Commentary

Jones playing with deck he stacked

For a man who seemingly has it all beyond simply fame and fortune -- gold Hall of Fame jacket, state-of-the-art stadium and (I'm guessing here) free Papa John's pizza for life -- Jerry Jones, oddly enough, can't catch a break.

And only part of that has to do with a football team that looks suddenly average at 5-4 with the league-leading Philadelphia Eagles charging into town. I'm not talking flawed roster construction so much today as the other areas in which the ball isn't bouncing Jones' way.

First came the suspension of his elite running back, which, after too many false starts to count in the world of stays and injunctions, finally began Sunday in Atlanta where the Cowboys were dismissed by 20 points. Many observers with a lot less at stake in the Ezekiel Elliott fight than Jones, even less than Cowboys fans, would say that the NFL's punishment for a fuzzy violation of league rules that would never fly in criminal court could be characterized as a bad break.

Now Jones is taking on the league or the commissioner or other owners; it's hard to classify exactly what's going on. And -- much like the Elliott case -- he seems to be the guy who knows the rules at the poker table but just can't get a decent hand.

Essentially, Jones is fighting Commissioner Roger Goodell's contract extension although logic tells me it's more than that. Jones would not (figuratively speaking) go to war over an extension. But he might over a chance to remove Goodell from power, which, if you're going to threaten lawsuits and "draw up papers" as Jones said and hire high-powered attorney David Boies to do the dirty work, feels like what's in play here.

As for the extension, which I think is the first step toward the one that leads to the battle over Goodell's job, Jones is correct. There is no rush. As Jones said on his radio show this week, "He has 18 months left. We've got all the time in the world to evaluate what we're doing. We've got all the time in the world to extend him. We just need to slow this train down."

Feels more like Jones wants to crash the train, but regarding the extension it's hard to argue. Reports surfaced that Goodell was seeking a package worth $49.5 million including a private jet for life and (get this) life insurance for his family for life.

I feel like I recognize the high cost of insurance as much as the next guy, but once you've made more than $200 million as NFL commissioner like Goodell has, are you that worried about leaving a little something behind for the kids?

And the question that should be asked of the six-owner committee working on Goodell's extension -- a party Jones crashed for awhile before being kicked to the curb, leading to lawsuit threats -- is just who are they negotiating against?

Is there another league, another corporation begging for the chance to pay Goodell $40 million a year to run its business? I don't disparage the man as much as others, I think he has a clue about most things, but I still think the answer to that question is "not hardly."

So when Jones contends that he has half the league's owners lined up on his side, he might be correct. But, as I said earlier, he may not get a break because he's on the wrong side of procedure just as Elliott was.

Zeke was doomed to lose in court because the NFLPA signed off on a terrible contract that handed Goodell ultimate authority to rule as he saw fit in these matters. And Jones could be similarly doomed here because he joined his brethren in voting 32-0 in May to give the committee the authority to put together Goodell's extension.

I checked with the league office to see if there was any gray area here, if the committee was perhaps merely authorized to come up with an offer that needed league approval. NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart said, "No additional vote needed from full ownership."

So Jones signed off on this deal in May and had no quarrel with it when it came up this summer. On Aug. 11, Elliott was suspended for six games by Goodell. And it wasn't long after that Jones decided the proposal for Goodell was "the most one-sided contract ever."

Jones may have been bothered more than most by Goodell's soft approach to dealing with players on the anthem protest. But the owner's problem here is that while most owners share his political conservatism, they also take a conservative approach to running the league. Radical change and ousting a commissioner isn't high on their agenda.

This battle is a personal one. Jones won't go quietly, but the deck is stacked against him.

Sports on 11/16/2017

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