Advertisement

Cowboys' Jerry Jones apologizes after racially insensitive video surfaces

Friday was not the best day for Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. (AP)
Friday was not the best day for Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. (AP)

It hasn’t been the best day for Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones. Early Friday, ESPN posted a thoroughly reported piece on the escalating feud between Jones and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the “all-out civil war” brewing between ownership and league executives.

Later on Friday, video surfaced of Jones from a few years ago in which he makes a racially insensitive comment. It was posted on TheBlast.com.

The video was taken four years ago, at the Melrose Hotel in Dallas. A male Cowboys fan, who is white, asks Jones to record a video for his fiancee.

Jones, his eyes heavy, looks at the camera and says, “Jennifer, congratulations on the wedding. Now, you know he’s with a black girl tonight, don’t you?”

The camera then pans to a black man, who ducks away from the shot, and back to Jones, who is laughing.

The 75-year-old Jones issued an apology through the team that said, “That comment was inappropriate. It’s not who I am, and I’m sorry.”

Jones’ “joke” – that the fan wasn’t just stepping out with another woman, but doing so with a black woman, which apparently would make it worse – wasn’t at all funny.

But the ESPN article alleges that after Goodell informed Jones that Dallas running back Ezekiel Elliott was receiving a six-game suspension for being accused of domestic violence (he was not charged), Jones told Goodell, “I’m gonna come after you with everything I have. If you think Bob Kraft came after you hard [after the deflate-gate decision], Bob Kraft is a [expletive] compared to what I’m going to do.”

So Jones’ verbal jabs can hit just about anyone.

The fan who shot the video told The Blast that he had recently shared it with his friends because of the current issue of race and the NFL, presumably because of player protests, made Jones’ comments relevant. The man said his friends were shocked to see the footage.

It was sent to The Blast because those involved thought it was important for NFL fans to see.