The NFL's Compensation Committee will hold a conference call Monday to discuss and further push ahead the proposed extension for commissioner Roger Goodell, sources confirmed to ESPN.
The conference call, first reported Saturday by The New York Times, comes after Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones voiced his displeasure about the contract extension that the committee has been discussing. The call also gives the committee a chance to do what it believes is right.
The committee will address Goodell's salary and compensation package. The last written counterproposal from Goodell, which was around the first of August, was seeking about $49.5 million per year, as well as the lifetime use of a private jet and lifetime health insurance for his family, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.
Joe Lockhart, the executive vice president of communications, denied that Goodell had submitted such a written counterproposal. He also said there have been several meetings or conference calls among the compensation committee before Monday's scheduled meeting.
The source who originally provided the information on Goodell's "only written counterproposal" of $50 million with the perks is standing firm on the matter. The source only clarified that Goodell's monetary proposal was for $49.5 million.
Goodell currently makes around $30 million per year.
One NFL owner told ESPN that there are "several owners in this league who don't make $40 million a year." The owner was referring to the salaries that owners take, which does not include the increase in valuations that each NFL franchise has undergone.
"That number for Roger just seems too much," the owner said. "It's offensive. It's unseemly."
One NFL executive told ESPN that the committee should pass a rule that prohibits Goodell from making more than the league's highest-paid player.
An attorney for Jones has said that owners are being misled about the Goodell negotiations, according to a letter obtained by ESPN that was sent late Wednesday to the league's counsel and shared with team owners and executives. Jones has threatened to file a lawsuit if Goodell's extension is completed without final review or approval from the league's 32 teams.
Brad Karp, the league's outside counsel retained for this matter, said in response that Jones was uninformed or deliberately misleading other owners, a source told ESPN.
There also are those in the league who believe the only way Goodell would not stay on as commissioner would be if he walked away. But according to sources who know Goodell, this will not happen.
"Roger is defiant," one NFL owner told ESPN this weekend. "He's not going to resign; he's not going to take a pay cut. He can stand to show some humility, but he won't listen to staff."
Those around Goodell do not believe he will leave the job, despite the protestations of a handful of owners.
"I don't sense that at all from him," one source who is regularly around Goodell told ESPN. "He has said he's committed to it. He feels there are important issues he has to deal with."
Yet there are issues that other owners aside from Jones are aware of, and they are wrestling now with how to best handle it.
"The problem is, no one is talking about games anymore," one owner told ESPN this weekend. "It's about concussions, Jones vs. Goodell, [Ezekiel Elliott's suspension], the anthem. No one is talking about football. It's just killing the game."