Cowboys Owner Claims Gesture Was 'Inadvertent'

The NFL says it has fined Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones $250,000 for an obscene gesture toward fans at MetLife Stadium. Jones says his gesture toward fans late in a 37-22 victory over the New York Jets was inadvertent and he had to give celebrating Cowboys fans a "thumbs up," not flip them off.

• Jones was caught on a video that went viral smiling widely as he pointed toward fans before briefly flashing the gesture Sunday. He said on his radio show Tuesday he was interacting with Dallas fans, not Jets fans, the AP reports.
• "That was unfortunate. That was kind of an exchange with our fans out in front of us," Jones said on 105.3 The Fan. "There was a swarm of Cowboys fans out in front—not Jets fans, Cowboys fans. The entire stadium was brimming with enthusiasm of Cowboys and certainly late in the game."

• "(The gesture) was inadvertent on my part because that was right after we made our last touchdown, and we were all excited about it," Jones said. "There wasn't any antagonistic issue or anything like that. I just put up the wrong show on the hand. That was inadvertently done. I'm not kidding. If you want to call it accidental, you can call it accidental. But it got straightened around pretty quick. I had a chance to look at it. It got straightened out pretty quick, but the intention was 'thumbs up,' and basically pointing at our fans because everybody was jumping up and down excited."
• On social media, fans were not convinced by Jones' explanation, Newsweek reports. One fan wrote: "Ah come on Jerry just own it!" Christian D'Andrea at For the Win writes that Jones' excuse is "probably a lie in order to save some cash"—but his decision-making has been so "shaky" in recent years that it might just be true. "The Dallas Cowboys are run by a man who does not know his middle finger from his thumb," D'Andrea writes. "This is not speculation. This comes from the source himself."