Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, apologized on Tuesday for using a pejorative term to describe extremely short people when paying respect to a team executive who passed away recently.
Jones used the phrase In his recollections of former Cowboys scouting director Larry Lacewell, a pivotal player in Dallas’ run of three Super Bowl victories in the 1990s, .
Aged 85, Lacewell passed away in May.
At the Cowboys’ training facility in Oxnard, California, Jones said Lacewell was a well-liked man who attracted a crowd anytime he talked.
“I’m going to get me somebody, a (M-word), to stand up there with me and dress him up like Lace and think Lace is still out here helping at practice with us,” a smiling Jones said. “But here it is to Lace―really, and I’m serious about that.”
The term Jerry Jones used is referred to as the “m word” by the advocacy organization Little People of America, who claim it should never be used since it is “considered a derogatory slur.”
