the ESPN article. I know there's not a lot, you can say because
of the non-disclosure agreement. But why did you
choose to set?
Well, first of all, the cheerleaders are on a conic of
vital part of what our organization is the Dallas
Cowboys. And so we took these allegations very seriously.
We immediately
began a look-see, an investigation into
The situation, I can assure you that had we found
that it need. Be there would have been
firings or the would have been suspicions
as it turns out in the best interest of our cheerleaders
in the best interest of
the organization
in the best interest of our fans.
What we decided to do was
show the cheerleaders how seriously
we took these out.
Nations. And we wanted them to know that we were real serious.
And so the settlement
was the way to go.
It's Jerry Jones speaking to NBC DFW
on Friday night. I'm sorry, I'm not buying it. I'm not buying
it. I know how Corporate America works. I've handled
cases. I practiced law for nearly two decades. You don't
give away two point four million dollars for something
that didn't happen.
You don't do an internal investigation that comes to
the conclusion. There was no wrongdoing but you know what,
you know, what, even though they're making allegations,
that can't be substantiated, may be fabricated. Let's just
go ahead and give him two point four million dollars.
Let's just do it
because we respect them, even though they're making
allegations that we can. It didn't happen
and may have been exaggerated embellished or fabricated.
We're still going to give them two point four million dollars.
That makes no sense. That doesn't happen
in in a sane rational World. It does not occur and it screams
out that they did find something core Justified,
the payment. They don't make the payment, unless there's
a reason
to make the payment
and you don't regard. We just wanted to be nice to our
employees as a reason to make that kind of payment, you know,
agreed Mike. I mean, it's exist.
You know, under the old adage of where there's smoke. There's
fire. There's obviously, something there. You're right.
He's our guys. These are owners that we talk about all
the time. You know, Oleg Arc said, yeah, we won't spend money on,
you know, putting a chip in the ball doing anything. We,
you know, the proper inflation of the football Sky judge,
whatever. They're worried about that, but now we're going to
give off 2.4 million dollars or something that never really
happened. Everything was great. Of course that doesn't make
sense. Come on. Well, I mean, we know that
we know that and
again, I don't know where it stops. This is part of the NFL
Oleg. Turkey for sure. What bothers me is the next player
more than anything is just the fact that, you know, as
a player,
when you get involved in these things, of course, the NFL is
deeply involved in your life right away. They're all over
everything and they, you know, the they might wait a little
bit to gather some information, but they want to get involved
in your life and
and get facts of the, you know, the the case.
And then here just seems like a times with the owners when it
comes to them. It's just like, oh, that we believe you. So you
didn't do anything. Nothing bad. Okay fine.
We won't even, we won't even look into it. We believe you
and that's where I hate it. I mean, again, it's
the leadership effort of the NFL gets away with things that you
know, the players don't get away with it, just shouldn't
happen. That way. The leadership should be held to
the same standard.
I have three important points. I want to make and we're
running late on time. We have more things we need to do. But
let me just say this and I'll start with the personal conduct
policy.
There's an obligation to report anything that may constitute
a violation of the personal conduct policy. And this
Behavior alleged to be committed by former team, PR
executive Rich, Dalrymple. It falls obviously within
the personal conduct policy.
There's an obligation to report. I've asked the NFL
three times in the last week. Did the Cowboys report and they
have never responded. Usually, by the Time. They just say we
declined comment this time
three different emails.
No response to the first one.
No response to the second one. No response to the third one
conclude. What you will from that. Then there's a commitment
of the personal conduct policy that they will investigate.
But what have we heard from the NFL? They're not investigating
just
a few weeks. After Roger Goodell said as to
the Washington commanders, a team can investigate itself. They
don't want to investigate it. They don't want to go down
the rabbit hole. They don't want to find out.
For example, was rich down with poor acting alone or was. He
recording videos of cheerleaders, changing clothes
in their locker room. At someone else's behalf. They
don't want to find that out. They want it to go away.
They got enough pots boiling right now.
They don't want to mess with this one and so far, Chris
inexplicably it's working because they're getting very
little pressure or scrutiny from the outside. They're
getting some in Dallas,
again, the some in Dallas,
but I'm surprised
Nationally, this isn't a bigger deal and I'm surprised. There
aren't more people banging on the door of the league office
to answer our questions. Did they report this under
the personal conduct policy? Did you investigate it time? This
was seven years ago.
Why wasn't this investigated? Why wasn't it disclosed? Why
aren't you disciplining the Cowboys for failing to disclose
it? Why are you investigating it? Now to find out exactly
what happened. And meanwhile, they've got this non-disclosure
agreement.
We you saw the question that was posed to Jerry Jones with the.
Well, I know you can't say much.
Each, but you can, if you want to
you can waive the ndaa
if you want to. And by the way, if you look at what he said, it
probably did violate the NDA. He probably did say more than
he's allowed to say in the explanation that he gave,
but if he wanted the truth to come out, if he wanted
everybody to know, exactly what happened. All he's got to do is
wave the nda's to everyone. And the people would be allowed to
talk about what they experienced,
what they witnessed, and what they believe happened to them. And
they're just like, with Washington. They're hiding
something here, but unlike, Washington,
In turn. They're not getting the kind of pressure in this
case that they are in the other case
to come clean with what occurred. Yeah. You're right.
They're not. I mean the the Washington I think it's there's
so many issues and so many things that people have stayed
on it
again. But yeah,
the Cowboys for whatever reason.
Jerry Jones. I mean, we know
he's a power player in the NFL certainly.
I mean, he's definitely one of the top two or three owners in
the league as far as Powers concern and you know, to your
point Mike, I just I don't think they want to know,
I think right now the NFL is
still in the corner,
you know, a little wobbly and got their guard up because
they've taken some blows here over the last month and a half.
So they'd like to just not do anything with this and hope it
just goes away and they're going to hope Jerry and
the Jones family can fight their fight in Dallas
and that the national media won't jump on and something
else will happen that we all jump on and just forget about
it. That's what they're hoping. But that's just what it feels
like right now. The NFL is just like, damn, we've had too many
things.
We don't want to deal with this right now,
and it's the Cowboys for crying out loud.
It's the Dallas freaking Cowboys.
Where is the media?
Where are the people who should be banging the door down? And
I don't know when we're going to hear from the commissioner
next, probably late March, but how how in the world
has this managed to go? So underreported and under
scrutinized over the course of the last two weeks. I don't
know. Hopefully it will be hopefully we'll get to
the bottom.
Bottom of it because there are questions that need to be
answered.