Dean Blandino, NFL Vice President of Officiating, Appeared to Be Living it Up on Dallas Cowboys Party Bus
By Jason Lisk
Dean Blandino, the NFL Vice President of Officiating, may be in some hot water. Yesterday, TMZ ran a story on Stephen Jones, son of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, and his party bus arriving at a club in LA. (As an aside, Jay Glazer was clearly the first person off the bus heading into the club).
Tonight, Jason La Canfora adds another element to the video–Blandino appeared to be exiting the bus as well, and that has some people around the league in a bad mood.
"“That’s definitely Dean,” said an official with one club upon viewing the video, in which a man looking very much like Blandino, in jeans and a blue t-shirt, steps off the bus along with Stephen Jones, son of Jerry Jones, who serves as the Cowboys COO, EVP and director of player personnel, and who is a member of the highly influential competition committee. “Is the league trying to tell you it’s not him? What is the league telling you guys about it? That looks horrible. I can’t think of another owner in the league who wouldn’t be pissed off after seeing that.” "
The voiced concern among the anonymous league sources is the conflict of interest created by the head of officiating partying it up with one of the league’s owners. “So, should I have my owner take him to a strip club when he visits us?” one official told La Canfora. [Yes?]
Given the photos that came out early this week of Jerry Jones, this has been quite the week for America’s team. You probably don’t want to piss off the rest of your bosses at the expense of a night of creating photo opportunities with the ladies on the party bus.