Let’s face it: Dallas Cowboys haters don’t like Jerry Jones because he is the face of what is considered to be the Evil Empire in the NFL, and it doesn’t help matters that he actually does look like the Emperor from Star Wars with all of the plastic surgery he’s had over the past few years.

For decades, the Cowboys were on top of the league and their fans let everyone know about it, so people eventually grew tired of hearing about their five championships and eight total trips to the Super Bowl, which is the most for any team in history. Having Jones around and being the publicity hound he is provided them with a subject they could focus all of their hatred and frustration on. A smooth-talking rich man with a thick southern drawl simply reminded everyone why they hated the South in the first place: it brought up too many memories of slavery and the sweltering heat.

However, all of this is understandable for those outside of Texas — but what about actual Cowboys fans? Why do they hate him? The answer is simple; Tom Landry. The day he fired the legendary and revolutionary Landry, he was dead to nearly everyone in Cowboys nation. It didn’t matter that the old coach was past his prime and was done being an effective coach in the NFL; Cowboys fans wanted him to coach until he died. That’s just how loyal they are, but with that loyalty comes stubbornness. It didn’t matter that within a seven-year period, Jones helped bring three Super Bowl Championships to Dallas. All people ever did was give all of the credit to Jimmy Johnson, and we all know how that ended.

So firing two legendary coaches within your first few years of owning the team, and then following that up with nearly 20 years of mediocrity almost led to a revolt in the state of Texas. I swear people were once again having secret underground meetings in the Alamo. But if people are honest with themselves, the real reason why they hate Jones is because he runs the team like he’s a fan, and not an owner. He would sign aging players to long, lucrative contracts that they had absolutely no chance of living up to anymore because he felt as though he owed them for what they did for the Cowboys in the past. The end result was being stuck in salary cap limbo with no chance to improve the team and move forward to the future.

Instead of taking the time to properly rebuild through the draft, he would try and find the quick fix to keep his team relevant, making ridiculous trades such as moving two first-round picks for Joey Galloway or an overrated Roy Williams. Or, if he did try and work through the draft, he wanted full control over personnel decisions and would draft players like a Quincy Carter to be his franchise quarterback.

None of his failures really mattered, however, because the team and the brand still made him a ton of money year in and year out. But thankfully for Cowboys fans, he was finally hit where it hurt him the most when he had to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers win their sixth Super Bowl in the billion-dollar stadium he built. His ego and his pride couldn’t help but be affected as his franchise was no longer the top dog in that regard. So he did what any smart business man would do: Seek help to get back to being No. 1 one.

So he relinquished control of most of the personnel decisions to his son Stephen Jones and he let Jason Garrett, a coach he trusts, actually have quite a bit of input into the make-up of this team and the style of play he wants on the field. This year, fans finally began to see the results of this change in philosophy. With the NFL Combine and Draft coming up, the team once again looks like a winner that’s heading in the right direction, and one that may actually give Cowboys fans a reason to actually like Jones. Maybe.

Kelly Anderson is a blogger for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @bgipp01 or add him to your network on Google.