Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has threatened to sue over Commissioner Roger Goodell’s contract extension. Jones won’t be following through on it.
Jones told Jarrett Bell of USA Today that no lawsuit will be filed regarding the five-year deal that the Compensation Committee received unanimous authorization in May to execute.
But Jones nevertheless isn’t ending his crusade; he told Bell that he wants accountability from the Commissioner.
“This is not about replacing Roger,” Jones said. “It’s a misnomer to say it’s payback for Ezekiel Elliott. It is about the accountability of the Commissioner to all of the ownership.”
Jones also seems to think he has struck a deal with the Compensation Committee aimed at preventing litigation, even if the Compensation Committee sees it differently.
“I told the [Compensation] Committee that I was standing down on legal action because they wanted to get input from all of the owners,” Jones said.
Jones continues to have concerns about the situation, even though he voted (along with all other owners) to unanimously authorize the Compensation Committee to execute the deal in May.
“There have been material changes since the resolution,” Jones said. “It should go back to the ownership.”
The nature of the changes to the resolution isn’t clear, given that (as PFT reported over the weekend) the resolution essentially gave the Compensation Committee a blank check. During a Tuesday radio appearance, Jones seemed to suggest that he wants to see the Compensation Committee disband, making Goodell accountable to all owners and not just to a handful of them.
And Jones continues to believe that he’s serving as a representative of the 26 owners not on the Compensation Committee, even if the rest of them don’t collectively believe that.
“My position is that the owners expect me to be the ombudsman for them, as to this committee,” Jones said. “No one has the NFL’s best interest in mind more than me, and I’m doing what I was asked to do by the owners. I don’t see how you can be disciplined for that.”
The discipline would come not from the message, but from his manner and method. And if Jones has a message that he believes can resonate with the rest of his business partners, Jones arguably would be wise to find another owner to spearhead this specific project, without doing so in a way that alienates many of his fellow owners.