Every Tuesday, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones talks about the happenings with his team and the league during a segment on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. This Tuesday, Jones was asked about the events leading to the resignation of Raiders coach Jon Gruden.
Jones, who usually has something to say about anything and everything, had not a whole lot to say about Gruden.
“I know these people,” Jones said, via Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News. “I know everybody that you’ve been reading about. They’re outstanding proponents of our game. They have represented this game in many cases beautifully. And certainly, we will continue to recognize what a spotlight you’re in and the way that we should express ourselves. All of that comes to my mind.”
Jones also was asked whether Gruden deserved to lose his job.
“I don’t have anything I want to express there, one way or the other,” Jones said. “From the standpoint of contribution, I know that we are all accountable to even a, if you will, a fleeting or minor part of our actions. We are all accountable to those. But that’s about all I want to comment on it. We are talking about people here and even the ones that some of the comments were directed about. Those have been outstanding people in the NFL.”
It’s surprising that Jones didn’t have more to say. Given the strong condemnation that the NFL issued on Friday regarding Gruden’s email regarding NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith, it would be perfectly acceptable for Jones to make similar remarks.
But Jones possibly is protecting the broader Football Industrial Complex, where an attack on one is an attack on all.
And let’s be fully candid about it. Jones at some level has to be concerned about his 32 years in the NFL. The things he may have said. The things he may have done. The things that could come back to haunt him, especially if the NFL does the right thing and releases the full body of evidence developed during the Washington Football Team investigation.
Until we see all of the evidence, we don’t know and won’t know whether, for example, Jones and former Washington executive Bruce Allen exchanged emails. Or, for that matter, Jones and Snyder.
Indeed, when Jones was on a crusade to take down Commissioner Roger Goodell in 2017, Snyder was the only other owner who actively supported him. If it’s fair game to reveal things Gruden said to Allen about Goodell and others, it’s unfair and hypocritical to hide things that others in positions of power and influence said and did, to Allen or to anyone else with the Washington Football Team.