Cowboys Owner Won’t Back Down in Fight Over Goodell Contract Extension

Jerry Jones said he wants to 'slow this train down' despite pressure from other NFL owners.

Goodell
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones (L) and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in happier times. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage)

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is saddling up for a protracted fight with several of his contemporaries and the NFL over a proposed contract extension for commissioner Roger Goodell.

And he isn’t ruling out taking that fight to court if the league’s compensation committee goes forth with the current deal on the table.

“He’s served about 60 percent, roughly, 65 percent of this contract,” Jones said on Dalla’s 105.3 The Fan radio show Tuesday. “He has 18 months left on there. We’ve got all the time in the world to evaluate what we’re doing. We’ve got all the time in the world to extend him. We just need to slow this train down and have a lot of time to discuss the issues at hand in the NFL and have a good, fair input from all the owners, which we’re not getting.”

Jones, however, denied that he is out to replace Goodell entirely.

But it sure sounded like it on a Nov. 2 conference call, in which Jones reportedly surprised his fellow owners on the committee by warning that he had “papers drawn up” for a legal salvo in if the contract extension through 2024 was ratified. Jones demanded that the finalized deal be sent back for a general vote to have it changed or even scrapped.

On Monday, the six owners on the committee fired back with a cease-and-desist letter and threatened punishment if Jones didn’t abandon his crusade, according to the New York Times.

Jones has apparently soured on Goodell, angered in part by the six-game suspension leveled against Cowboys star Ezekial Elliott over domestic abuse allegations, despite the fact that the running back wasn’t officially charged.

Goodell’s current annual compensation of $35 million — an amount not likely to drop much with the incentive-laden package on the table — also apparently vexes Jones.

Then there is the controversy surrounding NFL players who kneel during the National Anthem in protest of racial injustices. Jones, who has publicly warned that he will force the benching of any of his team’s players who take a knee, and no Cowboys star has done so to date, has not been happy that the league hasn’t done more to rein in the movement before it started impacting ratings.

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