Written by Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham at ESPN.com
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has threatened to sue the National Football League if a contract extension for commissioner Roger Goodell is approved by the league’s compensation committee, sources told Outside the Lines.
A team owner and a team executive told Outside the Lines that Jones has hired David Boies, the famed New York lawyer who represented Vice President Al Gore in the deadlocked 2000 presidential election — and who led the NFL’s court case during a dispute over the 2011 collective bargaining agreement negotiations. Boies has previously represented Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who now faces numerous sexual assault allegations.
The New York Times first reported the development on Wednesday.
The sources told Outside the Lines that Jones has been exploring the lawsuit option through Boies, if Goodell’s contract is extended after the 2018 season as is being considered. Boies also represents DraftKings, the daily fantasy company in which Jones was an early investor.
Jones has not identified the grounds of such a lawsuit, but one source said Jones is exploring whether a requirement that two-thirds of owners must approve a commissioner’s contract could be increased to three-fourths of owners. Another source said that Boies also might be asked by Jones to produce a report showing the negative economic impact that Goodell’s major decisions, including player discipline, have had on clubs.
A lawyer who has close ties to the NFL praised Boies’ skill as a lawyer to OTL but said that his hiring was likely a “scare tactic” because there doesn’t appear to be an obvious legal challenge to Goodell’s contract negotiations, a process that Jones voted in support of earlier in the year. Jones “probably knows he doesn’t have a strong claim,” the lawyer said.
Neither Jones nor Boies could be immediately reached for comment. NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart declined comment.
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