Jerry Jones says the Dallas Cowboys will prevail. The NFL's other 29 owners say they will see him in court.
The league went to court Monday, filing a $300 million suit against the Cowboys over Jones' agreements with Nike and Pepsi, which the NFL called "ambush marketing deals" that violate the NFL's revenue-sharing policies.It's the latest chapter in a feud that heated up during the first week of the season, when Jones struck an agreement with Nike, which was unable to obtain an NFL marketing license. Jones announced that deal with a press release headlined "Cowboys' owner takes on NFL again."
This time, the NFL is taking on Jones in preparation for today's meeting in Atlanta, where the owners were to be briefed on the suit against the Cowboys.
The suit was filed in federal court in New York following a unanimous vote of the five club executives who make up the executive committee of NFL Properties, the league's marketing arm.
The NFL wants the court to order Jones and the Cowboys to stop violating their agreements with NFL Properties regarding club markings and logos, and prevent them from signing additional deals that undermine existing NFL sponsorship or licensing contracts.
"The Cowboys have made it clear through their recent actions and statements that they want to change the basic manner in which NFL Properties does business," said Roger Headrick, executive committee chairman of NFL Properties and president of the Minnesota Vikings.
Jones, expected to soon announce another independent deal with American Express, said he was not surprised by the NFL suit, which he called a "dumb" move by a league prone to litigation.
"I'll win and will easily be able to defend any accusations," he told Dallas television station WFAA. "They've never seen my agreements. They really don't know what they consist of. And certainly anything I've done has been within the rules."
The Cowboys have clashed with the league by selling Pepsi rather than the league-sanctioned Coca-Cola at Texas Stadium. And by signing with Nike they ignored Players Inc., the licensing arm of the NFL Players Association.
Estimates have put the value of each deal around $2.5 million a year, Pepsi for 10 years and Nike for seven.
Both contracts are aimed at the league's revenue sharing policy in which money from television, properties and even gate receipts are shared. NFL executives have long contended they avoided the troubles besetting other sports by equalizing revenues of teams from small and large markets.
This suit, however, deals only with properties. Cowboys apparel amounted to 24 percent of the league's total properties revenue, and Jones has suggested teams market their own apparel. But the suit takes aim at that.
"The effect of the recent ambush marketing deals signed by Jerry Jones has been to undermine existing NFL Properties sponsorships and contracts that were made on behalf of all 30 clubs and to inhibit NFL Properties' future arrangements," Headrick said. "Our sponsors and licensees keep asking us whether we are representing all 30 NFL clubs, or just 29 in competition with the Cowboys."
The executive committee of NFL Properties is made up of Headrick, Steve Gutman (New York Jets), Dan Rooney (Pittsburgh Steelers), Taylor Smith (Atlanta Falcons) and Wayne Weaver (Jacksonville Jaguars).
Rooney, speaking after the Steelers-Dolphins game in Miami on Monday night, said Jones has gone too far.
"It's a total disregard for the situation that we have," he said. "It's one of those things. But we had to get something going to protect our interest."