Jerry loved Lucy. Or rather, he loved what Lucy did for his bottom line. His days as an investor in an Arkansas television station taught Jerry Jones a powerful lesson about the impact of I Love Lucy, which he, in turn, taught his fellow NFL owners.

In the end, it made rich men richer, gave the NFL the ultimate power in its dealings with television and cemented Jones as a leader in the most elite fraternity in American sports.

No examination of the Jerry Jones era as boss of the Cowboys would be complete without a look at his involvement in the NFL’s landmark early-1990s television deal with the networks. In the end, the Jones-inspired negotiations gave the NFL the iron upper hand in television partnerships that it enjoys to this day.

With Jones at the helm of the NFL’s broadcast committee, the league has cemented itself as a television darling. And the NFL has become the paramour of the networks, who have resigned themselves to pay seemingly whatever it takes for the privilege of a relationship. It is likely that when the Cowboys open the 2012 season at the New York Giants on Wednesday night, NBC’s production will prove to be the most-watched show of the calendar year. If not, the Cowboys-Giants 2011 regular-season finale will hold that honor.

It is hard to believe that only two decades ago, the NFL was on the verge of reducing its network fees.

In the midst of a four-year deal scheduled to end at the conclusion of the 1993 season, CBS and NBC petitioned the NFL for a reduction in rights fees. Combined, the two networks were paying the NFL about $455 million a season. Combined, they maintained they were losing about $75 million a year.

The powers-that-be in the NFL took pity on the networks. Art Modell, chairman of the broadcast committee, and NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue believed it would be in the league’s best interest to accommodate their longtime partners, even as it meant that ensuing contracts could be severely compromised.

That inspired a rebellion by a cadre of relatively new owners who did not enjoy such cozy relationships with CBS and NBC. The new owners had far more invested in their teams than the old guard led by Modell, owner of the Cleveland Browns (the franchise that became the Baltimore Ravens). The new owners had projected expected revenue increases from television to help meet debt incurred to buy into the league.

One of them, Jerry Jones, who had bought the Cowboys for $140 million in 1989, did not take kindly to the notion of the old guard picking his pocket to offer old network associates relief.

And so Jones, along with Norman Braman, who bought the Philadelphia Eagles in 1985, organized a revolt.

“Before we took a butt-kicking from the networks, I wanted to see more cards played,” Jones recalled in a recent interview. “I thought we had plenty of time to agree to a reduction. I wanted to see what was out there.”

In the then-28-team NFL, Jones and Braman needed six additional votes to surpass the 25 percent needed to kill the proposal to grant financial relief to the networks.

Jones simply would not accept the network financials that showed them bleeding money from NFL contracts. He pointed to his time as an investor in Little Rock’s KARK, an NBC affiliate that for years had paid a premium for I Love Lucy reruns. The station, Jones preached, was willing to lose money on Lucy because it helped build viewership for other programming while increasing the station’s brand identity and overall profits.

On March 31, 1992, against the wishes of Tagliabue and a majority of owners, Jones and Braman got the needed votes to kill a proposed $238 million network rebate and a two-year contract extension at network-friendly prices. It would have cost Jones and the other owners each an immediate $8.5 million.

Instead, the owners agreed to a $1 million-per-team reduction and no contract extension. To be sure, even that stung Jones and his fellow dissidents.

In what Jones termed “a reward” for upsetting the television cart, Tagliabue invited the Cowboys owner to join him, Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen and NFL president Neil Austrian to negotiate a television contract for 1994 and beyond.

Enter the Fox network. Feisty, hungry and willing to spend to become a major network player, Fox saw the wisdom in using the NFL to try to make it an equal to CBS, NBC and ABC. It was prepared to lose millions short term for long-term gain.

In December 1993, as the Cowboys were en route to their second consecutive Super Bowl championship and as he wrestled with Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson for credit and adoration, Jones helped usher Fox into the ranks of NFL network partners.

Turned out Fox outbid CBS for four seasons of NFL rights by more than $100 million a season. CBS made a last-minute effort to wrest the AFC from NBC but failed. There was no room for sentimentality. CBS was out of the NFL broadcast business.

When it came back to win the AFC from NBC before the 1998 season, CBS paid a premium for the privilege. When NBC returned in 2006 for Sunday Night Football, it was all too happy to ante up the dollars necessary to rejoin the partnership club.

In the negotiations for the four-year window beginning in 1990, the networks combined to pay the NFL $900 million a year. In 1994, Jones helped the NFL to $1.1 billion a year from network partners. In 1997, rights fees rose to $2.2 billion a year.

In 2000, the number jumped to $3.1 billion. Beginning in 2014, it leaps to $4.95 billion a season through 2021.

Jones, now firmly entrenched as head of the league’s network television committee, smiles at the thought of his first involvement in rights fees two decades ago.

“I’d put it in the top four or five things I’ve ever gotten involved in because of the importance of revenues in business,” he said. “And you do know the importance of revenues.”

Follow Barry Horn on Twitter at @bhorn55.

Top prime-time attractions

The most-watched NFL regular-season prime-time games on NBC (with rank, viewers; matchup; date (significance):

1. 27.6 million, Cowboys-Giants, 1/1/12 (Sunday Night Football finale)

2. 27.5 million, Vikings-Saints, 9/9/10 (2010 NFL opener, Thu. night)

3. 27.2 million, Saints-Packers, 9/8/11 (2011 NFL opener, Thu. night)

4. 25.8 million, Cowboys-Jets, 9/11/11 (2011 SNF Week 1)

5. 25.73 million, Eagles-Cowboys, 12/12/10 (2010 SNF Week 14)

6. 25.68 million, Vikings-Packers, 10/24/10 (Favre Return to Lambeau II)

7. 25.3 million, Cowboys-Redskins, 9/12/10 (2010 SNF Week 1)

8. 24.8 million, Giants-Cowboys, 9/20/09 (Cowboys Stadium debut)

9. 24.5 million, Giants-Cowboys, 12/11/11 (2011 SNF Week 14)

10. 24.2 million, Packers-Patriots, 12/19/10 (2010 SNF Week 15)