It’s worth wondering whether he feels the same way this week. The NFL regular season is only a week old, but there’s no offseason when it comes to Cowboys controversy.
Even though his star-studded football team dominated the New York Giants on Sunday night in front of a national TV audience with a 40-0 victory, that’s not all people are talking about this week. It seems the 80-year-old billionaire finds himself embroiled in yet another problematic legal matter.
This week, Jim Trotter, a former reporter for the NFL Network, filed a discrimination and retaliation lawsuit against the NFL and NFL Media. Trotter’s suit alleges that Jones and Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula made racist comments in reference to official league business.
ESPN reported on how Jones is involved in the case on Tuesday, noting:
The lawsuit also mentions Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who allegedly told Trotter in 2020 that "If Blacks feel some kind of way, they should buy their own team and hire who they want to hire."
Jones' comment allegedly was made during a conversation with Cowboys executive Will McClay, who is Black, and Trotter about "why teams have so few Black decision-makers," according to the lawsuit. Trotter, who described the exchange as "rather contentious," said that Jones ultimately suggested that he and Trotter "should 'agree to disagree' about the NFL's issues with race."
As ESPN also reported, Jones denied Trotter’s allegations. "Diversity and inclusion are extremely important to me personally and to the NFL," Jones said. "The representation made by Jim Trotter of a conversation that occurred over three years ago with myself and our VP of Player Personnel Will McClay is simply not accurate."
In November 2022, Jones had to explain his role in a 1957 photograph showing a swarm of white North Little Rock High School students confronting Black teens as they were attempting to enter the school building at the beginning of integration. Standing a few rows back from the main action, Jones can be seen paying close attention to what The Washington Post described as the Black students “being jostled and repelled with snarling racial slurs by ringleaders of the mob.”
In an interview with the Post, Jones said he wasn’t one of the troublemakers preventing the new students from entering or shouting slurs at them. He says he was there to observe, against the wishes of his football coach, saying “I don’t know that I or anybody anticipated or had a background of knowing … what was involved. It was more a curious thing.”
Jerry Jones on the photo from the Washington Post showing Jones at a protest of integrating schools in Arkansas pic.twitter.com/7XZLEFkchz
— Curtis Sheehan (@ChillinwitCurt) November 25, 2022
The Trotter lawsuit was the second unfortunate legal development for Jones in as many weeks. On Sept. 7, the Texas Supreme Court denied an appeal from Jones that would’ve kept a 2020 lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault from going before a jury.
The personal injury lawsuit, filed in Dallas County, alleges Jones, without consent, “forcibly kissed the plaintiff on the mouth,” and “forcibly grabbed” the plaintiff at AT&T Stadium in September 2018. The Dallas Cowboys Football Club and the NFL are also listed as defendants.
Thomas Daniel Bowers, the plaintiff’s attorney, told the Dallas Morning News last week that Jones is “going to be held accountable. There’s no more dodging or delaying. It’s time for justice.” The daily also reported that Jones has denied the allegations, previously stating they are “malicious and hurtful.”
Enough about Jones. How about some of the other people who proudly wear the star? Although he’s no longer a Cowboys player, Hall of Fame wide receiver Michael Irvin has long attracted almost as much negative attention as Jones. The popular NFL Network analyst has reportedly settled his $100 million lawsuit against the Arizona Marriott hotel, which kicked him out prior to the Super Bowl earlier this year following an alleged sexual misconduct incident.
The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, but Irvin has been back on the airwaves in a big way in recent weeks, his NFL Network role having being revived after the network took him off the air. Irvin has also been added to FS1’s sports debate program, Undisputed, along with Keyshawn Johnson, another brash former NFL receiver.
