FRISCO, Texas (AP) โ The NFL said Tuesday it has fined Jerry Jones $250,000 for an obscene gesture toward fans at MetLife Stadium that the Dallas owner said was โinadvertentโ and intended for fans of the Cowboys, not the New York Jets.
The incident came late in Dallasโ 37-22 victory on Sunday. Jones said on his radio show Tuesday he intended to flash a โthumbs upโ for celebrating Cowboys fans. Jones is considering an appeal, league spokesman Brian McCarthy said.
Jones was caught on a video that went viral smiling widely as he pointed toward fans before briefly flashing the gesture.
โThat was unfortunate. That was kind of an exchange with our fans out in front of us,โ Jones said on 105.3 The Fan. โThere was a swarm of Cowboys fans out in front โ not Jets fans, Cowboys fans. The entire stadium was brimming with enthusiasm of Cowboys and certainly late in the game.โ
Jonesโ gesture came soon after Dak Prescottโs fourth touchdown pass gave the Cowboys a 37-14 lead with 4:31 left in the game.
โ(The gesture) was inadvertent on my part because that was right after we made our last touchdown, and we were all excited about it,โ Jones said. โThere wasnโt any antagonistic issue or anything like that. I just put up the wrong show on the hand. That was inadvertently done. Iโm 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 โthumbs up,โ and basically pointing at our fans because everybody was jumping up and down excited.โ
Late in the 2023 season, the NFL fined Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper $300,000 for throwing a drink at fans in Jacksonville.
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This story has been corrected to show that the fine for David Tepper came late in the 2023 season, not the 2024 season.
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