Jerry Jones Could Be Punished For Trying to Stop Commissioner's Deal

Six owners of NFL teams have given Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones a cease-and-desist warning and threatened to punish him over his efforts to block a contract extension for Commissioner Roger Goodell, reports The New York Times.

The owners who make up the compensation committee held a conference call on Monday. Two weeks ago, Jones threatened to sue the league and the owners on the committee who have been working on a new five-year extension contract for Goodell for the last few months. Jones had been a nonvoting member of the committee but was immediately thrown out after he threatened to sue.

There are a variety of penalties Jones could face, including fines, docking draft picks and even suspension, reports The Times.

“The committee is continuing its work towards finalizing a contract extension with the commissioner,” the compensation committee chairman, Falcons owner Arthur Blank, said in a statement on Monday, according to The Times. “The negotiations are progressing and we will keep ownership apprised of the negotiations as they move forward. We do not intend to publicly comment on our discussions.”

Owners have been annoyed that Jones tried to derail the extension for the commissioner as a way to punish Goodell for his decision to suspend Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott, writes The Times. He has also been accused of urging the owner of Papa Johns, which is the official pizza chain of the league, to discredit the commissioner and leak false information about the details of the negotiation contract. John Schnatter, Papa John’s chief executive, recently claimed the NFL player protests during the national anthem have hurt his company’s sales, reports The Times.

Jones says that he is not seeking revenge, but that he wants the contract talks to be more transparent. Jones wants all owners to be able to sign off on the details of the new contract. The Times reports that the six owners who are working on the contract have spoken regularly to the other owners about the negotiations.