The NFL’s Compensation Committee has given Jerry Jones a cease-and-desist warning in response to the Dallas Cowboys owner’s threat to sue the league over contract extension talks with commissioner Roger Goodell, according to The New York Times.
The committee issued the warning to Jones after holding a conference call Monday to discuss Goodell’s potential extension, according to the Times.
Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank released a statement Monday, saying that the committee is still working toward an extension for Goodell and disputing Jones’ assertion that owners have been misled regarding “critical facts” about the negotiations.
“The Committee is continuing its work towards finalizing a contract extension with the Commissioner, consistent with the mandate provided in the unanimous May 2017 Resolution,” Blank said in his statement. “Regardless of what may have been reported, the Committee is working within the financial parameters outlined to the ownership at the May meeting. 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.”
Blank, the chairman of the six-member committee, terminated Jones as a non-voting, ad-hoc seventh member Saturday because of Jones’ threat to sue the league.
In a letter sent last week to owners on the committee, Jones claimed he “has discovered a number of very concerning issues” while engaged as a committee member, including that “the Ownership (sic) and Jerry Jones now understand that they have been unquestionably misled” by Blank and that “critical facts” have been misrepresented regarding Goodell’s contract.
ESPN reported Sunday that Goodell’s last written counterproposal, sent to the committee around Aug. 1, was seeking approximately $49.5 million in annual salary and also included the lifetime use of a private jet and lifetime health insurance for his family.
Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones, Jerry Jones’ son, said during a radio interview Monday that he and his father “want what’s in the best interest of the league.”
“We’re not against Roger, we just don’t know if this is the time to be talking about a major contract extension when the league certainly has incredible challenges in terms of where we are with the league,” Stephen Jones said during an interview with 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. “Whether that’s our ratings, whether that’s our concern with our sponsors, I think we need to be focusing on our business and not necessarily on contract extensions.
“It’s not that we’re against Roger, I think Jerry has been vocal about it, that’s certainly not easy to do when you have certain momentums that are going one way and you take a contrarian stance … In his mind what we take as an organization, we just don’t think it’s in the best interest of the NFL right now to move forward.”
Report: Owners tell Jones to nix Goodell fight
Report: Owners tell Jones to nix Goodell fight
{$excerpt:n}
Source: ESPN SPORTS