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marine stave off a taliban ambush that threatened to overrun his unit told us. the marine was dakota meyer, a kentucky farm boy who, just this past thursday, received the nation's highest military award, the medal of honor, from president obama at the white house. meyer was on a mission in the ganjgal valley of afghanistan, where he repeatedly ran a gauntlet of enemy fire in a desperate effort to save his fellow marines. dakota meyer will tell that story tonight, but there is much more to it than his almost insane bravery. this was an operation which went terribly wrong-- so wrong that two army officers were issued career-ending letters of reprimand. it's a story as old as combat. when a warrior's leaders let him down, he has nothing to fall back on but his own courage. dakota meyer will tell you he was just doing his job, but when you see and hear what he did, you, too, may say, "i have never seen the like."

dakota meyer grew up shooting game on this farm in greensburg, kentucky, and can hit a squirrel at 750 yards. but it wasn't his marksmanship that earned him the medal of honor; it was his astonishing courage. did you think you were going to die? >> dakota meyer: i didn't think i was going to die; i knew i was. >> martin: you knew you were. >> meyer: i knew i was going to die. >> martin: the battle took place in this remote valley, deep in enemy territory in the mountains of eastern afghanistan. meyer ran a gauntlet of fire, not once but five times, with insurgents shooting down on him from three sides. so why are you going in there? >> meyer: there was u.s. troops getting shot at and those are your brothers. >> martin: four marines were trapped in the village of ganjgal after a patrol of nine americans-- both marines and army soldiers-- and 45 afghan military was ambushed. afterwards, the army's center for lessons learned produced this animated recreation of what happened. the patrol set out for what was

supposed to be a friendly meeting with village elders. rocky terrain forced them to get out of their armored vehicles and move in on foot. they're walking up toward the village. what happens next? >> meyer: right at daylight, they open fire on them. the... the enemy starts... starts raining down. they had mortars, rockets, rocket propelled grenades, and small arms fire. >> martin: they were waiting for you. >> meyer: they were. >> martin: this was an ambush. >> meyer: oh, it was. we were set up. >> martin: with an estimated 100 to 150 enemy fighters dug in on the high ground above them, the marines called for artillery fire from a nearby base. the first rounds missed, so first lieutenant michael johnson, one of the four marines trapped inside the village, radioed new coordinates of the enemy positions. but the commanders in the operations center back at the

base refused to fire. >> meyer: they denied it. the army denied it and told him it was... it was too close to the village. and he said, "too close to the village?" and the last words i heard him say was, "if you don't give me these rounds right now, i'm going to die." >> martin: did he get the artillery fire? >> meyer: no, he didn't. the response was basically "try your best." >> martin: an investigation conducted after the battle determined that two army officers making those decisions in the operations center that day were "clearly negligent." "the actions of key leaders" in the command center, the report said, "were inadequate and ineffective, contributing directly to the loss of life which ensued." because of what the report calls "poor performance" and "an atmosphere of complacency," the operations center just did not realize how bad the situation was until it was too late. >> colonel richard hooker: you can't sugarcoat it. >> martin: now-retired colonel richard hooker conducted that investigation. >> hooker: the two principal

officers that were named in the investigation failed to discharge their duties in a responsible way, in a way that the army and the country has a right to expect them to behave. >> martin: among the findings: two kiowa helicopters armed with rockets and machine guns were minutes away from ganjgal, but never made it into the battle. >> hooker: they were on another mission, but they were... they were close at hand. >> martin: how far away, in terms of minutes? >> hooker: i would estimate five to ten minutes' flying time. >> martin: those helicopters actually broke away from that other mission and headed toward ganjgal, but were recalled because the request had not gone through proper channels. the troops under fire didn't know that. they were told the helicopters would be there in 15 minutes. >> meyer: and up to this point, it's been 15 minutes and no air support yet. so they request it again, and they said, "15 more minutes." >> martin: so, 15, 15-- now you're at 30 minutes on the air. >> meyer: at 30 minutes and, you know, i'm hearing the radio

traffic and... and now it's starting to get worse. gunny kenefick, i believe it was, come across the radio and said, "i can't shoot back because i'm pinned down. they're shooting at me from the house and it's so close." >> martin: gunnery sergeant aaron kenefick was one of the four trapped marines. those 15 minutes are starting to add up. >> meyer: they are, yeah. we're almost 45 minutes and no air support. i believe that the enemy started seeing, "well, they're not getting what they need. let's take advantage of this opportunity." >> martin: dakota meyer, one of the youngest, lowest ranking marines on the battlefield, took charge. >> meyer: we had to do something, and we requested to bring a truck in. we were told no. you know all your guys are in there getting lit up and you want to be in there helping them and we made it... waiting about five minutes maybe. and we requested again. we were told no. so we requested again about two minutes later. and we were told no again.

so i looked at staff sergeant rodriguez-chavez and i said, "we're going in." >> martin: staff sergeant juan rodriguez-chavez, who would receive the navy cross-- the nation's second highest honor-- drove an armored truck toward the village while meyer manned the gun turret. >> meyer: it felt like the whole valley turned on this truck. >> martin: you were it. >> meyer: it was like we're it, like here comes a big target. the enemy was just... they were running right at you, you know, at the truck. >> martin: so this is not just raining fire down. now, they're trying to swarm the truck. >> meyer: it's just like a killing fest for them, i think. >> martin: how close are the rounds coming to you when you were doing this? >> meyer: the rounds were hitting the turret. and i just kept moving back left and right, left and right. there was so much fire, it sounded like static over top of your head. i was just waiting for one of their rounds to hit me in the face. >> martin: how close is the enemy getting to you? >> meyer: 15 to 20 meters.

>> martin: close. >> meyer: yeah. >> martin: as depicted in the army animation, dead and wounded afghan soldiers who had been part of the patrol lay scattered along the valley floor. >> meyer: i would run and try to assist as many afghans as i could. >> martin: so you get out of the truck. >> meyer: i'm out... i'm out of the truck on foot. >> martin: so you're out in the open in the killing zone. >> meyer: i am. >> martin: meyer and rodriguez- chavez would drive the dead and wounded out of the valley, and come back to run the gauntlet of fire again and again, still trying to get to the four marines trapped in the village. >> meyer: you know, you either get them out alive or you die trying. if you didn't die trying, you didn't try hard enough. >> martin: when the marines' radios fell silent, army captain will swenson, who was pinned down just outside the village, took up the call for fire. >> hooker: captain swenson probably made nine or ten different calls for fire before he probably gave up in frustration.

>> martin: does he say, "look, i'm not kidding. i really need this fire?" >> hooker: yeah, the evidence says he... he was very, very insistent in his calls for help. no question of that. >> martin: how long after the battle begins do the first helicopters show up? >> hooker: it was probably an hour and 45 minutes before the first helicopters come on station. >> martin: helicopters were finally overhead as dakota meyer tried to blast his way through the valley to the stranded marines. >> hooker: we interviewed a number of pilots who were there that day, and several of them stopped in mid-sentence, unable to... unable to finish their description of meyer's actions that day. they just didn't have the words to describe it. >> martin: when the helicopters showed up, did that put an end to the ambush? >> hooker: no. it didn't solve the problem, but it certainly was a great help to the soldiers and marines and afghans that were fighting on

the ground. it enabled them to move about the battlefield a little better. >> martin: with marine lieutenant ademola fabayo, who would also receive the navy cross, manning the machine gun, swenson and meyer drove deeper into the valley. >> meyer: me and captain swenson kept driving this unarmored truck through this valley, and rounds are going everywhere through it. >> martin: they're going through? >> meyer: yeah, both windows were down, you could hear them coming, whizzing through. >> martin: a helicopter finally spotted the four marines, but there was too much gunfire to land. >> meyer: they started trying to land but they couldn't. they were going to get shot down. so i just took off running. and it was probably the longest run of my life. i felt like i couldn't move fast enough because it's wide open. rounds are hitting everywhere around me. i jumped into this trench, and when i did, i landed on gunnery sergeant johnson. >> martin: and he was...

>> meyer: he... he was dead. >> martin: they were all dead: first lieutenant michael johnson, sergeant edwin johnson, sergeant aaron kenefick, and corpsman james "doc" layton. it was now six hours into the battle that would also take the lives of eight afghan soldiers. >> hooker: if we'd gotten supporting aviation on station early in the fight, we... we wouldn't be sitting here having this conversation. that's my firm belief. >> martin: would those americans be alive today? >> hooker: you can't say with any certainty, but the chances are, in... in my opinion, that, yes, they would have been. >> martin: you've just spent the last six hours "risking"-- which is not the right word-- your life, throwing away your life, to try to get to those guys. >> meyer: yeah. >> martin: and they're dead. >> meyer: you know, you... you feel nothing but being a failure, you know. >> martin: that you couldn't get to them in time. >> meyer: yeah.

>> martin: you realize that what you did was extraordinary? >> meyer: no, i don't. it would have been extraordinary if i'd brought them out alive. that would have been extraordinary. >> susan price: he retrieved my son's body. >> martin: susan price is the mother of aaron kenefick. several months after she buried her son, she received a copy of hooker's investigation, known in military parlance as a 15-6. >> price: when i read the 15-6 for the very first time, it actually put me in the hospital for a week. >> martin: price and charlene westbrook, whose husband was grievously wounded on another part of the battlefield, have spent thousands of dollars of their own money campaigning to draw attention to what happened at ganjgal. >> charlene westbrook: we both lost a huge part of our hearts to this mission that was clearly caused by negligence. >> martin: sergeant kenneth westbrook died at walter reed

hospital, but lived long enough to tell his wife what happened. >> westbrook: he told me that, "we were surrounded. we were ambushed and we called for help. no one came. they kept telling us '15 minutes, 15 minutes,' and no one showed and we were just sitting ducks." >> martin: as recommended by the investigation, letters of reprimand were issued to the captain who was in charge of the watch in the operations center, and to the major who was absent from the center at critical points. the army has not released their names. >> price: how do you equate a piece of paper, a reprimand, to human life? >> westbrook: these letters of reprimand are just clearly slaps on the wrist. these officers need to be court- martialed. >> martin: what would you say to that? >> hooker: i think to be the object of an official investigation which results in a general officer letter of

reprimand and ends your career, for most professional officers, is about the most profound kind of thing that can happen to you. it means professional disgrace and ruin. >> martin: susan price and charlene westbrook were not at the white house on thursday to see the president award dakota meyer the medal of honor. will swenson, who quit the army, was. he, too, was recommended for the medal of honor, but as if there weren't enough negligence to tarnish this battle, the paperwork got lost and had to be started all over again. as for ganjgal, it still belongs to the taliban. it's been two years since that operation and it's still not safe to go into ganjgal. >> meyer: it's not. >> martin: for all that loss of life, for all your courage, what was gained? >> meyer: nothing.

nothing. but at the end of the day, we still did our job. we... you know, we were still fighting. >> go to 60minutesovertime.com to learn why to two medal of honor recipients refused to call themselves american heroes. i'm phil mickelson, pro golfer. if you have painful, swollen joints, i've been in your shoes. one day i'm on p of the world... the next i'm saying... i have this thing called psoriatic arthritis. i had some intense pain. it progressively got worse. my rheumatologist told me about enbrel. i'm surprised how quickly my symptoms have been managed. [ male announcer ] because enbrel suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region

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>> simon: if you've ever enjoyed the sight of polar bears, this story is for you. because you're about to see them as you never have before. for this, you can thank the ice- breaking work of john downer, a british filmmaker who spent two years getting to know them. it wasn't easy. polar bears frequent the most forbidding part of the planet. it's tough to get there. and once you do, it's really cold. polar bears are also difficult to spot-- white on white is not easy on the eye.

in the past, they'd been filmed from a distance, which is advisable. polar bears are dangerous. but as we reported last march, john downer wanted to get up close and survive. so he needed new tricks. he came up with forms of surveillance which could make the c.i.a. proud. downer's film, "spy on the ice," will air on animal planet on october 4. he will take you inside their world. tonight, we'll show you how he does it. you may have seen polar bears shot like this before, but have you ever seen them like this-- close up, intimate, just doing what polar bears do? sometimes, even treading on thin ice. probably not. and that's because they're not being shot at the end of a long lens right now; they're being filmed by spies.

for the last two years, they have been under constant surveillance, scrutinized by snowballs, by mounds of snow, by tiny icebergs drifting in the seas. they're cameras, of course, but the nearest cameraman can be miles away. we're up in the arctic circle, chillingly close to the north pole. we've traveled to remote places before, but never on an icebreaker. we were invited on board by john downer, the englishman who has revolutionized the way wildlife films are made-- with espionage, cunning espionage. what's the idea of a spy cam? >> john downer: well, the thing about a spy cam is it... it actually gets you close to the animals. you're in the scene, you're in the picture. you're picking up a magic that you cannot capture with a normal camera. it is like a secret world. >> simon: if the lion is the king of the jungle, then the

polar bear is the king of the ice. he's at the top of the food chain here on the top of the world, and he's revered by the few people who live in the arctic circle. they call him "god's dog" or the "ever-wandering one," because he can roam hundreds of miles searching for seals. that is, on ice. but in summertime, there is less ice, so some bears get stuck on dry land, where they have to scavenge to stay alive. downer and his crew plant their spy cams wherever they think a hungry chap might pass by. they do it quickly because it's dangerous up here. it's illegal to leave your boat without an armed escort. we had two. >> downer: polar bears see something on two legs and think, "well, that might be food." everything it sees that moves in this environment could be food. and of course, food is everything in this world. >> simon: the cameras are triggered by motion, and there isn't much motion up here that

isn't a polar bear. the remains of this whale carcass looked appetizing. bears were bound to come around, even though there wasn't much meat left on the bone. >> downer: that's tucked back in there. that's perfect. i think this is a good shot. >> simon: it's all in the positioning. what you need more than anything else is a wild imagination. >> downer: ( laughs ) yeah. wild, that's right. and... and, you know, some commitment to... to have a mad dream and then carry it through. >> simon: but not mad enough to hang around very long. bears are rather rapid. they can do a hundred meters in nine seconds. that means they can outrun the world's fastest sprinter. >> downer: you see the polar bear is not far. >> simon: now, at this time of year, would this polar bear presumably be hungry? >> downer: very hungry. ( laughter ) we'll keep an eye on him. >> simon: and he's keeping an eye on us.

>> downer: i mean, that's fine, at that distance. >> simon: that is as long as there isn't another bear behind us. >> downer: well, there are other bears behind us, and we can't see them. >> phil dalton: okay, we've got to go. >> simon: he's looking right at us now. >> downer: i think now is the time to go. the bear is getting closer. i think we need to get back on board now. >> simon: back in the safety of the mother ship, downer's technical wizard, geoff bell, is innovating by the minute. bell had been a model airplane designer for years when downer realized how useful his talents and his toys could be in the espionage game. you've used the word "toys," and you started doing this when you were how old, seven? >> geoff bell: seven, yeah. >> simon: yeah. ( laughter ) >> bell: yeah. and the only difference, as you know, between men and boys is the price of the toys. so, you... you know, that's what

we do-- we're hobbyists and gone into it professionally. >> simon: bell has just perfected what he calls an "iceberg cam," which does double duty-- above the water and down below. the camera catches the action when a bear goes under, feet last, to check out that whale carcass. >> downer: fantastic. there she comes and feeds. >> simon: this is one cool bear, isn't it? >> downer: it's done exactly what we wanted absolutely on time. >> simon: exactly what the bear wanted, too-- lunch. what her cub seemed to want was to be on camera. don't tell me that she's not mugging for the camera. look at that-- full-faced shot, relaxed. i wonder how they would react if they could see themselves on television >> downer: i am sure that would be very pleased to be on "60 minutes." very proud. ( laughter ) fantastic scene.

>> simon: but mama bear doesn't seem to think so. she takes out her disappointment on the hapless camera. this film, "spy on the ice," is the latest in downer's 30-year career, which began with the bbc's natural history unit. first project-- he wanted to capture what it's like to be a bird. that meant flying with one. so he trained a duck from the time its egg hatched to think of him as its father. you were the daddy of a duck. >> downer: i was the... i was the daddy. >> simon: how did it feel? >> downer: i was the daddy. i had to take it to the office. it came with me as it was growing up. it would be in the car when i was driving along. it would even go to the dinner parties. i always had to go everywhere with this duck. >> simon: eventually, he took the duck and his camera 200 feet up in a parasail. he had never flown before. >> and when we were up at

altitude, i released this duck. and within a few seconds, it formatted next to me, and was flying alongside me, literally, a foot away from my head. >> simon: john, you flew with a duck. >> downer: yep. one of my first filming experiences was flying with a duck. and i think, very early on in my career, i started to realize, you know, what it's like to be that animal. >> simon: what's it like to be a lion? downer explored that in his film "spy in the den." the stars were not only lions, but sir david attenborough, the world's most respected naturalist. >> sir david attenborough: this, as you may have guessed, is no ordinary film about lions. some of its sequences were gained in the most extraordinary way. this remote camera, disguised as a boulder, has been able to go into the very heart of the pride. >> simon: how about tigers, the most elusive of predators? downer got to four cubs when

they were ten days old. it was the first time anyone had filmed them that young. there they were with their protective mother, who just wouldn't let go. and downer wouldn't let go, either. he was with them to celebrate their first birthday, and stayed with them for the next three years. how did he do it? by enlisting the ultimate all terrain camera vehicles-- elephants. he mounted trunk cams and tusk cams, and the tigers were not at all self-conscious, because elephants have always been part of their world. and in downer's world, the gravest sin is to do something that does not astonish his viewers. that requires a lot of patience and a lot of tape. he shoots 17 hours of material for every minute that makes the cut. >> downer: every time i make a film on a new subject, i want to

interpret that animal in a way that hasn't been before, and i... that's really what drives me. i think if you're approaching a subject afresh and really trying to get new insights, you can never bore the audience. >> simon: africa's famous wildebeest migration has been filmed hundreds of times, but not with a croc cam, or a skull cam, or a dung cam. that's right-- an hd camera smothered in dung. somebody had to do it. how about the toy man, geoff bell? geoff had to spread the dung on the camera. >> downer: yes. >> simon: did he get a bonus for that? >> downer: it's all part of the job. >> simon: downer says his toughest job has been right up here, because of the hostile environment, and the fact that his subjects are so hard to find.

but on the bridge of the icebreaker, he and producer phil dalton showed us what might just be the most extraordinary polar bear sequence ever filmed. the snow cams were placed outside a den, where a bear stays for six months to give birth to and rear her cub. then, dalton went away, far away. >> dalton: about 60 miles away. >> simon: 60 miles? you were 60 miles away from that camera? >> dalton: while this was being filmed, yeah. i mean, we had no idea it was going on, really. >> simon: when he retrieved the camera ten days later, this is what dalton saw-- the snow mysteriously being wiped off the lens. how? with a paw. >> downer: there's the cub. the first glimpse of the cub. >> simon: this is the cub's first look at the world? >> downer: it is. >> simon: his brave new white world. >> downer: we couldn't have dreamt that we would get something like this. this here, we've got this wonderful situation here-- the mother righting the camera.

the cam... the... the bears seem to be doing the camera work. and the... what happens-- this is actually quite magical, because you feel you really are alone with these bears in the moment. and a little cub, you know, the first glimpses and there... >> dalton: she pushes the camera down the hill here. >> simon:( laughs ) wow. >> downer: so, miraculously, the camera is still in the middle of frame. yeah. >> simon: and, miraculously, they not only follow the camera, but the mother reframes the shot. >> downer: for me, this has a certain magic and innocence about it in the way the cub and the mum are just there alone with the cameras in their world. and those little glimpses... and they're... they're wandering off. and this is the start of their journey, you know, which is

going to be thousands of miles >> simon: probably never to be seen again by the likes of us. they'll just keep wandering, roaming on the ice as long as it's there. [ male announcer ] do you have questions about medicare? with over 30 years of medicare experience, unitedhealthcare medicare solutions can help. just give us a call. the annual enrollment period to switch your medicare coverage is earlier this year, from october 15th to december 7th, so now is a great time to review your situation. call now or visit us online to get this free answer guide from unitedhealthcare medicare solutions. call right now.

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more opportunities happen. >> pelley: if everything's bigger in texas, that goes double for the state's true passion, football. which means, if you own the dallas cowboys, you don't own just a team, you own america's team. and you don't build just a stadium, you build the biggest in the land. in texas, you dream big, and in the mind of jerry jones, that means a fourth super bowl ring. this year, with a healthy quarterback behind center and the new season ahead of him, his hopes are high. but that's how he felt when we first met him last year. that year, the team was celebrating its 50th anniversary and he was hosting the super bowl at cowboy stadium. but there was one thing the 68- year-old jones had not imagined: his team would not be in the championship.

we followed the high-flying jones through what turned out to be a season from hell. winning is a lot more fun, but losing reveals more of a man's character, especially when he's the most innovative, controversial, and bombastic owner in the nfl. how warm and sunny the future felt last august, as the cowboys walked through the last snaps of training camp. even here in california, fans thronged the sideline to touch the cowboy's star. >> he's the man. >> pelley: jerry jones is the only owner who is also a celebrity, and he's one of only three owners who actually runs his team. jones is the general manager who picks the players, hires the coaches, runs the business. he earned three super bowl rings doing that and, last preseason, he told us how he liked his chances of slipping on a fourth. what do you see out here? >> jerry jones: one of the best

teams, on paper, that i've been associated with in 22 years. >> pelley: but as the season unfolded, no high hopes could defeat the picks... the fumbles... the rotten breaks. >> tony romo flat on his back, and he was blasted. >> pelley: you had the number- one offense in the league, the number four defense in the league. why can't you get the ball past the pylon? >> jones: stats are for losers-- they relish in them. the stat is the score. and when you don't win that score, nothing good happens. it's a bottom-line game. have we gotten too full of ourselves? possibly. >> pelley: you were the best general manager in the league in 1992, you were the best general manager the next year, you were the best general manager two years after that. what happened to that guy?

>> jones: he's still there. he's very much here. i think he's smarter than he was then. i know he's more experienced. that guy is getting a real going over and a real looking at during the season that we're having right now, and he should be. >> pelley: george steinbrenner was a great friend of yours. >> jones: he was, he was someone i really admired. >> pelley: if you were steinbrenner's g.m., he might have fired you by now. >> jones: of course, he would have. there is no doubt in my mind that he would have. >> pelley: last october, high in his private perch in cowboys stadium, jones looked like a parent watching his child dart through traffic. it isn't a game, it isn't a business-- it's his life. there's a certain edge to you up here. >> jones: what you're seeing right now is agony. >> pelley: agony that ended with jacksonville 35, cowboys 17.

the general manager took the hit. >> jerry, are you embarrassed? >> jones: yes, i'm embarrassed. and very sorry to our fans. i've never been more disappointed or surprised. >> pelley: you broke a sweat in there. i've never seen you sweat before. >> jones: well, i think it's time to sweat. >> pelley: in the perch, post- game, he was wrung out, >> jones: i'm making a big "f" or a d-minus. so maybe this butt-kicking i'm getting will produce some bs or as. >> pelley: it's got to be somebody's fault >> jones: well, it's mine. it is mine. the way this thing is structured, it's mine. >> pelley: is it time to step away from being manager of the team? >> jones: well, if it is, then it was time to step away 22 years ago, because it was the very same thing, the criticism of coming in and basically being the day-to-day manager of the team. >> pelley: those memories of how it used to be make him hold on today all the more. >> jones: what i know is i've been through it before, and if i

was going to be in the foxhole with somebody, i'd be in there with me. >> pelley: jones jumped in the foxhole, buying the cowboys in 1989. he had made a fortune drilling oil wells, and he spent nearly all of it-- $150 million-- to buy the team. but the cowboys were in terrible shape, losing a million dollars a month, and texas was in a depression. what was it about that that looked like a good business deal to you? >> jones: well, it didn't. i think you would not be impressed with my business judgment, if you saw those financial statements and if you saw the time. it was really about passion. the cowboys were my devil, and i just couldn't resist it. i wanted to be a part of the nfl, and i wanted to be a part of the future of the cowboys. >> pelley: were you worried you'd lose it all? >> jones: well, i was, but more importantly, i was worried that i would be viewed as a fool. and it really motivated me.

my father called me right after i had bought the team and said, "son, you're a young guy." and he said, "i don't care if you have to do it by mirrors, smokescreens, or baling wire, you've got to make this be a success, or look like a success, or you'll never be able to do anything for the rest of your life. there's too much visibility here." i said, "dad, gee, thanks. you know how to make my day." ( laughs ) >> pelley: there wasn't enough baling wire in texas to hold it together at the start. firing coach tom landry was a fan fiasco. the first season went one and 15. you were vilified in this town. from the sports pages of those days, they called you a hick, a hillbilly, a know-nothing. >> jones: it hurt to see those personal criticisms. it hurt, but it inspired me. it made me really want to show them, it made me want to have success in the face of that. strap all that on, and that'll

motivate you to win a super bowl in three years. >> pelley: he won by forcing the nfl to change the way it did business. the league controlled sponsorships, but jones sold his own. the nfl sued him, but jones came out on top. next, jones led negotiations that forced tv networks to pay a lot more for the rights to games. cash bought talent, and talent won super bowls in '92, '93 and '95. but in the last 15 years, there have been only four division championships. and fans blame jones for chasing away strong coaches with his insistence on running the team himself. we wondered what created this ego and this drive. jones offered to show us, but it would take a trip on his $50 million cowboy ride. his super bowl heroes fly forever in first-class, players whose paychecks broke records.

do you ever question yourself about the size of the checks that you're writing? >> jones: of course, i do. for instance, shortly after buying the cowboys, i wanted to sign deion sanders. it was so substantial, relative to where we were at the time financially-- $13 million bonus- - that my son, at 2:00 in the morning, was so concerned about that kind of commitment, he actually pushed me up against the wall with the agent in the next room and said, "dad, think about what you're doing here. this is..." >> pelley: he tried to physically stop you? >> jones: "...this is such a commitment." and i asked him, i said, "steven, what are you going to do, hit me?" i said, "i want to do this." >> pelley: 45 minutes from dallas is little rock, arkansas, and the remains of his father's grocery store. the family lived upstairs. >> jones: my father, one time, told me that that's his blood in that mortar between those stone... those bricks.

he said, "son, that's my blood in there." >> pelley: how old were you when you lived here? >> jones: probably six, seven, eight. i used to stand right outside this building with a little bow tie on that my mother put on me and greet the customers that would come in the grocery store. and the ones that would tip you, i'd be sure and push their cart for them and move them around the grocery store. >> pelley: his dad, pat jones, had show business in his blood. selling groceries, he wore a white cowboy suit and a stetson. and in the middle of his store, he set up the coolest entertainment technology of the day-- a disk jockey broadcasting on radio. customers loved it. and little jerry caught on quick-- give them a show. better yet, make it a spectacle. today, it takes a big top and a p.t. barnum to transform the greatest show on turf. the successor to the grocery

store is the largest cathedral to entertainment in america: three million square feet, 111,000 fans, $1.2 billion. jones and his wife of 48 years, gene, saw to every detail. high roller suites sell for $5 million each. >> jones: but drinks are free! >> pelley: a regular fan can still get a ticket for less than 30 bucks. as he's heading to his seat, he's sure to glide past millions of dollars in art work. look at that! and like his dad's grocery, in the middle of this store, once again, the coolest entertainment technology of the day. it is astounding. i mean, it's as big as a building. >> jones: you're a good looking man 70 feet tall. ( laughter ) >> pelley: he's like a neighbor showing off his new flat screen. but don't try keeping up with the joneses. his high-def tv is $40 million and it weighs 600 tons.

you guessed it-- it's the biggest in the world. >> jones: it goes from the 20 yard line to the 20 yard line, and it creates a perspective from the fan's standpoint that, frankly, they've never seen before. you can see their baby blue eyes when they're in that helmet on this screen. >> pelley: the picture wasn't pretty with a final record of 6 and 10, but the cowboys are still riding high. with 32 teams in the league, one quarter of all memorabilia has cowboys written all over it. "forbes" ranks the cowboys just ahead of the yankees as the most valuable american sports franchise, worth more than $1.6 billion. that's why we were so surprised when jones told us that he's still haunted by hard times. >> jones: about 25 years ago, i came here at love field, handed a credit card to get a car.

and they went down a list and cut my card in two in front of me, and looked up and said, "young man, you need to learn how to pay your bills." that's hard times in dallas, texas. >> pelley: you were broke? >> jones: let's say this-- i hadn't paid that bill. and, certainly, i was operating on fumes and not on a full gas tank. >> pelley: you're terrified of being broke. >> jones: yes. >> pelley: you're worth $2 billion. >> jones: yeah, but scott, unlike a professional, there's no doctor's degree to fall back on. there... there's no job to fall back on. what's out there is to keep your voice from breaking, grab a briefcase, jump in a car, and go try to sell somebody. i don't want to go back that far. and so, yeah, i run scared.

>> pelley: there is always this season. an owner who's already won three super bowls wants only one thing, and when its america's team, there's only one authority he can negotiate with. >> jones: i made a deal with the guy above-- if he'd give me that third one, i'd never ask again. i've been trying to figure out how to make another trade. >> pelley: the guy above may be telling you a deal's a deal. >> jones: well, as long as i know where he is, and i do, then maybe we can re-craft the deal a little bit. we need another super bowl. >> welcome to the cbs sports update. i'm james brown in new york with the scores from around the nfl. the jets, patriots and bills undefight-- undefeated and tied. the lions and packers share the nfc north and surprising-- over in the afc north all four teams

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