Jerry Jones denies negotiating with players, admits trying to persuade them to accept his offers

[Rowdy]

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Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has tried to negotiate the delicate question of whether he directly negotiates with players.

After Thursday night’s preseason finale, Jones addressed with reporters a dynamic that has been hiding in plain sight for years, but that finally has resulted in scrutiny of the Cowboys: The habit of circumventing agents to sell potential contract offers to players.

“Let me be real clear about something, I don’t negotiate with players,” Jones said, via Jon Machota of TheAthletic.com. “I share with players my thoughts about our team and about why I have the position I have. And I give them information as they’re assessing their decision.”

It’s a tomato-tomahto distinction. While Jones may not be exchanging proposals with players behind the backs of their agents, he admits to trying to sell the players on why they should accept the team’s offer in lieu of holding firm for more.

At the risk of getting technical on this, let’s go ahead and get technical on this. The folks at Webster’s define “negotiate” like this: “[T]o confer with another so as to arrive at the settlement of some matter.”

So, even if Jones isn’t directly trading numbers with players, he’s conferring with them in an attempt to arrive at the settlement of the contract discussions. In other words, he’s negotiating with them directly.

He has done it for so long that he now does it blatantly. It remains to be seen whether the NFL or the NFL Players Association will continue to allow it to happen, or whether the NFL and the NFLPA will do nothing. If nothing is done, this type of non-negotiation negotiating is something that every team should do. Because it apparently works.

Otherwise, Jones wouldn’t be wasting his time to do it.