NFL Owners Push Back Against Jerry Jones
Cowboys owner and habitual line stepper Jerry Jones finally went far enough to earn the legal equivalent of a hand slap from his fellow owners.
Jones’ war against commissioner Roger Goodell, which was detailed in a Peter King report last week, seems like it will not end until he manually tosses the commissioner’s proposed contract extension into the burn pit.
On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that NFL owners on the compensation committee in charge of Goodell’s contract “said that they were unhappy with Jones because he had circulated a three-month-old document with details of (salary and health benefit) requests from Goodell that Jones ‘personally knows to be an outdated, historical artifact of no relevance whatsoever in the context of these lengthy negotiations.’”
The reported added that, “if Jones was really concerned about the health of the league,” he wouldn’t “threaten to sue the league and its owners if he does not get his way.”
All of this frustration was bottled in a formal letter, which was provided to Jones’ attorney. Jones, as King reported, had previously threatened to sue if Goodell’s contract was finalized.
A few years from now, 2017 could be looked at by NFL fans as a lost season, or perhaps the beginning of the end. Amid a ratings decline due to changing consumer habits and a brutal rash of injuries to the league’s brightest, fantasy football-type stars, there has been constant infighting and politicking at the highest levels of ownership. The focus on all this legal posturing has undoubtedly placed a cloud over the on-field product.
Once an escape from the harsh realities of both American and office politics, football has become American and office politics. Other than the wonks who live for this type of soulless verbal tennis, there seems to be a line of fans out the door who just want to go back to the way things were.
On the same day that Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott and the NFLPA withdrew its lawsuit, a formal recognition that the six-game suspension will be served, some of the NFL’s owners are hoping that they can begin the process of ending another drawn out fight. Will Jones accept losing twice in a row?
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PRESS COVERAGE
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1. Art Stapleton, Giants beat reporter for The Record (N.J.), asked for season-ticket holders to weigh in on the season. He received a lot of replies.
2. Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis is bringing the heat on rookie receiver John Ross, telling the world that Ross let down the team.
3. It's never too early to look at the playoff picture, especially if you're a Bills fan and your team has just decided to bench Pro Bowl quarterback Tyrod Taylor.
4. The fumble through the end zone has been a silent killer in the NFL this season. The Ringer has some solutions to fix what they call "the dumbest rule in football."
5.Tashaun Gipson is enjoying not being a member of the Browns and talked about it this week ahead of Jacksonville's matchup with the winless franchise. But did he poke the sleeping (turnover-prone) bear too hard?
6. Brett Hundley may still be a young starter, but he can talk in platitudes with the best of them.
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7. In a truly wild twist, the highly-successful rocket scientist defensive coordinator of the New England Patriots has figured out a way to make his defense good again.
8. Tarik Cohen has just five carries for three yards over his last three games. What's happened to the one-time rookie stud in Chicago?
9. Ahead of this week's Dolphins-Bucs matchup, the Miami Herald looks at the toll a bye-less season has taken on both teams.
10. The epic CFL limbo celebration has raised an important question in Dirk Koetter's Buccaneer locker room: How the hell are we going to beat that?
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THE KICKER
In a victory for search engine optimization enthusiasts everywhere, USA Today managed to get Katy Perry, a Detroit Lion and American Idol in the same headline. Check in tomorrow for my piece on Donald Trump commenting on LeBron James Arthur memes after the Leonardo da Vinci auction.
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