NFL owners eager to extend commissioner Roger Goodell’s contract may be heading Cowboys owner Jerry Jones off at the pass.
Sources told ESPN that despite Jones’s push to derail the extension talks, they expect an agreement to be reached ahead of the owners’ Dec. 13 meeting in Dallas.
That incentive-heavy deal could average roughly $40 million for each year from 2019 to 2023, according to the ESPN report. The base salary is in the single-digit millions, a source told the network, but realistic bonuses would bring the five-year extension to the $200 million range.
If the extension goes through on those terms, it will certainly go in the loss column for Jones after he blitzed a Nov. 2 conference call with the league’s six-person compensation committee meant to iron out contract details.
During that call, Jones apparently surprised his fellow owners on the committee by warning that he had “papers drawn up” for a legal salvo in if the contract extension was ratified, according to reports. Jones demanded that the finalized deal be sent back for a general vote to have it changed or even scrapped.
Jones has denied he’s trying to oust Goodell, but the Cowboys owner has reportedly been angered by the six-game suspension leveled against his star-running back, Ezekial Elliott. But there are other issues behind the rift, including the size of the compensation package.
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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