Cowboys owner Jerry Jones fined $250K for obscene gesture

Nick Harris, Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Oct 7, 2025

Published in Football

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FORT WORTH, Texas — Despite a commanding 37-22 win over the New York Jets on Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys’ trip to MetLife Stadium in Week 5 wasn’t entirely successful.

Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones was seen on a viral social media video giving a middle finger from his owners box suite to fans sitting below. After the NFL reviewed the incident, the league has fined him $250,000.

On his weekly radio show on 105.3 The Fan, Jones explained that the gesture was “inadvertent” and that he meant to give a thumbs-up to Cowboys fans that were below him.

“That was unfortunate,” Jones said. “That was a kind of exchange with our fans out in front of us. There was a swarm of Cowboy fans out in front, not Jet fans, Cowboy fans, and the entire stadium was brimming with the enthusiasm of Cowboys and certainly late in the game.

“[It] was inadvertent on my part, because that was right after we’d made our last touchdown, and we were all excited about it. There wasn’t any antagonistic issue or anything like that. I just put up the wrong show on the hand, but that was inadvertently done. I’m not kidding.”

It’s the third time on record that Jones has been fined by the league since he took over as owner in 1989.

In 2008, Jones was issued a $25,000 penalty for publicly criticizing officiating in a game that didn’t even involve the Cowboys, instead between the Chargers and Broncos.

In 2009, Jones was fined $100,000 for violating a leaguewide gag order on labor issues in the NFL by publicly stating that revenue sharing was “on its way out.” Commissioner Roger Goodell said Jones “crossed the line” with his statements.

This fine of a quarter-million dollars is more than his previous two fines combined. Jones is expected to appeal the decision.

“It was, if you want to call it accidentally, you can call it accidental,” Jones said. “But it got straightened around pretty quick. I’ve had a chance to look at it. 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.”

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