NFL files suit against Cowboys' Jones

The Associated Press

NEW YORK Ÿ The NFL escalated its war with Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys on Monday, suing the team for more than $300 million over agreements with Nike and Pepsi the league described as ''ambush marketing deals.''

The suit was filed in federal court in New York following a unanimous vote of the five club executives who make up the executive committee of NFL Properties, the league's marketing arm.

The league wants the court to order Jones and the Cowboys to stop violating their agreements with NFL Properties regarding club marks and logos, and prevent them from signing additional deals that undermine existing NFL sponsorship or licensing contracts.

''The Cowboys have made it clear through their recent actions and statements that they want to change the basic manner in which NFL Properties does business,'' said Roger Headrick, executive committee chairman of NFL Properties.

Jones, who is to soon announce another independent deal with American Express, was on his way to Atlanta for an NFL owners meeting Tuesday. When asked about the lawsuit, he told ABC Sports, ''We will prevail.''

This season, the Cowboys have clashed with the league by selling Pepsi rather than the league-sanctioned Coca-Cola at Texas Stadium. In signing with Nike, the team ignored Players Inc., the licensing arm of the NFL Players Association.

Estimates have put the value of each deal around $2.5 million a year, Pepsi for 10 years and Nike for seven years.

Both cases are aimed at the league's revenue sharing policy in which revenue from television, properties and even gate receipts are shared. NFL executives have long contended they avoided the troubles besetting other sports by equalizing revenues between small and large markets. (Green Bay, for example, gets the same national television money as does New York or Chicago.)

This suit, however, deals only with properties. The Cowboys' apparel amounted to 24 percent of the league's total properties revenue, and Jones has suggested teams market their own apparel. But the suit takes aim at that.

''The effect of the recent ambush marketing deals signed by Jerry Jones has been to undermine existing NFL Properties sponsorships and contracts that were made on behalf of all 30 clubs and to inhibit NFL Properties' future arrangements,'' Headrick said.

''Our sponsors and licensees keep asking us whether we are representing all 30 NFL clubs, or just 29 in competition with the Cowboys. We asked the court to make it clear that the Cowboys should not take any further action that damages the relationship between NFL Properties and its current and future licensees and sponsors.''

The executive committee of NFL Properties is made of Headrick (Minnesota Vikings), Steve Gutman (New York Jets), Dan Rooney (Pittsburgh Steelers), Taylor Smith (Atlanta Falcons) and Wayne Weaver (Jacksonville Jaguars).

Rooney, attending the Steelers-Dolphins game in Miami on Monday night, said he would not comment until the owners' meeting.

Jones announced and promoted the deal with Nike during the team's opener Sept. 4 against the New York Giants.

''It was a meaningful thing to our fans and NFL fans join with Nike,'' Jones said that night. ''I thought it very appropriate to announce it around our opening game. Anyone criticizing is trying to deflect positives of it.''

Jones' NFL colleagues assailed him immediately.

''He enjoys the maverick image,'' said Carmen Policy, president of the San Francisco 49ers. ''But the man's gone too far, he's out of control. There is money and there is class and the two aren't synonymous.''

Policy's interest in the Nike deal was significant because it may have helped Jones sign cornerback Deion Sanders, a major Nike client. The Cowboys and 49ers battled for Sanders, the baseball player-cornerback who helped San Francisco win the Super Bowl last season.

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