In November, Jerry Jones said, “I probably have a much better relationship with the commissioner of the Salvation Army than I do right now with the commissioner of the NFL.”
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones became the latest prominent member of the sports world to give his support of legal sports betting this week. Jones said in an interview with Dallas sports radio station 105.3 The FAN, “I don’t see that gaming compromises the integrity of the game.”
The Cowboys’ owner was answering questions about an interview the previous day by new Houston Rockets owner, Tilman Fertitta, who gave his support to legal sports betting in an interview with Bob Ley of ESPN’s Outside The Lines.
Tilman Fertitta, a Houston restaurant entrepreneur who owns casinos in Lake Charles, Louisiana, said during the longtime ESPN sports journalism program, “People just love to do it, so why shouldn’t the states make the money, why shouldn’t it be legalized? And I think everybody’s softening a little bit [on sports betting].”
Jerry Jones: Buddies with Chris Christie
Jerry Jones is one of those with a softer stance than NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who still opposes federally recognized legal sports betting. Jones is personal friends with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has led the campaign these past 5 years to repeal the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA).
Several times over the past few years, Chris Christie has sat in Jerry Jones’s luxury suite when the Cowboys played either the New York Giants or the Philadelphia Eagles. One might think Christie was trolling Giants or Eagles fans, but he is a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan. At one point, Christie and Jones were seen in a big hug after the Cowboys pulled off a last-minute victory.
New Jersey Sports Betting Case
Jerry Jones appears to see eye-to-eye with the New Jersey governor on sports betting, because Chris Christie’s state twice tried to legalize sportsbooks over the past few years, only to have the NFL, NBA, NHL, Major League Baseball, and NCAA sue the state. The first lawsuit spanned from 2012 to 2014, with the sports leagues beating Christie’s lawyers in court at the US District Court and US Appellate Court level. When New Jersey appealed those decisions to the US Supreme Court in 2014, the Supreme Court rejected its appeal.
Chris Christie and the New Jersey State Legislature changed their tactics. Taking advice given by one of the 3rd Circuit Court judges who ruled on their earlier case, New Jersey’s legislature repealed its 2012 sports betting legaliation bill. Instead, Christie ordered his attorney general to ignore a joint effort by Monmouth Park and William Hill USA to operate a land-based sportsbook on Monmouth Park’s grounds in Oceanport, New Jersey. Christie believed that New Jersey could not directly repeal the federal PASPA ban on sports betting, but if the state’s officials overlooked sports betting, the federal government could not commandeer its resources to enforce the PASPA ban.
That legal theory has been tested since October 2014, when the sports leagues sued New Jersey a second time — this time alongside Monmouth Park. Once again, New Jersey lost decisions in the District Court in Trenton and the 3rd Circuit Court in Philadelphia, along with a second appeal of the appellate court’s decisions in an “en banc” ruling. Once the en banc panel of judges came back with a 10-2 decision against New Jersey in August 2016, all seemed lost. Christie’s lawyers appealed to the US Supreme Court, against the advice of some politicians and several media outfits in New Jersey. This time, though, the US Supreme Court decided to hear the case, which was dubbed “Christie v. NCAA“. New Jersey’s lawyers argued that case on December 4, while a Supreme Court decision might come as early as April 2018.
Jerry Jones v. Roger Goodell
Of course, Jerry Jones might have been speaking out on legal sports betting in order to undercut his own league commissioner. This season, Jerry Jones has fallen out with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell over a 6-game ban for his star running back, Ezekiel Elliott, along with other issues like National Anthem kneel-downs and Goodell’s ongoing contract negotiations.
According to ESPN, throughout the spring of 2017, the NFL League Office played down the possibility of Ezekiel Elliott receiving a ban for domestic abuse allegations stemming from before the time he was drafted into the NFL. A June 2017 meeting among those who would decide Elliott’s fate barred the investigator in the case, who (after 4 questioning sessions) stated her opinion that Elliott’s accuser was not credible.
Ezekiel Elliott Suspension
Even a week before Elliott’s ban was announced in August 2017, at Jerry Jones’ Hall of Fame induction ceremony, league officials told Jones they did not believe the running back would be suspended. So when it was announced that Elliott would not only have a ban, but a 6-game ban, Jerry Jones was quite angry. Jerry Jones is 80 now, and the Dallas Cowboys are coming off their best season in a decade, so Jones saw the suspension undermining his best chance for a championship in 21 years. The Cowboys’ owner is quoted as having said, “I’m going to come after the commissioner with everything I have.”
After a season-long legal battle which seemed to distract Ezekiel Elliott and the team, while leaving the Cowboys without their star player in a key late-season playoff run in which the team has gone 2-3, Jerry Jones’ relationship with Goodell has deteriorated. He suggested to Dallas media he might file a lawsuit to stop Goodell from receiving a $40 million-a-year contract extension, though that resolve seems to have collapsed.
Jerry Jones therefore might be looking for ways to point out the commissioner’s inconsistency, or otherwise stake out a position in opposition to the NFL’s head executive. If so, then Jones might have picked a winning issue, because the NBA, MLB, and NHL commissioners all believe legal sports betting is only a matter of time.
