The NFL fined Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones $250,000 for making what appeared to be a brief, obscene gesture at fans during his team's recent road win against the New York Jets, officials said Wednesday.
In the final minutes of Dallas' 37-22 triumph at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, it looked like Jones flashed his right middle finger at fans seated near his box.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy confirmed the fine in a statement to NBC News on Wednesday, adding, "He has the right to appeal the discipline."
Jones, 82, said he wasn't gesturing angrily at Jets fans, but celebrating a final Dallas touchdown with a throng of nearby Cowboys fans.
The gesture was meant to be a thumbs up, Jones said, but accidentally came out the way it did.
"We were all excited, there wasn't any antagonistic issue or anything like that," Jones told Dallas radio station KRLD on Tuesday. "I just put up the wrong show of my hand. But that was inadvertent."
That explanation brought laughs from show hosts, forcing Jones to insist he was being earnest.
"I'm not kidding, it was, if you want to call it 'accidental,' you can call it accidental, but it got straightened around pretty quick," Jones said. "I've had a chance to look at it (and it) got straightened around pretty quick. But the intention was thumbs up and then basically pointing at our fans, because everybody was jumping up and down."
Videos of the incident appears to show Jones pointing with his middle finger for just a moment. He then put that away and extended his index finger toward fans.
Jones plans to appeal the league's fine, Cowboys Senior Vice President Tad Carper said Wednesday.
Jones isn't the first owner to be flagged for such unsportsmanlike conduct.
Late Tennessee Titans owner Bud Adams was hit with a $250,000 penalty in 2009 after using both hands to flip birds at Buffalo Bills fans.
Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper was fined $300,000 for throwing a drink at a Jacksonville Jaguars fans in 2023.
