From the people that brought you players-only meetings comes the equally exciting owners-only meetings. As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reports, one session of the league meetings in Arizona last week included only club owners. Florio describes such meetings as unusual, but not unprecedented, and he lays out some of the discussions that took place behind closed doors.
Unsurprisingly, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was the ringleader of the conference, as he knows from experience that most of the membership will choose to remain silent in those situations. Jones was the one who introduced topics about which he and other owners have questions and concerns.
One of those topics was commissioner Roger Goodell‘s salary. Currently, a subset of the owners, the Compensation Committee, handles the determination and negotiation of Goodell’s pay, and a few owners believe that increased involvement from the rest of the membership would be beneficial to the league, which is a nice way of saying that they believe Goodell’s salary is too high. The owners also discussed a potential succession plan for the commissioner’s job, but a source close to Jones indicated that Jones remains committed Goodell, which, given Jones’ influence over the rest of the owners, is good news for the incumbent.
That does not mean, however, that Jones does not have concerns. For instance, he wants the league to drop its prohibition on marijuana use, although such a policy change would have to come out of labor negotiations and would require the players to make one or more concessions to the league (Jones, of course, has seen a number of his own players be hit with suspensions under the league’s substance-abuse policy in recent years).
Jones also wants the league to terminate its practice of investigating off-field misconduct. The NFL stepped up its vigilance in that regard following the Ray Rice incident, but Jones, who has seen firsthand the inefficiencies of such investigations during the Ezekiel Elliott saga, believes that the league may be biting off more than it can chew. Perhaps realizing that those sentiments may result in a public opinion backlash, an NFL spokesman said the NFL continues to maintain its commitment to pursuing investigations that are relevant and meaningful, and that the league office always looks to be efficient when conducting investigations.
For the time being, it does not appear as if any dramatic changes to the league’s operations are imminent. However, one source indicated that owners-only meetings may take place on a more regular basis moving forward.