Owners have their own nuclear option for dealing with Jerry Jones

Mike Florio
16 hours ago

When it comes to the lingering dispute regarding the Roger Goodell contract extension, much has been written and said about the potential nuclear option possessed by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. But the rest of the owners (or, more accurately, those who oppose Jones) have a nuclear option of their own.


They could, in theory, attempt to trigger forfeiture of the Dallas franchise.

A league source with knowledge of the situation tells PFT that multiple owners already have been discussing the possibility, which flows from Article VIII of the NFL’s Constitution & Bylaws. Specifically, Section 8.13 authorizes the Commissioner to determine that an owner “has been or is guilty of conduct detrimental to the welfare of the League or professional football.” If the Commissioner believes the available sanction (a $500,000 fine) is “not adequate or sufficient,” the Commissioner may refer the issue to the NFL’s Executive Committee, which has the power to compel “[c]ancellation or forfeiture of the franchise in the League of any member club involved or implicated,” with a directive to sell the team.

I noticed the other day when they were reporting on the Goodell hiring committee all the old school NFL families hold a seat: Maras, Rooneys, Hunts, etc. You never hear the Mc Caskeys in this kind of leadership.

They are like a carbon copy that gets more faded with each generation after Halas.

Not quite sure what his motives really are, but he is right to challenge a new contract for Goodell. The NFL is tanking right now with him at the helm. It needs new leadership to clean this mess up.

Yeah, I'm Team Facelift on this one. Jerry was the one who liberated the Rams from St. Louis. I trust his judgment.

THERE WAS A PAUSE. It was Aug. 9, inside Roger Goodell's sixth-floor office at the NFL's Park Avenue headquarters in New York City -- down the hall, past the executives' offices and his assistant's desk, and through a large, thick wooden door that is both imposing and usually left open to serve as a welcome. Goodell huddled over a speakerphone with general counsel Jeff Pash. On the other end was Jerry Jones. Adhering to the protocol of giving owners a 48-hour heads-up before a major disciplinary issue involving their team is announced, Goodell and Pash informed Jones that after a 13-month domestic violence inquiry, the Dallas Cowboys' star running back, Ezekiel Elliott, would face punishment -- a six-game suspension.

The line went quiet. Seconds passed. Goodell's decision was an unconscionable violation of trust, Jones later told associates, because he believed that the commissioner had assured him this past spring that there would be no suspension. Jones saw in Elliott a genuine opportunity, a player so good that he had made Jones believe that this year he just might win a Super Bowl for the first time since 1996. His anger was palpable. Finally, according to sources with direct knowledge of the call, Jones broke the silence. He aimed his words not only at Goodell's decision but also at his role as judge, jury and executioner in the case.

"I'm gonna come after you with everything I have," Jones said. Then he mentioned Deflategate. "If you think Bob Kraft came after you hard, Bob Kraft is a pussy compared to what I'm going to do."

http://www.espn.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/21441056/nfl-commissioner-roger-goodell-bitter-battle-saw-coming-led-dallas-cowboys-owner-jerry-jones

I know JJ is a prick but why do all the owners seemingly want to rubber stamp a Goddell extension?

I know JJ is a prick but why do all the owners seemingly want to rubber stamp a Goddell extension?

They still make huge money.

Yeah but he seems to have become an unloved dictator yet they hire him.

Yeah but he seems to have become an unloved dictator yet they hire him.

An unofficial count had only nine owners in favor of a mandate, though the reasons for the opposition varied: Some owners had tired of Jones always commandeering such meetings; some were jealous of his power and eager to see him go down; some saw the players-must-stand mandate as bad policy to invoke in the middle of the season; some owners were angry with Jones' hard-line public stance on kneeling, feeling that it had backed them all into a corner. "The majority of owners understand this is important to the players and want to be supportive, even if they don't exactly know how to be supportive," one owner says.

They still make huge money.

He's their whipping boy, and he's very good at it. He takes all the public abuse so the media mostly leaves the owners alone.

Do they really think it's due to him though? That there isn't another person who could do just as well or better? Or does he know where all the skeletons are buried?