Jerry Jones took his childish feud to the next level before the Cowboys-Falcons game
Children, children.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Falcons owner Arthur Blank went out of their way to avoid each other prior to Sunday’s game in Atlanta between their teams.
No surprise. The relationship between those two has gotten acrimonious since Jones threatened to sue the NFL and some of its owners over Roger Goodell’s contract extension. Jones is even charging Blank, head of the NFL’s compensation committee, of being untruthful in his handling of the matter.
The two owners, or someone on their side, spent the weekend exchanging anonymous leaks about the situation. And this insignificant little incident of two adults being unable to offer a basic level of professional decorum reflected their acrimony in the media.
According to a Cowboys staffer, it’s customary for the home owner to walk across the field and greet the visiting owner.
Jones made himself visible and available throughout pre-game warmups, walking the sideline in front of the Cowboys bench area. But Blank, who spent much of the time before the game in the middle of the field, didn’t make an attempt to move toward Jones on the Cowboys sideline.
It’s Blank’s fault, because billionaire baby Jerry Jones certainly couldn’t have walked across the field himself to make pleasantries. Hell, there might not have been a camera watching Jones when he did it, or at least one close enough for him to grab and wave over to witness the event.
Jones has yet to actually file his lawsuit, which sounds like a pretty flimsy one to begin with. But he’s been waging the fight in the press all week.
On Sunday morning, Peter King had a story citing ownership sources that said Goodell’s looming contract was largely incentive based and done so at the urging of Goodell himself. One source for the story even characterized Jones as trying to “overthrow” the commissioner.
A few hours later, ESPN reported that Goodell wanted $49.5 million in annual salary, a private jet, and lifetime health insurance for himself and his family, as relayed by anonymous sources.
It’s almost as if someone saw King’s story and decided to leak their own story designed to make Goodell and Blank’s compensation committee look like fools. Hmmm, wonder who that could be?
And now Jones has staffers making sure to get word out that it was Blank who was to blame for not shaking hands before the game.
We may have to suffer through our share of Thursday night poopfests and 49ers-Giants games, but at least we’ll have adult billionaires acting like toddlers to keep us entertained.
Welcome to the new NFL!