Cowboys Jerry Jones: 'We need to work out the deal' to reduce NFL preseason games

Cowboys Jerry Jones: 'We need to work out the deal' to reduce NFL preseason games

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is joining the increasingly large faction of NFL leaders who can foresee the NFL eliminating preseason games in exchange for an increase in regular-season games.

“We are evaluating,” Jones said. “I’m involved in our labor negotiation and we’re having CBA negotiations every Monday and Tuesday. Have been for several weeks. We all — players, the league — are looking at preseason and looking at what we can do to make preseason better for our fans.”

"Just need to work out the deal,'' Jerry said.

Jerry Jones: "NFL is evaluating preseason length." Translation: "We're gonna add some real games instead of these pretend games. Just need to work out the deal."

— Andrew Brandt (@AndrewBrandt) August 27, 2019

"The deal,'' of course, has to do with a trade-off that owners want to make with the NFLPA, something that would have to be done in the new CBA (which is as Jerry notes is a main purpose of these meetings.)

It is the official position of the NFL that change can come in the preseason as part of the effort to expand the regular season. Back in June, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell reiterated his desire to expand on the 16-game schedule at a time the league and players’ association have begun preliminary talks on a new collective bargaining agreement.

“I feel what we should be doing is always to the highest quality, and I’m not sure preseason games meet that level right now,” Goodell said. “I’m not sure, talking with coaches, that four preseason games is necessary any more to get ready for a season to evaluate players, develop players.

"There are other ways of doing that,'' Goodell said, "and we’ve had a lot of discussions about that.”

If Jerry Jones and Roger Goodell are on the same side of an issue, you can figure the direction the NFL is going. All that is left to do is ... figure out how the billionaires are going to keep making the money that comes from preseason games. And the answer, of course, is making the players participate in more games that could.