Al Michaels: Jerry Jones Has Some Support in the Ownership Ranks

Al Michaels joined Mike Francesa’s show on WFAN on Thursday, and the first 10 minutes was a fascinating discussion on the ongoing war between Jerry Jones and Roger Goodell. Michaels, by virtue of being one of the lead NFL announcers for decades, is pretty deeply connected with NFL owners, and Francesa asked him aside from the compensation committee — where John Mara, Dan Rooney, and Arthur Blank are Goodell BFFs — whether the Cowboys owner has any support behind the scenes in his crusade. Michaels answered:

"“Clearly he has support from Dan Snyder. We know that. Dan has been in Jerry’s camp all the way on a lot of things and he really thinks Jerry is the best of the best when it comes to figuring out how things work. The rest of the guys and women, I can’t speak for them, I just haven’t talked to too many, but I do know there are some owners who haven’t been particularly happy — not necessarily with Goodell’s compensation package — but the fact that the league has so many fires going in so many different places right now. Some of the owners are pretty upset that the focus has been taken away from the field and is on all the ancillary stuff. I’m sure there are some owners who are saying, “Wait a second. We have to do a better job as the league.” And that probably speaks to the fact that maybe Jerry does have some support. Whether he has the 14-15 that he says he has, I don’t know. Most of these owners are fairly circumspect about this right now because they don’t want to get involved publicly. They’re fairly private about how they feel about these things in terms of letting their emotions play out in the media. They want to keep it under wraps. But I would think he has some support. Again, to what extent can he hold this thing up? I don’t know. But I do know the last thing in the world the league would need is for Jerry to sue."

Snyder, it should be noted, was alongside Jerry Jones in getting punished by Goodell and the NFL for going over the cap in what was ostensibly an uncapped year in 2010, and there may be some lingering resentment from that.

It’s understandable that Michaels is being a little bit coy about exactly who else may be in their camp against Goodell, but the fact that he said publicly that he believes they’re not alone should speak volumes about the predicament that Goodell could be in.