Jones threatens to sue the NFL
THE NFL, the $14 billion-ayear sports juggernaut that dominates TV ratings, as well as American conversation most Sundays, ascended to its position of supremacy in recent years with an ownership group that often works in lockstep. The men and women who control the league’s 32 teams might disagree sometimes, but rarely do they publicly reveal any discord.
Now the league, already wobbling under the strain of presidential and public aggravation over players’ kneeling during the national anthem, is coping with what amounts to an all-out war between one of its most powerful owners and its commissioner, Roger Goodell, who has been rewarded for the league’s success with annual compensation salary that has topped $40 million.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has escalated a feud with Goodell, threatening to sue the league and some fellow team owners over negotiations to extend Goodell’s contract, according to three people with direct knowledge of the situation.
Through a team spokesman, Jones declined to comment. An NFL spokesman also declined to comment.
The dispute between Jones and Goodell stems from Jones’s anger over the commissioner’s suspending of Ezekiel Elliott, the Cowboys’ star running back, who was accused of domestic violence by his former girlfriend. Goodell gave Elliott a six-game suspension, though no charges were filed in the case.
The suspension, announced in August, has since undergone a dizzying array of rulings and court appeals that has, for now, kept Elliott on the field. Jones has called the suspension an “overcorrection”, a gibe at Goodell, who has been criticised for his handling of player discipline.
Jones appears intent on holding up Goodell’s contract extension and potentially pushing him out. He is in the minority among owners. While some are unhappy with how the commissioner has handled issues related to player conduct and the national anthem controversy, only a few owners are prepared to replace Goodell, who has been commissioner for more than a decade and has worked at the league since the early 1980s.
‘Papers served today’
Jones said in a conference ca ll last week with the si x owners – those of t he Kansas Cit y Chiefs, At lanta Falcons, New York Giants, New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston Texans – that lega l papers were drawn up and would be ser ved today if the committee did not scrap or delay its current plans to extend Goodell’s contract.
Jones, who has owned the Cowboys since 1989, has been a non-voting member of the committee that is considering Goodell’s contract, which expires at the end of the 2018 season. He has fought to have a say.
After Jones’s conference call last week, the six owners revoked his status as an ad hoc member of the compensation committee, which decides on pay packages for the top league officials.
Over the past several days, the six owners have been speaking to the other 25 owners who are not on the committee to notify them of what Jones had said.
At a meeting in May, all 32 owners – including Jones – voted to extend Goodell’s contract and authorised the compensation committee to work out the details. But after Elliott was suspended, Jones began lobbying the committee to undermine the deal.
Jones has publicly questioned Elliott’s suspension as well as the commissioner’s role in handing down player penalties.
Jones has also been the most vocal owner to urge players to stand for the national anthem. Jones and other owners are upset that Goodell has not done more to stop players from kneeling or sitting during the anthem.