Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones Couldn't Worm His Way Out Fine For His Bird

Try as he might, Jerry Jones wasn't going to get away with his middle finger shenanigans regardless of what he said or meant. And, frankly, the guy who is one of the NFL's best businessmen didn't get the best bang for his buck, either.

The NFL on Tuesday fined Jones $250,000 for shooting fans the bird Sunday while he was in his suite at MetLife Stadium during the Cowboys victory over the New York Jets.

NFL Fine Expected

The fine was expected, as OutKick reported Monday.

But here's the thing: Jones didn't optimize his value for this misdeed.

And then tried to get out of the fine by, well, fabricating some implausible story about his misdeed.

(Remember, people not familiar with Watergate, the cover-up is often worse than the crime).

Jones didn't deny he flipped the bird to fans. It's just that his fingers went off in directions not of his choosing. Yes, that's his story.

"That was unfortunate," Jones said on his weekly radio show on 105.3 The FAN in Dallas. "There was a swarm of Cowboys fans out front – not Jets fans, Cowboys fans.

"It was inadvertent on my part because that was right after we made our last touchdown, and we were all excited about it. There wasn't any antagonistic issue or anything like that."

(Kirby Lee-Imagn Images)

Jones: Intention Was Thumbs Up

And here it comes …

"I just put up the wrong show on the hand. That was inadvertently done. I'm not kidding. If you want to call it accidental, you can call it accidental. But it got straightened around pretty quick. I had a chance to look at it. It got straightened out pretty quick, but the intention was 'thumbs up,' and basically pointing at our fans because everybody was jumping up and down excited."

Do we believe that Jones, one of the brightest minds in NFL ownership and a very intentional person with everything he does, meant to give fans the thumbs up, but somehow his middle finger staged a mutiny and popped up while suppressing his thumb?

Yeah, no.

HOUSTON, TX - SEPTEMBER 15:  Tennessee Titans owner Bud Adams, left rear, watches the first half between the Tennessee Titans and Houston Texans at Reliant Stadium on September 15, 2013 in Houston, Texas.  (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)

Jones Didn't Get Best Bang For Buck

And this: 

Back in 2009, then Titans owner Bud Adams was fined $250,000 for conduct detrimental to the league after making an obscene gesture while celebrating a win against.

The gesture from Adams was the same as the one we saw from Jones, except Adams did it with both hands. He went with the double middle finger salute.

And that, quite possibly, makes Adams a better businessman than Jones because his double-barrel salute gave him twice the bang for the same amount of bucks. Adams amortized better than Jones.