FRIDAY, AUGUST 23 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 D5
Elliott boldly trying to skip the
payday line amid a perfect storm
in which the Cowboys are due to
reward multiple members of
their young core. It can’t be Jones
trying to make an intricate
decision about the value of his
running back. It has to be Jones
adding his own brand of drama
to a complicated and sensitive
negotiation.
The defining moment was a
joke, literally. Years from now, no
matter the outcome, we will
remember that the contract
dispute between Elliott and the
Cowboys turned on a corny two-
word quip.
Jones meant for “Zeke who?”
to be an innocuous and
lighthearted interaction with
longtime Fort Worth Star-
Telegram reporter Clarence Hill.
He even laughed, looked at the
television cameras and said
afterward, “We’re just having
fun.” He then went on to give a
nuanced answer about how
rookie running back/Zeke stand-
in Tony Pollard could make a nice
complementary contribution to
an Elliott-led backfield.
The funniest joke of all is that
Jones, at least in his mind, truly
isn’t negotiating with Zeke. This
is much more of an internal
question for the owner. Does
Jones want to get his way? Or is
he willing to make concessions,
admit how essential Elliott is to
these Cowboys and pay a little
more to avoid a messy situation?
This preseason holdout may
seem like Elliott’s power play. In
reality, he doesn’t have that
much leverage because the
Cowboys have the ability to
possess his rights for two to four
more years, which minimizes
Elliott’s leverage.
Zeke who? Jones has the
control and power, as usual. You
just don’t know whether he
wants to use them to boost his
ego or his team.
[email protected]For more by Jerry Brewer, visit
washingtonpost.com/brewer.They are low-key treasures on
Jerry’s team.
Jones is an unapologetic
owner. He might be the last of his
kind. There’s a movement in
sports right now to eliminate the
word “owner” in describing the
big boss of a franchise. It’s an
especially sensitive subject for
players, many of whom don’t like
the thought of being owned.
Governor has become a more
politically correct title.
Let me be clear: Jones doesn’t
govern. He owns. All is cool until
you challenge him.
Elliott can negotiate a good
deal with Jones. He probably
can’t win a deal, however, not
with two years remaining on his
contract, not with the franchise
tag available to use after that, not
with the Cowboys needing to
squeeze extensions for so many
gifted young players into their
salary cap.
Smith got his money this
week: $35.5 million guaranteed
on a five-year contract. That
leaves Prescott, wide receiver
Amari Cooper and Elliott all
hoping to get paid. In
announcing Smith’s deal, the
Cowboys sent a statement to the
others. Jones mentioned it
outright: With the Smith
extension, there is “less pie left”
for his teammates. The Cowboys
have the flexibility and desire to
do lucrative deals with the
remaining three players. But if
Prescott, Cooper or Elliott have
any designs on resetting the
market at their positions, it’s
unlikely Jones will play ball.
This is all typical team
posturing. No situation, not even
Elliott’s, seems dire. But Jones is
76, growing even more set in his
ways and starting to believe the
Cowboys have a system that is
greater than any single
individual. And in the Cowboys’
grandiose state, constant
speculation makes these contract
disputes feel bigger and crazier
than most.
It can’t just be Elliott holding
out for more money. It has to beto-back Super Bowls, partly
because he thought the coach
received too much credit for
Dallas’s success.
For Elliott, the challenge isn’t
just to make a persuasive case
that the value of his
extraordinary talent and
production exceeds the
diminishing appreciation for
NFL running backs. The
challenge isn’t just to quantify
his worth. Unless he wants to
force his way out of Dallas — and
that would be foolish given all
the franchise has done to feature
him on the field and assist him
off it — Elliott also must accept
that his star power is limited in
Jones’s franchise. As long as
Jones is the owner, it will be his
team.
There’s a reason the Cowboys
rarely have had players who
could steal the spotlight from
Jones since the glory days of the
1990s. There’s a reason Bill
Parcells lasted just four years
while Jason Garrett has been the
coach for nine. Garrett survived
three straight 8-8 seasons at the
start of his tenure. He’s not
particularly charismatic, and he
has won just two playoff games,
but he’s pliable. Jones can do it
his way. Garrett will fall in line.
Under Jones, the Cowboys
have continued their solid track
record for finding market
inefficiencies during the draft.
They still take more character
risks than most teams could
stomach. They take injured
players, such as linebacker
Jaylon Smith, and watch them
become stars. Their past two
franchise quarterbacks, Dak
Prescott and Tony Romo, were
overlooked gems.
It’s not that Jones or the
Cowboys are anti-star. They have
made plenty of investments that
show otherwise. But there is
ample evidence to suggest that
Jones loves a good find and he
appreciates players who feel
indebted to the Cowboys for
believing in them. Many of those
misfits are exceedingly loyal.willingness to fight even NFL
Commissioner Roger Goodell to
try to keep him on the field, is
welcome to return to the
Cowboys at a price that helps the
Cowboys reward all of their core
young players. Zeke, the holdout
whose agent called Jones’s joke
disrespectful and who wants a
paycheck reflecting his
irreplaceable impact on the
Cowboys’ offense, should
consider himself persona non
grata.
“I’ve earned the right, with
Zeke, to joke,” Jones told
reporters. “Period.”
And in case he wasn’t heard
the first time, Jones added: “Let
me be real clear about it. I’ve
earned that right to joke.”
After those words, the
business negotiation is starting
to feel personal.
For Jones, it’s always a little
personal. It’s always about more
than the money. Control and
power are his addictions; his
billions guarantee he will never
run low on either. For as affable
as Jones can be, for as essential
as he is to NFL journalism
because he often inserts a foot in
his Hall of Fame mouth, he is an
old-school owner. You can call
him Jerry and think there are no
walls. But the relationship only
works if all parties, especially his
players, stay in what he considers
their place.
You saw it two years ago in the
rigid manner that he dealt with
his team during the league’s
protest controversy, sticking out
his chest and announcing that he
would refuse to play anyone who
made a demonstration during
the national anthem. You saw it
in his fight with Goodell over
Elliott’s six-game suspension in
2017, a situation that turned so
ugly that Jones attempted a
mutiny against Goodell and held
up the commissioner’s contract
extension. You saw it 25 years ago
when Jones ousted Jimmy
Johnson, who had just won back-BREWER FROM D1ASSOCIATED PRESSXander Schauffele was six shots
behind before he ever hit a shot
Thursday in the new scoring for-
mat for the Tour Championship in
Atlanta. His goal was to keep his
head down, play good golf and see
where he stood to par at the end of
two days.
The TV cameras following his
every move on the back nine at
East Lake were the first hint it was
going well.
A leader board on the
18th green confirmed it.
“I saw I was in first,” he said.
“Happy with the day.”
Schauffele didn’t come serious-
ly close to a bogey in a 6-under-par
64 that was the best score of the
opening round by two shots. It was
only worth a share of the lead with
Justin Thomas and Brooks Koep-
ka in a Tour Championship where
players started with better scores
to par than others depending on
their place in the FedEx Cup.
Thomas, who started at 10 un-
der and with a two-shot lead as the
No. 1 seed, still led despite having
trouble finding the fairway. That
was the least of his problems on
the back nine. He hit pitching
wedge into the water for a double
bogey and missed a pair of three-
foot putts for a 70.
Instead of being six shots be-
hind Schauffele, who started at 4
under as the No. 8 seed, Thomas
was tied for the lead. Koepka, the
No. 3 seed who started three shots
behind, birdied three of his last
four holes for a 67 to join them at
10 under.
“It’s weird on Thursday to be
three back after a couple of holes,”
Koepka said of the start. “It’s nice
to close that gap on Day 1.”
Rory McIlroy, five shots behind
at the start as the No. 5 seed, had a
66 and was one shot behind at
9 under going into the second
round.
Over the next three days, it
should look and feel like a normal
tournament.
The score to par is all that mat-
ters in deciding who wins the Fed-
Ex Cup and the $15 million prize.
And after one day, it was setting up
to be a shootout. The top five
players were separated by five
shots at the start, and that number
was at 12 players by the end of the
day.
That included Paul Casey, who
felt a new kind of anticipation for a
Thursday.
“After five holes, I wanted to see
scores. I never usually care about
what’s going on after five holes,”
said Paul Casey, who shot a 66. He
started eight shots behind as the
No. 16 seed and cut that margin in
half after one round.
“We’ve got a golf event now,”
Casey said. “This is kind of cool.
Looks like it’s working.”
LPGA TOUR: Annie Park
shot a 7-under 65 to take a one-
stroke lead in the opening round
of the CP Women’s Open in Auro-
ra, Ontario.
Defending champion Brooke
Henderson and fellow Canadian
Anne-Catherine Tanguay were
one shot back along with top-
ranked Jin Young Ko, Pajaree
Anannarukarn and Nicole Broch
Larsen.
Park hit 15 greens in regulation
and eagled the par-5 ninth. She
could play her way onto the U.S.
team for next week’s Solheim Cup
with a strong finish in Canada, but
she wasn’t looking that far ahead.
“I was just trying to break my
own personal record. Just wanted
to go to 9 under,” said Park, whose
best score on tour is a 63. “Tough
17th hole, tough break there, had a
bogey. Tried to make up for it on
the last one and just fell short.”
The top eight players in the
Solheim Cup points standings af-
ter the tournament will make the
U.S. team, with two additional
spots determined by the world
rankings and captain Juli Inkster
getting two wild-card picks. Park’s
easiest avenue to qualify for the
team would be via the rankings —
she is 42nd, one spot behind Aus-
tin Ernst.
EUROPEAN TOUR: Wade
Ormsby holed a 4-iron from
196 yards for eagle on his way to
shooting a bogey-free, 8-under 62
at the Scandinavian Invitation,
giving him the first-round lead in
the European Tour event in Goth-
enburg, Sweden.
The Australian’s eagle at the
par-4 14th hole came in an open-
ing-nine 28, after starting his
round at No. 10. He also rolled in
six birdies, including three
straight from the 16th hole.
Alexander Levy of France also
went out in 28 and made eight
birdies in total in his 63, leaving
him in a share of second place with
Joakim Lagergren of Sweden.GOLF ROUNDUPSchau≠ele
goes low,
shares lead
in Atlanta
FROM NEWS SERVICES
AND STAFF REPORTSThe Green Bay Packers and
Oakland Raiders played their pre-
season game Thursday night in
Winnipeg on a shortened field be-
cause of turf problems related to
moving the goal posts from a Ca-
nadian Football League setup to
an NFL configuration.
In the CFL, goal posts are at the
front of the end zone instead of at
the back of it, as they are in the
NFL. When officials examined the
turf before the game Thursday at
the spots from which the goal
posts had been removed, they de-
termined that the field conditions
were a safety issue for players.
“The field met the mandatory
practices for the maintenance of
surfaces for NFL games based on
inspection [Wednesday],” the
league said in a written statement.
“Concerns arose [Thursday] sur-
rounding the area where the Blue
Bombers’ goal posts were previ-
ously located.”
The 10-yard lines were treated
as the goal lines for the game.
Kickoffs were eliminated, with the
football simply being placed at a
designated spot to start the next
drive instead.
Both teams withheld starters
from the game. That included
Packers quarterback Aaron Rodg-
ers, who had been scheduled to
make his preseason debut in the
offense of Coach Matt LaFleur.
Rodgers sat out last week’s game
at Baltimore because of tightness
in his back. If he also is held out of
the preseason finale, his first game
action playing for LaFleur will be
in the regular season.
The Raiders won, 22-21.
The NFL has had some issues
with field conditions at non-NFL
stadiums in recent years. The
Rams-Chiefs game last season
that was scheduled to be played in
Mexico City instead was played in
Los Angeles because of issues with
the field.
— Mark Maske
PANTHERS: Quarterback
Cam Newton left Thursday night’s
preseason game against New Eng-
land in the first quarter with a foot
injury. He did not return.
The 2015 NFL MVP was playing
for the first time since Dec. 17,
when the team shut him down for
the last two games of the season
because of shoulder fatigue that
prevented him from throwing the
ball downfield. He had ar-
throscopic surgery in January and
did not play in the first two pre-
season games.
Newton appeared to be injured
when he was sacked for a loss of
eight yards by Adam Butler on
third and 10 from the Carolina 31.
It was one of two Patriots sacks
while Newton was in the game.
Kyle Allen took over at quarter-
back in the second quarter of
Carolina’s 10-3 loss in Foxbor-
ough, Mass.
BRONCOS: Drew Lock said
he’s not sure when his sprained
right thumb will allow him to
throw a football again, and Coach
Vic Fangio won’t rule out placing
the rookie quarterback on injured
reserve to start the season.
Lock jammed his thumb when
he was chased from the pocket
and tripped up by safety Marcel
Harris in Denver’s preseason loss
to the 49ers on Monday.
With Lock sidelined and starter
Joe Flacco sitting out Saturday
night against the Rams along with
most of the other starters, Kevin
Hogan will get the start and rookie
Brett Rypien will made his NFL
debut in relief, Fangio said.
STEELERS: Ray Sherman
will serve as the club’s interim
wide receivers coach following the
death of Darryl Drake. This is
Sherman’s second stint with the
Steelers. He served as the team’s
offensive coordinator in 1998 un-
der former head coach Bill Cow-
her.
The 67-year-old Sherman has
made 10 coaching stops in the NFL
during his lengthy career, last
serving as wide receivers coach for
the St. Louis Rams in 2012-15.
He will fill in for Pittsburgh
after Drake died Aug. 11.
CARDINALS: Arizona ac-
quired defensive lineman Bruce
Hector in a trade that sent safety
Rudy Ford to Philadelphia.
OBITUARY: Luke Laufen-
berg, the son of former Dallas
Cowboys quarterback Babe
Laufenberg and a tight end at
UTEP, died after a nearly two-year
battle with cancer. He was 21.
A former walk-on at Texas
A&M, Luke Laufenberg played at
Mesa Community College before
being diagnosed with Burkitt lym-
phoma after his only season at the
junior college in 2017.
— Associated Press
NFL NOTES
In Canada,
Packers,
Raiders are
left short
ASSOCIATED PRESSphiladelphia — Trace McSor-
ley will be too valuable for spe-
cial teams with performances
such as this.
The rookie quarterback threw
for 203 yards and two touch-
downs and also ran for a score,
helping the Baltimore Ravens
beat the Philadelphia Eagles,
26-15, on Thursday night for
their 16th straight preseason
win.
The game was stopped by the
NFL with 11:43 remaining in the
fourth quarter because of light-
ning after a short delay.Carson Wentz again sat out for
the Eagles, but several starters
saw their first action this sum-
mer and Josh McCown made his
debut after ending his brief re-
tirement to play his 18th season.
With Ravens starter Lamar
Jackson watching from the side-
line and Robert Griffin III still
out with a thumb injury, McSor-
ley solidified his roster spot.
The sixth-round pick from
Penn State also has been practic-
ing on special teams throughout
training camp.
McSorley threw touchdown
passes of 28 yards to Michael
Floyd and seven yards to Jaleel
Scott. He scored on a run from
four yards out.
The teams held joint practices
Monday and Tuesday, giving
both starting quarterbacks plen-ty of reps against the opposing
defense in a controlled setting.
McCown tossed a 20-yard
touchdown pass to J.J. Arcega-
Whiteside and a nine-yarder to
Alex Ellis in the third quarter.
McCown was signed after the
Eagles lost backup Nate Sudfeld
and No. 3 quarterback Cody
Kessler in the first two games.
Kessler returned from a concus-
sion suffered last week and was 3
for 5 for 34 yards.
Arcega-Whiteside’s touch-
down catch was the first of the
preseason for the rookie out of
Stanford. Arcega-Whiteside is
the first player born in Spain
drafted by an NFL team.
Baltimore’s starting defense
has not allowed a point on eight
of 10 drives this preseason. The
Ravens haven’t faced a startingquarterback.
There were 24 penalties, in-
cluding 17 in the first half. The
Eagles committed 15.
The game saw the return of
Ravens wide receiver Marquise
“Hollywood” Brown, who was
back on the field for the first time
since a Lisfranc injury at the end
of his junior season with Okla-
homa. The Ravens drafted
Brown 25th overall. He caught
three passes for 17 yards.
For the Eagles, running back
Corey Clement and safety Rod-
ney McLeod played for the first
time since season-ending knee
injuries a year ago.
The Ravens haven’t lost a
preseason game since Sept. 3,
2015, against the Atlanta Fal-
cons. They have won 35 of the
past 44.Ravens’ McSorley looks special at QB
RAVENS 26,
EAGLES 15MICHAEL PEREZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Trace McSorley, who has practiced with the special teams during Ravens camp, threw for two touchdowns and ran for one Thursday.JERRY BREWERNo matter how good you are, Dallas is Jerry’s world