Report: Jerry Jones Among 17 Owners Against Roger Goodell Contract Extension

Jerry Jones and 16 other NFL owners reportedly spoke on a conference call in an effort to find out whether they could "hijack" a contract extension for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, according to Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter of ESPN.

"You don't get to have this many messes over the years like Roger has had and survive it," one owner said Thursday.

Added another owner: "Maybe Arthur [Blank, the head of the compensation committee] and that committee think they're on track. But they have a lot more resistance than they counted on—and maybe they don't know how the resistance is growing as we speak."

Goodell's tenure has certainly been controversial, from the league's handling of issues like CTE and domestic violence among its players to questions about the commissioner's broad authority over discipline and the latest debate about player protests against police brutality and racial discrimination during the national anthem.

As Mortensen and Schefter wrote, "there is an unrest among a certain group of owners that were on this week's conference call that are unhappy with a wide range of issues ranging from Goodell's performance to certain NFL employees to the league's Los Angeles situation and to other issues that date back to the Ray Rice situation and beyond."

The reporters added that an extension for Goodell was expected to be done in September, but Jones has continued to obstruct those efforts. While Jones would need to assemble a group of 24 owners to oust Goodell as commissioner, it's clear that there is unrest. 

"That was our recurring theme, that there's no leadership," one executive told Mortensen and Schefter. "Everyone there [in the league office] is trying to win the latest news cycle, and there's no long-term vision. It's just, 'How can we minimize the bad headlines, maximize the revenue and move on to the next day?' And there's an increasing frustration to that approach."