NFL vs.‘Zeke’ puts Jones in awkward spot
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is never shy when asked for his opinion, especially when it comes to his players.
Jones recently made an appearance on KRLD-FM, 105.3, in Dallas and said the NFL not only has some public relations issues when it comes to the topic of domestic violence, but some procedural problems as well.
“Every person that has any sense at all understands domestic violence,” Jones said. “On the other hand, I’ve had a lot of experience in this area. For 10 years before I bought the Cowboys, I was head of Battered Women of Arkansas. And I’ve raised more money and been in more safe houses than more people that talk about it. And so it’s a terrible problem.”
When it came to the league’s case against Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott, Jones let his guard down momentarily, only to rein himself in at the last moment.
“What we are and what we’re trying to be relative to addressing it in the league has all kinds of issues,” Jones said. “And it should. It’s a very complicated issue, and because you have no evidence here. … That’s all I want to say about it. But it creates quite a convoluted approach by Zeke’s representatives and by the league that I really hate that is the focus of all of our attention. I do. Even though others would say that the issue needs this kind of focus and you’re using the NFL for visibility. I’ve got some real opinions here and we won’t talk about them here on the show. But we’ve got some work to do here as far as the league is concerned.”
Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com agreed with Jones.
“The problem for the players is that the general public doesn’t understand the flaws in the process and/or doesn’t care as much about that as it cares about the problem of player misconduct, especially when that misconduct is directed against women. And so the league will continue to err on the side of punishing players aggressively [regardless of actual guilt] in order to avoid the backlash that happens when a potentially guilty player isn’t deemed to have been punished enough.”