Jerry Jones’ fight with Roger Goodell is going to cost him ‘millions of dollars’

Remember the feud between Roger Goodell and Jerry Jones last season? It’s not over. Jones will now be charged “millions of dollars” for his role in the conflict, according to Ken Belson of the New York Times.

Goodell has the support of several league owners, fed up with Jones’ antics from when he tried to derail efforts to work out a contract extension for the commissioner last fall. The charges aren’t a fine, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, but a reimbursement of more than $2 million in charges that were incurred by teams as a result of Jones’ actions.

Jones has asked for a hearing to appeal the reimbursement according to The Washington Post, and per NFL Network’s Judy Battista, that hearing will take place next week. Goodell, or someone he appoints, would rule on the appeal.

Here’s what happened to bring Goodell and Jones to this point.

The league completed an investigation into domestic violence allegations raised against Elliott by a former girlfriend. Goodell suspended Elliott for six games, which is the baseline suspension for a first-time offender under the NFL’s domestic violence policy.

Elliott fought the suspension. The NFL’s arbitrator upheld the suspension on appeal, and Elliott and the NFLPA took it to court. After many hearings and twists and turns and stays and reversals, the suspension was ultimately upheld. Elliott sat out Weeks 10 through 15.

Jones was reportedly unhappy with Goodell for suspending Elliott. He called it “an unforgivable breach” of his trust.

“I’m gonna come after you with everything I have,” Jones said, according to ESPN’s Seth Wickersham. “If you think Bob Kraft came after you hard [for Deflategate], Bob Kraft is a p---y compared to what I’m going to do.”

Jones claimed that Goodell assured him that Elliott would not face discipline from the league. Joe Lockhart, an NFL spokesman, said that was absolutely not the case. And then this thing really escalated.

And he pissed off a lot of his peers along the way. Jones openly battled with compensation committee chairman Arthur Blank as Jones did his best to keep the committee from locking up Goodell long-term.

Jones said he was doing it because he wanted Goodell to have “unprecedented accountability” to NFL owners. He wanted the full ownership group to have a vote on Goodell’s extension instead of the six-member compensation committee being permitted to seal the deal on their own. But in May, all 32 owners — including Jones — voted unanimously to leave that responsibility solely in the hands of the compensation committee.

The situation made Jones angry enough that he threatened to sue the league and the compensation committee. He claimed that Blank wasn’t forthcoming about the details of the extension the committee planned to offer Goodell, according to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen.

As a result of his threats to sue, Jones was removed as an ad hoc, non-voting member of the compensation committee. The committee sent Jones a cease and desist letter. And when the Falcons played the Cowboys in Atlanta in Week 10, Jones and Blank didn’t shake hands or say a single word to each other.

It all backfired for Jones. Goodell still got a five-year, $200 million extension. Elliott served his suspension. Now, Jones will be ponying up a hefty amount to reimburse funds compensation committee members spent on their own legal defense and money the league spent defending its suspension of Elliott, according to Belson’s report.