheer.
On Christmas Eve, the day before the game, the 83-year-old Jones dressed up as Santa Claus to personally deliver gifts to his players at their hotel.
‘I know this (team) got so much out of it, I’ll never forget it,’ Jones told area radio station 105.3 The Fan.
Jones described the occasion as ‘a lot of fun’.
It must have done something for the team’s morale as the Cowboys were able to handle the Commanders and win 30-23.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones dressed up as Santa and delivered gifts to his team this week
It led to a Christmas Day victory for Dak Prescott (above) and Dallas over the Commanders
In a transition season for the Cowboys, the team hasn’t exactly excited their fans.
After firing Mike McCarthy earlier in the season, the hire of Brian Schottenheimer signalled something of a new beginning.
However, the trade of Micah Parsons and subsequent defensive struggles have left the Cowboys at 7-8-1 and eliminated from the playoffs.
Those defensive issues were on display on Christmas. After the offense jumped to a 21-3 lead, the Cowboys gave up ten third-quarter points to put a scare in their faithful. However, they remained ahead for the rest of the contest.
After losing to the Los Angeles Chargers at home last week, Jones admitted that the team was not meeting their own lofty standards.
‘Yes,’ Jones said of the team underachieving, ‘from what we expected, what we thought, absolutley we did. We all underachieved, really. The fact we’re not in the playoffs says that for you.
‘I thought we’ve done some things out there that we can forward with us, as is always the case, there are some positive things.
‘The question is, can we make some changes where we need to? That’d be pretty thorough and a lot of multiplication there with the way we played this year.’
The page turn to next season will truly begin after the Cowboys play their final game of the season on the road against the New York Giants next week.
