Jerry Jones has met a lot of opposition in his attempts to derail Roger Goodell’s contract extension talks, but the Dallas Cowboys owner has made it clear he has no plans to back down.
In his weekly appearance on 105.3 The Fan Tuesday, Jones indicated that he believes he is making progress in accomplishing whatever it is he is looking to accomplish.
“I think that ultimately we will influence what I want to influence,” he said, via Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
We know that Jones is trying to make life difficult for the six NFL team owners who have been tasked with negotiating the terms of Goodell’s extension, but Jones has yet to explicitly state what it is he is concerned about. Does he want Goodell to make less money? Have less power? Give up his job? Jones tried to shed some light on that.
“[T]he bottom line is he’s very powerful and you want to influence the commissioner,” he said. “There’s a big debate as to one of the biggest things a commissioner does is resolve disputes. He resolves them between everybody. So there’s an argument that he should be autonomous from being accountable. That’s legitimate.
“Well, the Commissioner covers the whole league, the business aspect of it, the discipline aspect of it, the rules, the officials. And, so, no one — no one — would like it if you had three or four owners that were paying the officials. No one would like that because it should be all the owners that pay the officials. But yet you want them to be independent. Well, all owners should be holding the commissioner accountable in my view. That’s the gist of this thing.”
As Florio notes, Jones’ remarks are a strong indication that the 75-year-old has an issue with the six-owner compensation committee. When the NFL’s 32 team owners voted unanimously back in May to extend Goodell’s deal, they also agreed to let the six owners negotiate the terms of the extension. Jones was supposed to be the de-facto seventh member and act as the leader of the other 26 owners, but things have changed for obvious reasons.
The biggest issue is most of Jones’ peers believe he is only making a fuss about Goodell’s extension because the commissioner decided to suspend Ezekiel Elliott six games. Prior to that punishment being handed down, Jones offered no opposition.
While Goodell is reportedly commanding an absurd compensation package, NFL owners have made a lot of money since he took over the league. They also want Goodell to represent him when the current labor deal expires in 2021. Jones may be confident he can influence the negotiations, but he still appears to be on an island by himself.
