Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is reportedly threatening to sue the NFL and several owners over contract negotiations with embattled commissioner Roger Goodell, going so far as to hire high-profile lawyer David Boies, who defended scandalized Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein against accusations of sexual harassment.
Goodell’s contract is set to expire in 2018, and although Jones is not on the committee responsible for negotiating a new deal, the Cowboys owner is threatening to serve legal papers if the committee extends the NFL Commissioner, according to the New York Times.
Jones declined to comment through a team spokesman. A spokesman for Boies also declined to comment.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones (left) and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (right) attend the 4th Annual NFL Honors in 2015. Jones is now critical of Goodell for suspending Ezekiel Elliott
David Boies, chairman of Boies Schiller & Flexner LLP, has reportedly been hired by Jones, who is threatening to sue the NFL if league owners proceed with Goodell’s contract extension
Jones’s issue with Goodell ostensibly began when the Commissioner suspended Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott for six games back in August after the former Ohio State star was accused of domestic violence by his former girlfriend, Tiffany Thompson.
Elliott, however, has remained on the field thanks to a series of rulings and court appeals. Last week the second-year running back was granted an emergency injunction that lifted the suspension again and allowed him to play in Sunday’s 28-17 win over the visiting Kansas City Chiefs.
According to the report, Jones told the owners of the Chiefs, Atlanta Falcons, New York Giants, New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Houston Texans that legal papers had been drawn up and would be served if the negotiating committee decided to extend Goodell’s deal.
Jones was a nonvoting member of the owners committee that is negotiating Goodell’s extension, but the six aforementioned owners recently revoked that status after he told them of his plans to sue, according to the report.
Goodell’s salary is no longer disclosed publicly, since the NFL changed its tax status in 2015. But he did earn $34.1 million in 2014 and was paid a whopping $174.1 million over the first seven years of his tenure as commissioner.
Thanks to a series of appeals and injunctions, Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott has played in every game this season despite being suspended for six games back in August
Jones has referred to Elliott’s suspension as an ‘overcorrection’ for Goodell, who admittedly mishandled the suspension of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice back in 2014. Goodell first suspended Rice only two games after video emerged of the former Rutgers star dragging his unconscious fiancée out of an elevator at an Atlantic City casino. However, that suspension was extended indefinitely after another video was released depicting Rice striking his fiancée in the elevator.
Rice has been out of the NFL ever since.
Jones has questioned the suspension of Elliott, who has maintained his innocence. In fact, Ohio prosecutors decided against pursuing a case against Elliott last year.
‘Zeke is a victim of an overcorrection,’ Jones said in an October radio interview.
‘Even this judge said it shows that very reasonably people could possibly come down on both sides of this,’ Jones continued. ‘Well, under our legal system it has to be stronger than that for someone to have done it. Now, we all know we were not there to see it, but I do have every point of contention on both sides and in our system in this country, Zeke would not have any issue here as to his workplace.
‘With the knowledge that I have, the circumstances aren’t treating him fair.’
Elliott was accused of domestic violence by a former girlfriend, but was never charged and has maintained his innocence. The second-year running back was originally suspended six games