In a pre-game radio interview that aired on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas/Ft. Worth, Cowboys owner/General Manager/unofficial team doctor Jerry Jones addressed the now-notorious June conversation with Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, which reportedly included Peterson expressing a desire to play for the Cowboys.
Jones admitted talking to Peterson, explaining that an associate of Peterson’s gave Jones the phone, possibly passing it through the ESPN writer who was working on a profile of Jerry Jones.
“We basically talked,” Jones said. “Adrian’s from Texas and certainly it was easy to talk to such a great player.”
Jones at no point denied that Adrian said he wants to play for the Cowboys after his time with the Vikings ends, and Jones said nothing about the words attributed to him in the ESPN profile regarding the topic of Peterson potentially becoming a Cowboy.
If Peterson indeed said that he wants to play for the Cowboys, Jones should have (under the tampering policy) immediately ended the call and alerted the Vikings. Those facts alone could be enough to trigger a violation of the league’s tampering policy.
Moving forward, look for the league to quietly investigate this one, posing far more pointed questions to Peterson, Jones, and anyone else who knows anything about a highly unusual communication between a player who is the face of one franchise, and an owner who is the face of another.