She helps keep the Cowboys cool, as NFL takes the heat

FRISCO, Texas — Charlotte Jones Anderson got the phone call that every football parent dreads. It was a Thursday afternoon, and she was about to catch a ride to an important work event when the high school coach called. Her 16-yearold son had broken his collarbone during practice and would need surgery. Anderson dropped everything and rushed to the hospital, as any football parent would. She took the family helicopter.

Anderson, 51, is the executive vice president and chief brand officer for the Dallas Cowboys, the National Football League franchise that her father, Jerry Jones, bought in 1989. The work event Anderson missed was a Cowboys home game against the Washington Redskins. Nearly 30 years after Jones paid $140 million for the franchise, the Cowboys are a global brand at the center of a $4.8 billion business, and Anderson is one of the most powerful women in the NFL and in professional sports.

“Charlotte clearly is one of the movers and shakers in the Cowboys organization,” said Indra K. Nooyi, the chairwoman and chief executive of Pepsico, a Cowboys sponsor. (Don’t try to order a Diet Coke anywhere in or even near the team’s headquarters.) “She does everything to amplify the Cowboys image. She is charming, she is lovely, she is tough.”

She better be. It is her job to promote “America’s Team” at a time when football is in crisis.

Football safety is the subject of unresolved nationwide arguments, for amateur and professional players of all ages. Lawsuits surround the NFL’S handling of con-