There will be lawyers.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is reportedly preparing to fine Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones “millions of dollars” for his public attacks against Goodell and for publicly defending Ezekiel Elliott, who was suspended six games by the league this past season, per Ken Belson of the New York Times.
“The punishment will be issued in the coming weeks by Goodell, who will declare that Jones’s actions were detrimental to the league, which rarely shows such acute signs of acrimony among owners and the commissioner’s office. Goodell has been reluctant to be seen as exacting retribution for the way Jones tried to sabotage his contract talks, but he was urged to bring the penalties by several owners who believed that Jones had crossed an unspoken boundary by threatening his colleagues.”
We’ve known that Jones was going to lose this power struggle against Goodell for some time now, and the fact that other owners were strongly against Jones was a huge reason why.
But this report suggests some even bigger battles could be upcoming.
Per Belson, “Jones will be ordered to pay the legal fees that the committee incurred defending itself, as well as the legal expenses the N.F.L. spent defending its decision to suspend Elliott.”
Likely, Jones won’t take this lying down.
Per the report, a Cowboys spokesman said the team is unaware of any upcoming fines and did not have any comment on the matter.