Roger Staubach talks real estate, Romo and the Redskins nickname

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"I always felt if we build it, I’ll get rewarded for it," says Staubach, who never participated in commissions while managing his commercial real estate firm, The Staubach Co. JLL bought the company for $613 million in 2008.

Will Boye

Senior Staff Writer- Charlotte Business Journal

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During last Sunday's broadcast of a game between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants, NFL quarterback-turned-broadcaster Troy Aikman called Roger Staubach the greatest Cowboys player of all time.

Staubach, who won two Super Bowls as a quarterback with the Cowboys during his Hall of Fame career, still attends every Dallas game. But he views himself more as a real estate guy than a football player.

"This is my life," he says, sitting in a conference room at the SouthPark office of real estate company JLL, which acquired The Staubach Co. for $613 million in 2008. "Even though there are people who want to talk football, I feel my life has been real estate."

Staubach started working in commercial real estate during the offseasons of his career with the Cowboys. In 1977, two years before retiring from the league, he started The Staubach Co., a real estate firm specializing in tenant representation. Staubach owned 12% of his company when it was sold, and earlier this year Forbes named him one of the highest-paid retired athletes, with estimated earnings of $12 million in 2013. (Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan ranked first, with estimated 2013 earnings of $90 million).

Today, Staubach, 72, serves as executive chairman at JLL and continues to keep a busy schedule meeting with JLL's large clients around the country. He visited Charlotte for a client event this week and talked with me about his real estate career, what kind of activity he's seeing in the markets and whether the Cowboys can keep winning. Staubach also fielded a couple of questions about my team, the Washington Redskins, who play the Cowboys on Monday night.

Will Boye covers commercial real estate and law firms for the Charlotte Business Journal.