Just Admit it, Jerry: You Paid $250,000 to Flip Someone Off

Dallas Cowboys’ Owner and General Manager Jerry Jones will spend a ton of cash on things he really wants. The headline-seeking billionaire reportedly spent more than $200 million on his super yacht, the Bravo Eugenia, in 2018. In the recently released Netflix hit docu-series chronicling his history as the top Cowboy, Jones talks at length about his 1995 decision to pay star cornerback Deion Sanders $35 million at a time when that amount was nothing short of unheard of. 

It seems the freewheeling, cash-throwing ways of Jones are still alive and well. On Wednesday, it was reported that Jones was fined $250,000 by the NFL for making an obscene gesture at fans attending Sunday’s Cowboys game against the New York Jets in New Jersey. 

In short, Jerry Jones paid for the privilege to flip the bird at some folks. 

“That was unfortunate. That was kind of an exchange with our fans out in front of us,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan. “There was a swarm of Cowboys fans out in front — not Jets fans, Cowboys fans. The entire stadium was brimming with enthusiasm of Cowboys and certainly late in the game.”

But look at the video that has been circulating online. From a luxury suite at the stadium, Jones can be seen standing and looking out into the crowd as he gives a thumbs-up gesture, takes a breath, and then offers up the middle finger, clear for the world to see. 

He wasn’t using the offensive digit to scratch his chin or to adjust his sunglasses. Much like Johnny Cash famously did during rehearsals for his 1969 concert at the San Quentin prison, the Cowboys owner extended his arm, looked intently toward someone and shot the bird into the sky. Period. 

It’s preposterous to see Jones interact with the crowd below him in the video shared by Cowboys beat writer Jon Machota and fall for Jones’ claim of it being an “inadvertent” gesture. To be fair, if an NFL owner were to do something so hilarious without meaning to, it would be Jones. His press conferences and interviews are filled with confusing, misspeaks that render more unintentional comedy than his team typically does. But to our eyes, that wasn’t the case here. 

And you know what? That’s O.K. An owner flipping off a fan who was probably either flipping him off or saying something stupid to him is the least offensive thing Jones has been accused of in recent years, after all. Don’t confuse our calling him out on what we think is a lie with pearl clutching. In fact, allow us to use this platform to call for Jones to flip more people off. It makes for a funny video. 

But just as Jones so boldly, brazenly spends untold millions on new star players and helicopters and yachts, we wish he’d be as bold and honest in saying that $250,000 for the small, fleeting satisfaction of flipping off a loudmouth at a game was more than worth it to the man who runs the most valuable sports franchise in the world.