World's Most Valuable Sports Franchise Screws Player Out of $250K

by Julian Spivey

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Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was up to his usual bullshit as the NFL’s regular season came to an end on Sunday (Jan. 5) with the Cowboys playing the Washington Commanders in a meaningless game for both teams. The Cowboys had already been eliminated from the postseason, and the Commanders had wrapped up an NFC Wild Card berth.

It wasn’t a meaningless game for Cowboys quarterback Cooper Rush, though. Rush, who took the quarterback position over earlier in the season when starting QB Dak Prescott went down with an injury, had a stipulation in his contract that he would receive $500,000 in incentives if he played 55 percent of the Cowboys offensive snaps this season.

Going into Sunday’s game, Rush had played 52.5 percent of the team’s offensive snaps. Had he played most of the game, he likely would’ve eclipsed the 55 percent mark. He had already earned an extra $250,000 for reaching the 45 percent mark.

Rush had played in 12 games this season and started eight following Prescott’s season-ending hamstring injury in Week 9. There was no reason to believe Rush wouldn’t be the starter for the season's final game. But come Sunday, he was benched in favor of his backup, the team’s original third-string QB, Trey Lance — the same Lance who threw seven passes all season in mop-up duty at the end of two blowouts.

There’s little doubt as to why this change took place at quarterback. The Cowboys and Jones found a way to save themselves $250,000.

Yes, Jones, who’s worth a reported $16.1 billion, according to Forbes, apparently became the billionaire he is by being a cheap bastard. His team, valued as the most valuable sports franchise in the world at $5 billion by Forbes, apparently felt the need to save that minuscule amount when in the grand scheme of what it’s worth.

The worst part of it all is the lying bullshit Jones told reporters after the game on Sunday when asked about Rush’s contract incentives.

“I didn’t even know about it,” Jones said. “I didn’t even know about it until I read about it, so nothing at all.”

Does anybody believe this?

Keep in mind that Jones isn’t merely the owner of the Cowboys. He’s also the team’s general manager. It would seem incredibly unlikely for a general manager not to know the terms of a contract for one of the team’s players, as among the duties of a GM are managing free agent transactions, contract negotiations and team finances.

So, not only does Jones and the Cowboys look cheap by intentionally keeping a player from a bonus, but Jones also comes off as a liar, or at least someone ignorant of things he should be knowledgeable about.

Maybe Jones can spend the offseason reviewing the ins and outs of the team’s contracts and finances. He’s going to have all this extra time, after all.