Jerry Jones: Showing middle finger was inadvertent, intention was thumbs up
Video of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones flashing his middle finger at fans at MetLife Stadium circulated after Sunday's win over the Jets, but Jones said the message he was trying to send wasn't the one usually associated with the gesture.
The assumption was that Jones was getting into it with Jets fans sitting near his box toward the end of a comfortable Cowboys win and that assumption was included in a question to Jones during a Tuesday appearance on 105.3 The Fan.
“That was unfortunate," Jones said. "That was kind of an exchange with our fans out in front of us. There was a swarm of Cowboys fans out front. Not Jet fans, Cowboys fans. The entire stadium was brimming with the enthusiasm of Cowboys, certainly late in the game. That was inadvertent on my part. It was right after we made our last touchdown. We were all excited about it, there wasn’t antagonistic issue or anything like that. I put up the wrong show of hand. I’m not kidding. If you want to call it accidental, you can call it accidental. It got straightened around pretty quick, but the intention was thumbs up and pointing at our fans because everyone was jumping up and down excited.”
There were Cowboys fans visible in the video just under Jones' box and there didn't appear to be much rancor about the gesture from anyone in the shot, but it remains to be seen if the NFL — which once fined late Titans owner Bud Adams for a double middle finger display — will weigh in on the matter.