In a show of unity, Roger Goodell and Jerry Jones entered the post-meetings press conference together. They exchanged a man-hug as the NFL Commissioner left the podium.
By appearances, all is well. The Cowboys owner insists he supports the contract extension for Goodell despite a four-month fight. At the same time, though, Jones made it clear he wants to take power back from the Commissioner by changing the league’s constitution.
‘This bunch [of owners] is the most qualified people I know to set the course . . . for the future of this league,” Jones said. “That’s going to take some constitutional changes. One of the things that we’ve agreed to, and this process did or didn’t influence it, but we’ve agreed to really address this league for some constitutional changes that is the real way to address not only the Commissioner and some of these issues, on all areas, that’s the real way to address it is right there on how you affect decisions.
“I’m very rewarded that this exercise of extending Roger has brought that about. That is the way that I see it, and it’s going to be. I want to emphasize, I didn’t do it. It took the will of 32 owners to get that done. I am rewarded. What is neat is that Roger, who always has the league in mind, Roger has agreed to be a leader in implementing those changes. And there’s nobody that doesn’t see the need for changes in the NFL in several areas. We’re doing a lot of things good. But there’s some areas we need to change. One of it, it’s an antiquated constitution, an antiquated situation as to the power of the commissioner, this will address that.”
Although Jones didn’t derail the deal, as he had hoped, he did declare victory (as Mike Florio predicted three weeks ago). Or maybe it was more like Jones didn’t concede defeat.
Goodell signed the five-year performance-based extension worth up to $200 million if owners approve all bonuses and incentives are met. Most owners will have oversight on the bonuses and incentives.
“I hope Roger earns every dime,” Jones said. “That means he’s doing a great job, and we’re doing good.”
Jones was one of the owners who voted 32-0 in May to grant the six-member Compensation Committee authority to execute the contract. Jones began fighting the deal after Goodell suspended Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott for six games, but Jones said Elliott’s suspension had nothing to do with it.
So, Jones was asked, what then changed between May and August?
“They have a term in business called a mac,” Jones said. “Material adverse circumstances happen between the time that you shook hands and the time you did the deal. It’s a very valid change of scenery. It’s called a mac. Anybody who says we haven’t had any changes since last spring would be an exaggeration. Certainly that was a part of it. But more importantly than anything, I really felt that something as sensitive as owners giving their vote to a group to make these decisions needed to have a clarity. It needed to have specificity and not three lines to get that ability to make that decision for all the owners. I really did think we had a complaint there. I agreed to drop that [threat of a lawsuit], and I did. I agreed not to have that decided by somebody other than us. So we didn’t do that. What we did was come up to where we are today, and I’ll go with what we’ve got today, because we’ve got more to come that I know will improve the National Football League.”