Jerry Jones admitted Tuesday what most of us had already surmised: President Trump drew him into taking a hardline stance on national anthem protests, as it pertains to the Dallas Cowboys. That Jones is now suggesting he's actually doing his players a favor by threatening to withhold playing time is one of the most Jerry things he could possibly do.

"I want them to have the ammunition to tell anybody that asks them to do anything otherwise or demonstrate during that period of time, that 'I don't get to play if I do that,'" Jones said on his weekly radio show on 105.3 The Fan [KRLD-FM]. "This is a workplace issue. I don't want there to be any misunderstanding as to where I want the personnel of the Cowboys to be when we're at the No. 1 workplace we have, which is the field and the sideline on gameday. I want to do everybody a service, as I should in leading the team, and let's be really clear about what our expectations are."

As I stated on my weekly "Doomsday" podcast with Ed Werder, Jones believed he made a deal with his roster when he took a knee before the anthem in Glendale, Ariz. I'm pretty sure his players weren't aware they'd entered a pact with Jones. He naively believed the whole controversy might go away after that remarkable weekend and that his players would appreciate his gesture and, in turn, continue to stand at attention during the anthem. And maybe that would've happened without Jones going public with his edict. What Jerry admitted Tuesday is that President Trump absolutely forced his hand.

"I'm a friend of the President, we don't agree on many, many matters," Jones said. "I'm really in practice, apolitical. But I really can't afford to be when it comes to the Dallas Cowboys and my No. 1 job. We're addressing the issue in part because [Trump] been very active in the issue. In part, that stirred it up. And because it is stirred up is one of the reasons I've drawn a bright line."

I can attest to Jones being close friends with politicians on both sides of the aisle. He and former President Bill Clinton remain close to this day. But to take such a hardline stance and then try to attach it to a generic game operations manual that players reportedly know nothing about is a stretch. Quite honestly, I think Jerry's decided that much of his fan base has had enough of all the anthem protests in the NFL and would like to focus on football. He believes taking this hardline stance will provide cover for players and fans alike. It's this belief that caused him to make this unintentionally funny statement during his radio show:

"We're trying to get peoples' minds away from the troubled times," he said. "We're trying to take them away from all the other parts of the newspaper...and try to get them on the sports page, where they shouldn't be reading about anything other than about how inept we are defensively or offensively, or how good we are as a team. And that's our role."

It's my contention that we can still account for the Cowboys' "inept" defense while covering the NFL protest storyline. This was Jerry's "stick to sports" moment. Surely, he knows that ship has sailed. When the president of our country targets the NFL for a perceived lack of patriotism, some of that will end up in the "sports pages." Jerry is receiving plenty of backlash for his edict, but he mostly cares about Cowboys fans. Maybe I'm being naive now, but I would bet my next paycheck the Cowboys won't lose many fans, if any, due to Jerry's stance. Especially if he can get them to buy into this notion that he's actually taking the heat off his players. Now, do his players appreciate this "favor" he's doing for them?

I guess we'll find out in Santa Clara, Calif., on Oct. 22.