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Dueling Letters Continue Jerry Jones’s N.F.L. Feud Over Roger Goodell
By KEN BELSONNOV. 18, 2017

The messy battle between Jerry Jones, the Dallas Cowboys’ owner, and the N.F.L.’s compensation committee took an odd turn on Friday when Jones thanked the committee for agreeing to his demand that all owners review the extension of Commissioner Roger Goodell’s contract, which is now being completed.

In a letter to the compensation committee, which has been working for six months on a five-year extension for Goodell, Jones said that he had been worried Goodell and the committee were trying to skirt the league’s constitution by not seeking a full vote on the new contract.

In a letter back to Jones, sent on Saturday, a copy of which was reviewed by The New York Times, the compensation committee — which includes the owners of the Chiefs, Falcons, Giants, Patriots, Steelers and Texans — said it was not violating the league’s constitution. The committee repeated that all 32 owners voted in May to extend Goodell’s contract and empowered the committee to work out the details.

The committee said it would continue to speak to all owners about the progress of the negotiations. Both letters were copied to all 32 team owners.

The committee said Jones’s statements were “disappointing and undermine the spirit of partnership that has served our sport so well for so many decades.”

The dueling letters continue a monthslong battle between Jones and the committee. Jones was a nonvoting member of the committee until two weeks ago, when he threatened to sue the league and committee members to derail the contract negotiations.

Jones has insisted several times that he is doing this because conditions at the league have deteriorated since the May vote that authorized the extension. Jones began his efforts to stall contract talks in mid-August, after Goodell suspended the Cowboys’ star running back, Ezekiel Elliott, for six games.

According to an article published by ESPN on Friday, Jones said that Goodell had promised him that Elliott would not be suspended for his involvement in a domestic abuse case. A league spokesman strongly denied to ESPN that Goodell had made such a promise.

When Goodell then suspended Elliott, Jones told colleagues he would seek revenge, the article said.

Jones was recently rebuffed in his attempt to call an emergency owners’ meeting at the end of November to discuss Goodell’s contract. Earlier, the compensation committee warned Jones that his efforts to disrupt the contract talks amounted to conduct detrimental to the league, which could lead to penalties.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/18/sports/football/jerry-jones-roger-goodell.html?