When it comes to the Dallas Cowboys, we know that March brings about continuing anger over yet another season without a Super Bowl win and a head-scratching lack of activity in the NFL free agency period as division rivals load their teams with key pieces that seem to improve their teams significantly.
But that’s not all we can count on when it comes to Jerry Jones and the players with stars on their helmets. No other team in football, if not in all of American pro sports, can make headlines for off-the-field legal issues as often as the Cowboys can. Every offseason brings about a series of lawsuits, arrests, trials, settlements and scandals that make "America’s Team" the sort of saga that really doesn’t have an offseason. This year is no different.
You may remember that former Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin was suspended from his television duties for a number of months in early 2023 after he was accused of inappropriate conduct with a female hotel employee inside a Phoenix hotel. He sued the hotel chain, and the case was later settled. Just before the most recent season began, defensive lineman Sam Williams was arrested in Frisco and charged with possession of a controlled substance and the unlawful carrying of a weapon. It's always something.
Now comes word that on Monday that the team’s star QB, Dak Prescott, who is in line for a contract extension many observers predict will net the player $60 million per season, has filed a civil lawsuit against a woman he says was seeking to extort $100 million from him.
But that’s not all. To paraphrase a current TikTok trend, “We’re the Dallas Cowboys, of course we’re going to have a bunch of legal troubles to talk about at pretty much all times.” Here’s a rundown of the most recent legal issues for the team and its owner, since it can be hard to keep track of.
Jerry Jones Sexual Assault Trial
In February 2023, a Texas appeals court revived a 2020 lawsuit alleging Jones sexually assaulted a woman when he kissed her and forcibly grabbed her without consent during a 2018 Cowboys game at AT&T Stadium. Jones has denied the allegations, and in November, a judge set a court date for this month. Last week, however, that date was moved to next year, at the request of Jones’ legal team, WFAA reported.Jerry Jones Paternity Case
We didn’t say that the owner of the team wasn’t responsible for most of the off-field legal trouble because we’re not liars. The past couple of weeks have welcomed warring legal headlines for Jones thanks to a judge ordering him to take a paternity test. Jones and his legal team fought the order, but a different judge quickly upheld the decision. A woman named Alexandra Davis has claimed in court documents that Jones is her father, the result of an affair Davis claims the Cowboys owner had with her mother in Arkansas in the 1990s. Jones has denied the claims, although Davis says that Jones reached a settlement with her mother decades ago to make regular payments to her mother from a trust fund, as well as a series of larger, lump sum payments to Davis. It’s unclear when Jones will take the test, as his lawyers have again asked for the case to be dismissed.
Dak Prescott Extortion Lawsuit
On Monday, The Dallas Morning News reported that Prescott filed a civil lawsuit in Collin County against a woman the QB says has been attempting to blackmail him for $100 million to keep from reporting him for an alleged sexual assault in February 2017. “Prescott’s lawsuit includes a letter from the woman’s Arlington-based attorneys, Bethel and Yoel Zehaie, who say she is seeking the compensation in exchange for not disclosing or pursuing criminal charges in connection with a 2017 sexual encounter,” the Morning News report states. “The letter was sent to an email address associated with Prescott’s alma mater, Mississippi State, and later sent to his attorneys.”
In 2017, Prescott was in his second year as the Cowboys’ starting quarterback after leaving Mississippi State in 2016. He did get into a bit of trouble during his college years, including a DUI arrest for which he was found not guilty, but the QB has largely stayed out of problematic situations over the course of his now eight-year NFL career. On Feb. 29, Prescott and his girlfriend, Sarah Jane Ramos, announced the birth of their first daughter, MJ. Prescott denies the sexual assault accusation.
The Morning News also included a statement from Prescott’s attorneys, who said: “Mr. Prescott is forced to file the instant case to bring the truth to light, defend his new family, and promote our society’s collective progress in support of legitimate survivors of sexual assault.”
According to Pro Football Talk, the lawsuit includes language acknowledging that Prescott once had an intimate relationship with his accuser.
“At the time of the alleged assault, Mr. Prescott was single, and in fact, the timeline of events and [the accuser’s] actions in the seven years since the alleged assault are consistent with being involved with only consensual actions with Mr. Prescott,” the complaint alleges. “The fact that Mr. Prescott did not hear a single negative thing about this supposed interaction from nearly a decade ago is truly telling of Defendants’ motives.”
The Washington Post reached the alleged accuser’s attorney, Bethel Zehaie, who offered the newspaper a statement that “Dak is a liar and a rapist.”
Prescott is seeking damages of $1 million, which according to The Post, Prescott “would donate any money collected from his legal action to a charitable foundation created by Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay that focuses on addressing sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse.”
