It’s widely believed that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has something up his sleeve regarding his ongoing opposition to Roger Goodell’s new contract, and that he’s waiting to slide it out at the next ownership meeting on December 13. For that reason, the Compensation Compensation hopes to finalize Goodell’s new contract before then.
Under the unanimous resolution passed by all 32 owners in May, the Compensation Committee currently has the ability to finalize a contract with Goodell. If they get it done before Jones has a chance to muster the votes to revise or rescind the resolution, it will become much more difficult for Jones to derail the process.
Once a final, binding, and enforceable contract is in place between the league and Goodell, any effort to scrap the contract would trigger buyout clauses and other provisions that would cost the league a ton of money, and then the league would have to pay someone else to take over.
If the deal isn’t done by December 13, Jones can make a last-ditch effort to persuade any fence-sitting owners to scrap the pending resolution and, for example, replace it with a requirement that the owners approve the final proposal by a 24-vote supermajority.
That said, Jones surely realizes what the Compensation Committee will be doing over the next couple of weeks, which means that whatever he has up his sleeve likely includes a strategy for ensuring that he’ll get a chance to push his agenda one more time before all owners. Indeed, his recent comments regarding his decision not to sue seem to flow from a belief that he’s been given a commitment that all owners will have a voice in the final contract.
If that doesn’t happen, maybe Jones will do another 180 on his litigation plan.