Cowboys’ Jones doubles down on threats over Goodell’s compensation

Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, renewed his threat of suing the NFL to derail efforts by the league’s compensation committee to extend Commissioner Roger Goodell’s contract, further escalating a bitter battle among some of the most powerful owners in the country’s most powerful sports league.

The most recent threat came in a letter sent Wednesday, the same day The New York Times reported that Jones had hired the high-profile and controversial lawyer David Boies and had told the six owners on the committee that he would sue them and the league if they did not alter the commissioner’s pay package.

In a three-page letter sent to the lawyer representing the committee and to the rest of the league’s owners, the Cowboys’ general counsel said the league’s fortunes had significantly changed since May, when the owners, including Jones, voted unanimously to extend Goodell’s contract by five years and to give the committee the authority to work out the details.

Through his lawyer, Jones said he wanted Goodell’s new contract, which would begin in 2019, to include less guaranteed pay and more incentives tied to the league’s financial performance. Jones noted that Goodell had already been paid $200 million in the decade since he became commissioner, and that making a decision potentially worth more than $200 million should be done carefully.

A letter written on behalf of the compensation committee brushed aside Jones’ claims and said his call for a full vote on the details of the contract was “contrary to the League’s operation practices.”