Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys and one of the N.F.L.’s most powerful figures, has escalated his feud with Commissioner Roger Goodell, threatening to sue the league and some fellow team owners over negotiations to extend Goodell’s contract, according to three people with direct knowledge of the situation.
Jones told the six owners on the league’s compensation committee last week that he had hired David Boies, the
high-profile lawyer under fire in the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment case, according to the people, who declined to be speak publicly about internal league matters.
The dispute between Jones and Goodell stems from Jones’s anger over the commissioner’s suspending of Ezekiel Elliott, the Cowboys’ star running back, who was accused of domestic violence by his former girlfriend. Goodell gave Elliott a six-game suspension, though no charges were filed in the case.
The suspension, announced in August, has since undergone a dizzying array of rulings and court appeals that has, for now, kept Elliott on the field. Jones has called the suspension an “overcorrection,” a jibe at Goodell, who has been criticized in recent years for his handling of player discipline.
The intraleague battle is unusual for an organization that prides itself on order and unanimity but is in the middle of one of its most tumultuous seasons over issues like players kneeling during the national anthem to protest social injustice, a wave of injuries to star players, and a television ratings slide that has fed debate over whether the game is declining.
Jones said in a conference call last Thursday with the six owners —
those of the Chiefs, Falcons, Giants, Patriots, Steelers and Texans — that legal papers were drawn up and would be served this Friday if the committee did not scrap its current plans to extend Goodell’s contract.
