Wishful thinking? Jones hopes fans give Roger Goodell a warm welcome at draft

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wasn’t pleased with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell last season.

Jones felt Goodell betrayed his trust when the league handed Cowboys star running back Ezekiel Elliott a six-game suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.

Goodell made the decision to suspend Elliott after a 13-month investigation, and a lengthy legal battle ensued until Elliott accepted the suspension. Jones then tried to block a contract extension for Goodell.

All of that, though, appears to be a distant memory for Jones. Jones made it clear that he is hopeful Goodell receives a positive ovation when he takes the stage to open the 2018 NFL Draft on Thursday night at AT&T Stadium.

“Our crowd is a football crowd,” Jones said. “There's a bigger, there's a football view and there's a Cowboy view so that I'm not so sure you'll see a lot of ... personal preferences or personal opinions about the Commissioner. I would hope — because I appreciate having this draft here in Dallas, this is a neat deal, I think it's very fitting that we got it — and so I hope we give him a very positive reception.”

That might be wishful thinking, of course.

Goodell has been booed by fans often and a significant number of Cowboys fans feel he ruined the 2017 season by suspending Elliott. Most think the Cowboys might’ve made the playoffs had Elliott played in all 16 games.

But Jones made it clear that Goodell should receive a warm welcome since he signed off on bringing the draft to town.

“I don't know of anybody, maybe other than me, that's had more boos than Roger has. I know about how that works,” Jones said. “I do hope we can be positive in our reception. We are going to do something pretty special and he did have a final say in that.”

This story was originally published April 24, 2018 at 4:51 PM with the headline "Wishful thinking? Jones hopes fans give Roger Goodell a warm welcome at draft."