Cowboys owner Jerry Jones insists he wants to increase minority ownership in NFL… just days after discrimination lawsuit accused him of claiming ‘if blacks feel some kind of way, they should buy their own team’

Jerry Jones has said he wants to introduce more diversity to the NFL’s membership, just days after he was named in a racial discrimination lawsuit against the league.

According to a lawsuit filed by former NFL media journalist Jim Trotter, whose tenure with the league ended this year, Jones said in 2020: “If Black people feel that way, they should buy their own team and hire whoever they want to hire. ‘

However, Jones spoke Sunday about the importance of increasing minority ownership and said he met with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to discuss the issue.

“No one was participating any more than I was, and I really couldn’t afford it,” Jones said via ESPN.

“But I started it and as we watch and see – and we do see – the qualified potential buyers here who can get involved and that’s one way. It’s not the only way.

Jim Trotter speaks during a press conference ahead of Super Bowl LVII in February 2023

“(There are) multiple ways to address inequality,” he continued. There are several ways to do it. And I would certainly figure out a way to try to improve ownership in the minority area. And I’m all for it and I’m doing it. I’m working on it. I’m working on it.’

Jones also praised Commanders investor – and NBA legend – Magic Johnson as a “great ambassador,” saying he would “piggyback him to get him involved in the NFL.”

Currently, Shahid Khan of the Jaguars and Kim Pegula of the Bills are the only non-white majority owners of an NFL franchise (Pegula co-owns the Bills with her husband Terry).

After the Cowboys beat the Jets on Sunday, Jones said Trotter’s claims about what he said were “not accurate.”

“Jim is a friend and I think about him a lot,” Jones said. “I hate that we have a lawsuit and hopefully we’ll all address it, but the overall concern I think is just not justified.”

Trotter, who is black, claimed that his employment with NFL Media ended earlier this year after he challenged “Commissioner Roger Goodell … about the NFL’s record of racial discrimination and lack of diversity” at Goodell’s press conference before the Super Bowl.

Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula was also named in the lawsuit and alleged to have made racist comments about black NFL players.

Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula walks the sideline during a game against Miami in 2022

Trotter spent a conversation with a fellow NFL Media reporter, who was not identified.

That reporter spoke to Pegula in 2020 about the Black Lives Matter movement and the NFL’s social justice programs, and Pegula said, “If the Black players don’t like it here, they should go back to Africa and see how bad it is.” ‘

Pegula denied making the comment in a statement on Tuesday.

“The statement attributed to me in Mr. Trotter’s complaint is categorically false,” Pegula said. ‘I am shocked that anyone would associate me with such an accusation. Racism has no place in our society and I personally find it disgusting that my name is associated with this complaint.’