#rvb matchups

[rvb-relationship-royale]

RVB Romantic Relationship Royale- Round 1, Part 2, Poll 14

[rvbshipbrackets]

RVB SHIP BRACKET WINNERS BRACKET FINAL MATCHUP

Grimmons (Grif/Simmons) VS Chex (Church/Tex) VS Mainewash (Maine/Washington)

[lassuscorde]

Can I get a RVB matchup?

I'm a 5"3 female with brown hair and hazel eyes. I like to work on cars, hunt, train horses, and have cats and dogs. I spend most of my time working outdoors and prefer to stay to myself.

I match you with Lopez! After seeing you take a crack at fixing the newly-totaled Warthog for the first time, Lopez refuses to let anybody but you do any maintenance work on him. Period. If it has to be anybody messing with his wires, he’d much rather take a bet on some new random mechanic than Sarge. After enough times reattaching his head, and consequently ending up in the same places trying to get any kind of alone time away from the Reds, you come to a kind of mutual friendship/understanding. You fix him up, he shows you new places around the gulch to escape to by yourself, it works out for a while. More than a while really, seeing how often he gets his head blown off. And, well, before he knows it he’s gotten attached to you. You don’t suffocate him like the others. Unlike Simmons you actually know what you’re talking about when you crack open the Warthog, and in a valley full of insufferably loud and virtually unavoidable idiots you are a breath of fresh air. Or, a quart of clean antifreeze, I guess? He thinks it’s cute that your hair and eyes match his armor, and how much smaller you are than him, and will often make little comments about it under his breath that you (probably) don’t understand. He’s happy to set up a workshop out back of the base while you work on the Warthog together- his version of a date, you could say- and is excellent at reading when you just need to be alone for a while. He’ll listen to you talk about the animals you have back home, promptly bully you (affectionately) in Spanish if you screw up with one of the horses, and overall you are one of the few people he enjoys being around. As long as you don’t try and use his head for some hunting target practice, that is. Oh, and his favorite nickname to throw around for you is Mi pequeña/Mi pequeña mecanica- My little/my little mechanic. (apologies for the use of google translate lol) If he can avoid it, he’ll never tell you what it means. He thinks you’re a little bit of a badass to, but he won’t explain that either.

[kittytehe]

Hi could I get an Rvb match up?? Im short and curvy in the hips (about 5’1), short very flippy brown hair and hazel eyes. I have a but of muscle in my arms and a tattoo. Im blind as a bat but I love to draw, cook, and tinkering. Southern accent can be thick sometimes but it comes out worse when Im upset. I hope thats enough 😊 and I love your writing!!

I match you with…Sarge! (I honestly was about to match you with Grif as well)

I have a feeling you two wouldn’t get along at first, since it seems like you may appear as the more, authority type to him. And I’m not kidding, he would flat out probably think he needs to one up you, unless you’re cooking. He would have to admit that he enjoyed when you two would make some contact, since he finds you appealing, (and depending on what and where your tattoo is he’ll probably like looking at it). He finds your southern accent interesting, and it was a surprise to him when you got upset for the first time. Sarge would be grateful that you obviously give enough potential to be in the “army”, y’know since he probably still thinks he’s fighting a war. If you brought your art supplies with you he’d love to take a look at them, and he’d probably ask you to help Lopez and him with the warthog.  

[leonardalphachurch]

okay i’m posting this actually to get onions. i originally said all this on discord and am not editing this and probably adding more so this is ramble-y and long as hell. click at your own risk. edit fuck i didn’t even say what this was about. this is. potential rvb tumblr sexyman poll. okay. okay

this is ugly but when i run the actual contest i would make a custom one. anyway here’s how i currently have the standings

north

siris

york

grif

south

connie

wash

simmons

479er

ohio AND/OR idaho AND/OR iowa

maine

wyoming

alpha OR epsilon

tex

kimball

carolina

donut

caboose

tucker

kai

sheila

grey

doc

omega OR o’malley

sarge

locus

kalirama OR chrovos OR genkins ???

one of the ai? one of the blues and reds?

temple

sharkface

felix

write in

so the ORs are going to be qualifier rounds. i figure these characters fit the same niche so it’s very unlikely that someone would vote for one of them in a round and not vote the other so there’s no need to have both- clears up the standings.

this isn’t a 1 vs 32 set up i just ordered them by their contestants. bc i thought a lot about the match ups. trying to figure out a way to avoid sweeps while also making sure minimal heavy hitters are out first round. unless there’s a big upset. which is interesting enough in its own right!

originally i wanted to have grif v simmons bc funny to pit boyfs against each other but i didn’t want wash v york in the first round and i couldn’t think of anyone else to face either of them.

same with tex. tex and wash are such heavy hitters putting them against anyone early on seems unfair. but i don’t want either of them out first round either. but having tex beat church is funnee so it’s okay if she thrashes him

and then simmons and wash are. like simmons doesn’t have much of a chance but they both hit the “ppl who like unhinged men with knives (non villain edition)” demographic so i think they’re fine first round. not ideal but. i don’t know who would be better

okay actually let me explain all of my reasoning. bc i’m insane.

north v siris - dad energy

york v grif - slacker energy

these matchups will PROBABLY get us: york v north - basic white man all the tumblr girlies lose their mind over energy

the other potential match ups for second round are less interesting but they’re not awful and also pretty unlikely imo

south v connie - Women

wash v simmons - unstable knife men (good guy edition)

these will probably get us: wash v south - recovery agent rematch! OR wash v connie - pfl underdog fight

simmons. i cannot foresee simmons winning. but if he does then pairing him against woman. hilarious

from there it will PROBABLY be either york or north v wash and that’s white men tumblr girlies lose their minds over… 2. think it will be york v wash but good match up either way

next section we have:

479er v triplets - minor freelancer characters

maine v wyoming - early villains

the match up that comes out of these will not be the most interesting but it will at least be secondary freelancer characters vs

tex v church - divorced! divorced!

carolina v kimball - women battered by war trying to make a new life for themselves in peace time…. also they’re gay

that will almost certainly get us tex v carolina which. well. heads will fucking roll

from there it’ll probably be: tex v maine - heavyweights fight OR carolina v maine - season 10 rematch!

at this point it’s hard to really predict but all options seem at least semi interesting for the semi finals. and i would bet they’ll be wash v tex which is. battle of the two heaviest hitters imo. absolute blood bath.

i know that no one is reading this but that’s okay i don’t mind talking to myself

anyway

for the right side:

donut v caboose - rookies fight

kai v tucker - sluts fight

i would guess this results in: donut v tucker - sluts fight round 2 OR caboose v tucker - season 2 rematch for churchs attention

sheila v grey - they’re both ladies with a friendly caring exterior that enjoy violence and are kind of unhinged

doc v one of the omegas - will doc finally overcome his inner demons??? (no)

this is kind of a weak section. doc v grey would be a fun match up for battle of the doctors but i’m pretty impartial to who’s taking this section. if anyone has ideas for better match ups here let me know

sarge v locus - this one’s the weakest reasoning for a first round match up honestly. they’re both muscular?? yeah i got nothing. this section needs some serious work so PLEASE give suggestions if you have them. right now my plans for 27 and 28 are to run qualifier rounds but i need to know what people those rounds should be

temple v sharkface - i hate project freelancer *makes out*

felix v audience choice - i couldn’t decide who i wanted to pit against felix and i wanted one option for people to submit a character i hadn’t thought would fit SO i let everyone else pick who versus felix. note that i’m not taking ideas for this one right now, there will be a post once the official rankings are released and whoever gets the most requests will be put in. i want advice for everything else here but i get final say for all other rankings— this one i will put any character regardless of my thoughts on the matter if they have enough votes

this is harder to judge next matchup bc we don’t know who’s there but i think felix will beat whoever so: temple v felix - will you stop monologuing? OR sharkface v felix - s13 villain fight

next matchup i PRAY would be felix v locus. we need this. locus kick his ass baby.

i do also kind of want felix to win that tho bc then we get felix and tucker in the semifinals and well. TUCKER KICK HIS ASS BABY.

i guess this means i foresee final match up being wash v tucker. and wash winning. i guess it always comes back to tuckington damn.

anyway predicting the final match ups isn’t whats important here whats important is making sure they’re all interesting and no matter who’s in the finals it’s gonna be interesting.

right now like i said before i really need advice on the 25-28 seed section. i wouldn’t mind advice on the 17-24 or really any of the sections tho. you can see i have thought. a LOT about making the most compelling match ups but if you think you have better idea please share.

thanks for reading all this also what’s wrong with you for reading all this.

[sco07ut]

rvb but it’s over the garden wallified

church as wirt, caboose as greg, wash as beatrice + freckles as their frog

carolina as the woodsman (trying to protect epsilon from the beast) + the beast is the director. the dog they encounter at the mill is FILSS

tex is sara, wyoming is jason funderberker

adelaide is hargrove !!

the residents of pottsfield are the skeletal remains of the freelancers who are all quite jolly about being dead together without any qualms ! enoch is the counsellor

simmons is ms langtree with the students being the lieutenants. grif is jimmy brown but instead of a gorilla costume it’s a warthog/puma idk yet

the tavern folk are the blues and reds (maybe a stretch but i was thinking along the lines of them all being like. stereotypes/exaggerations? the tavern people r all narrative archetypes without any real character and the blues n reds [aside from temple] are all meant to be one dimensional versions of the reds and blues [which isn’t entirely true but i digress]) fred the horse is shiela 🫶

quincy endicott is doyle and margueritte grey is kimball (i don’t Really ship them but if you jsut ignore the part where they get together i think it’s quite a good matchup)

doc is lorna (the evil thing inside him is o’malley) and auntie whispers is the meta

the plot is like exactly the same as otgw i don’t think i’d need to actually change anything ?

tucker, donut, sarge and lopez don’t really have set roles but i’ll jsut poke them into places that need extra characters

i definitely want to draw something for this too bht we’ll see how it goes 🫶

[simpin-for-simmons]

I have so many things to say about the DeathBattle. Negative first, positive last.

On one hand, Simmons's death was bullshit. Actually made me a lil mad. They wanted that 4v4 "even" matchup so bad, they killed Simmons immediately. Of course it was Simmons, the one goddamn character without an arc. He did not take place in the actual fight, and that pains me. It would have been so interesting to see Simmons actually fight. Seriously. I was excited to see Rocket Launcher or Knife Simmons but I didn't get that. They really killed Simmons off like that. Like. Literally. It enrages me. Also, Donut died. Donut is immortal. This is a core fact of RvB, like, honestly. You can't say Donut survived a grenade to the head but one little bullet stops him. I choose to believe he's fine and will get up and congratulate Caboose on winning later.

Buuuut... Grifgrifgrif oh my GOD GRIF WENT OFF ON TEX IM SO PROUD OF HIM? He actually fucking... god... he used the Grifshot well and effectively, he went head to head and held his own for a bit. I'm so happy. Grif good. And the Donut Ex Machina at the beginning when he threw the grenade... god. So good. And y'know, I kinda like Boose's new voice. Takes a bit to get used to, but hey. It's kinda cute. ALSO DONUT DANCING WHILE CHURCH SHOT AT HIM WAS THE FUNNIEST SHIT I STG.

[rvbgiftexchange]

Rvb valentines exchange is on the way!

Hey everyone! The 2021 exchange is coming up soon!

I'm gonna start with the forms very soon, i'll try my best to have them out around the the 26th/27th!

The current schedule i'm looking at is

26th/27th for interest/sign ups until the ~7/8th of january or so

9/10th, matchups are assigned and you're encouraged to get in contact with your matched person

February 1st is a check in

February 14th works go up for posting!

[aromanticasterisms]

tbh if all of the ais come back and caboose isnt paired with delta then what is the fucking point

[heroacademiaimagines]

Hey Ice Queen, would an rvb au even be a thing that could be done?????? Who knows but it would be hilarious

LMAOO PROBABLY NOT I mean a Freelancer project type AU could be doable maybe but it’s really just who matches with what AI and then send them on cool missions so it’s still hardly an AU you’re better off just making an original like covert soldier AU or like a BNHA version of a Blackwatch division

A direct character replace AU is doable but exact personality matchups are pretty irregular after I looked and I don't think anyone is dumb enough to be Caboose

Just stick any handful of idiots in armor in a box canyon and you have a RvB AU

-Admin Ice Queen

[rvb-relationship-royale]

RVB Relationship Royale, Tournament 2- Friendship Fray

I'm alive, folks! I've finally finished rounding up all the ships, filling out the extra spaces in the bracket, and randomly generating the first round of matchups. As we have a total of 64 matches in round one, I plan to make it easy on myself and post 8 polls each Saturday and Sunday, starting this weekend.

With all that said, the matchups are listed below the cut!

Delta & Theta vs. Andersmith & Caboose

Doc & Wash vs Lopez & O'Malley

Wash & Simmons vs. Red Team

Donut & Wash vs. Carolina & Simmons

Tucker & Wash vs. 479er & Wash

Tex & York & North vs. Grif & Simmons & Donut

Tex & York vs. York & Illinois

Tucker & Junior vs. Grif & Bitters

Caboose & Loco vs. North & Carolina

Doc & O'Malley vs. Wash & Dr. Grey

Wyoming & Florida vs. Simmons & Caboose

Grif & Sarge vs. Doc & Donut & O'Malley

Doc & Lopez vs. Freckles & Caboose

Doyle & Dr. Grey vs. Carolina & Locus

Kai & Tucker vs. Gamma & Wyoming

Doc & Meta vs. Bitters & Matthews

Jax & Sarge vs. Epsilon & Carolina

Florida & V.I.C. vs. Locus & Siris

Church & Donut vs. York & Delta

Grif & Carolina vs. Donut & Tucker

Alpha & Wash vs. Kimball & Tucker

Andy & Crunchbite vs. Carolina & 479er

Grif & Locus vs. Kimball & Felix

Carolina & Donut vs. Delta & Alpha

Doc & Grif vs. Sarge & Lopez

Simmons & Lopez vs. Maine & Carolina

North & South vs. Church & Simmons

C.T. & Wash vs. V.I.C. & Red Zealot

Sarge & Wash vs. South & C.T.

Church & Tucker vs. Donut & Lopez

Simmons & Donut vs. Sarge & Caboose

Wyoming & Maine vs. Kai & Tex

Caboose & Andy vs. Kai & Doc

Caboose & Donut vs. Tex & Sheila

Locus & Sirius & Felix vs. Wash & Caboose & Tucker

FILSS & Carolina vs. Donut & Sarge

Tex & Donut vs. Grif & Tucker

York & Wash vs. Sarge & Surge

Murphy & Jenkins vs. Church & Sheila

Locus & Felix vs. Kai & Simmons

The Lieutenants vs. Lopez & Lopez 2.0

North & York vs. Church & Caboose

Church & Jimmy vs. Doc & Simmons

Caboose & Wash vs. Alpha & the Fragment AI

Wash & York & North vs. Blue Team

Grif & Church (Alpha) vs. Doc & Donut

Kai & Carolina vs. Tex & North

Jax & Dylan vs. Dr. Grey & Kimball

Tex & Caboose vs. Lopez & Sheila

Kai & Caboose vs. Temple & Doc

Kai & Donut vs. Doc & Junior

Carolina & Kimball vs. Caboose & Sheila

Carolina & Wash & Tucker vs. Lopez & Locus

Caboose & Lopez vs. Carolina & Wash

C.T. & Wash & Ohio & Idaho & Iowa vs. Sherry & Derryl & Terrill

Wash & South vs. Donut & Cronut

Rogers & Cunningham vs. Red Team & Blue Team & Doc

Sarge & Dr. Grey vs. Ohio & Idaho & Iowa

Lopez & Grif vs. Caboose & Delta

Sarge & Carolina vs. Maine & Wash

Grif & Kai vs. Tex & Sarge

Kimball & Doyle vs. Grif & Huggins

Gamma & O'Malley vs. North & Theta

Tex & Tucker vs. Tucker & Caboose

[rvbshipbrackets]

Inter-Team Ship Tournament Round 1

Matchup 5: Sarge/Washington VS Lopez/Sheila

propaganda:

Lopez/Sheila:

Can a red team robot truly fall in love with a blue team battle tank? The answer is yes. Bow down to your Saturday morning cartoon villains who are both robots/AI taking over the world doing a matrix because they've realized they've both been done so wrong. They're so amazing and like.the rvb Romeo and Juliet. We should've had more Sheila content and Lopez content and them together is the best of both worlds. Who doesn't love em.

No propaganda submitted for Sarge/Washington

[lassuscorde]

[ h e r e g o e s n o t h i n g ]

• [ BIO ] they / them. i write sometimes. this is merely a side blog to dump my fanfiction. gonna make it pretty clear when something is NSFW (and it will only ever be mild so) I don’t have to worry about minors. so hi guys have fun.

• [ FANDOMS ]

Red vs Blue is gonna be my main focus for right now though.

r6s, halo (all games), halo (show), rvb, doom, brooklyn 99, firefly (show), subject to change. • [ WRITING ] oneshots, multi chapter stories, imagines, character matchups*, headcanons,

feel free to request something if you’d like. main no-gos are anything illegal, pro-shippy, relating to pregnancy, abusive, generally questionable, all that. i also just might not do it bc. the matchup idea from @/lesbiaseagull*

[ m y t a g -> c o r d e w r i t e s ]

[kittytehe]

Hi! Can I get a matchup please? Im a 22yr old bisexual girl, white with hispanic descent, and dark blonde w blue eyes. I tend to mother my friends but also am the most impulsive and reckless of us. Breaking the law is nbd and I'll go too far if it might be fun. I am also nerdy, play dnd, and study quantum physics for fun, but i also love working on cars and making gadgets out of junk. I am a decent artist with many mediums and am optimistic but with a dark sense of humor.(tysm i love ur blog <3)

Between RvB and Overwatch, I’m going to do RvB since I’ve gotten so many Overwatch requests.

I match you with Simmons! 

He is a total nerd and would love to play dnd with you. He would probably really like your eyes. You two would probably be bad for each other, considering you’re reckless, and he isn’t into really into getting into danger, but for some reason, he feels drawn to you. He’ll try and stay out of your breaking the law business, but sometimes he can’t help but get dragged into it, but he doesn’t mind TOO much. He’ll enjoy discussing quantum physics with you and could probably talk about it with you for hours. Even though he also isn’t super skilled at mechanics, he’ll help you gather to tools to work on a vehicle or help you find the peaces to create something together. He likes your art and sometimes he doesn’t like your optimum but he knows it’s needed in the shit hole of a base they are in. That is until you decide to bring in your dark humor.    

[junker-town]

Jerry Jones won’t sue the NFL, but he’s not done fighting Roger Goodell

A handy guide for the biggest matchup of the 2017 NFL season.

MAJOR UPDATE: Goodell just got his five-year extension with a reported value of $200 million for his efforts. That’s less than the commissioner had allegedly asked for, but still a tremendous amount of money. It’s safe to say Jerry Jones is taking the “L” on this one.

Update: Is the fight over? No. But, Jerry Jones said recently, that he would not sue the NFL over Goodell’s contract. However, that does not mean he’s backing off his fight with the commissioner. He probably realized he didn’t have much of a legal leg to stand on.

On the surface, Jones is backing down from his legal threat because he says the compensation committee, the six-owner group tasked with finalizing Goodell’s contract, has gone back to the full ownership group to seek input. But they’re not seeking approval from the group again, and Jones is not going to let that part go. He still wants any contract for the commissioner to come before the entire body of 32 owner representatives.

He’ll reportedly be making that push again when owners meet on Dec. 13.

Much of what is written here still applies. Jones isn’t going to sit idly by and let this go without getting his way somehow. The backgrounder below is still applicable, save the lawsuit, and a good understanding of the underlying tensions between the NFL commissioner, the sport’s most powerful owner and a smattering of other owners who fall somewhere into the mix. —RVB

Roger Goodell could be in trouble. As recently as six months ago, that statement would have been, correctly, dismissed out of hand.

The NFL commissioner’s job, perhaps the most powerful position in the business of American professional sports, seemed impervious to any threat, especially the ones of Goodell’s own making.

He survived Bountygate. It was rough for a time, but he made it through the Ray Rice scandal. He skated through Deflategate too, coming out of that with even more legal precedent supporting his disciplinary powers as commissioner.

Owners opted to count their money instead of make a stink. Goodell held a fractious group of 32 billionaires together through the lockout and collective bargaining agreement negotiations in 2011. It was his crowning achievement as commissioner, a deal that saw owners get just about every concession they wanted from players and set up a decade of labor stability and overflowing coffers. Goodell was untouchable because he made the league money.

One of the league’s most powerful owners, Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys, threatened to turn his lobbying efforts against Goodell’s contract extension into a full-blown legal fight.

Jones says he’s doing this because he wants to make the commissioner more accountable to owners. “I want unprecedented accountability to the ownership,” is how he described his crusade after the Cowboys’ Week 11 loss to the Eagles. While that might be what he says he wants, it looks more like he wants a commissioner who answers to him specifically.

This is about as close as it gets to a coup d'état for the NFL, because he doesn’t like that the league hewed to its three-year-old domestic violence policy and gave his star running back, Ezekiel Elliott, a six-game suspension based on the league’s own investigation.

"I'm gonna come after you with everything I have," Jones said after learning the news of Elliott’s suspension, according to a Nov. 17 report from ESPN the Magazine. "If you think Bob Kraft came after you hard, Bob Kraft is a p---y compared to what I'm going to do."

Even if Jones isn’t successful at toppling the commissioner — it’s still a stretch to think that it will — it’s the most serious threat to Goodell’s job since he became commissioner in 2006.

Protecting the Shield is the root of the problem

That same labor deal gives the commissioner unilateral power over personal conduct matters and anything else that falls into the category of “protecting the integrity of the game.”

League commissioners have always had that kind of power. But it’s been Goodell’s signature issue.

Surprise: Unchecked power in the hands of one person leads to problems. The examples cited above turned into drawn-out court battles because of the arbitrary nature of the punishments doled out and the flimsy evidence used to justify it.

The league’s domestic violence policy was adopted in 2014 in the wake of the Rice incident. It was supported by Jones and other owners and actually spelled out levels of discipline for players and league employees involved in those kinds of incidents, starting with a six-game suspension.

However, the league has not been consistent with its punishment since implementing the policy. For example, former Giants kicker Josh Brown got a single game despite a well-documented history of domestic abuse.

You can see why players and the union don’t like Goodell’s role as judge, jury and executioner. They could end up with a short suspension or find their careers on hiatus indefinitely for reasons that are never quite clear.

Goodell’s given owners plenty of reasons not to like his disciplinary powers too, taking a star quarterback off the field for footballs that may or may not have been deflated, taking away draft picks for free agent tampering claims, etc.

If it bothered the owners, their dissatisfaction never went beyond an anonymous grumble here and there, and most of them, publicly, still gave Goodell a vote of confidence when asked, even during the Rice situation in 2014.

Jones was among the owners voicing support for Goodell in the fall of 2014. He’s not been so supportive since the league started investigating the prodigious running back from the Cowboys, handing down a six-game suspension before the season started.

Why is Jones so upset with Goodell?

Jones carries a lot of weight in the NFL. He drove the league’s return to Los Angeles and its coming foray into Las Vegas. Few can lead the room full of owners the way the “de facto commissioner” can. So when he threatens to come after the real commissioner, it’s significant.

There’s a more personal element in the Elliott suspension for Jones too, besides just the potential of losing one of his best players for six games. Jones fought the NFL over its investigation into the accusations against Elliott, who was not charged by Ohio authorities who also investigated him, from the start.

In Oct. 2016, Jones confronted the NFL’s lead investigator, Lisa Friel, over the matter in a hotel bar after hours at an owners meeting. He told her, "your bread and butter is going to get both of us thrown out on the street.”

In July of this year, he told the press that there was no evidence against Elliott that warranted a suspension. At the beginning of August, Jones was publicly saying that he believed Elliott would not be suspended.

His reason for thinking that stems from a May conversation he had with Goodell. “'Roger told me there was nothing to worry about -- the evidence just isn't there,'" Jones said, according to a source cited in the Nov. 17 ESPN report.

The league denied that Jones was told there would be no suspension.

Needless to say, when the six-game suspension for Elliott was handed down in August, Jones was furious. He believes Goodell lied to him, telling him that Elliott would not be suspended. Jones called that an “unforgivable breach of trust.”

What’s up with Goodell’s contract?

Goodell’s current contract runs through 2018. The five-year extension would leave him in place through 2024, covering the league’s next scheduled collective bargaining agreement negotiations in 2021.

In the past, Goodell’s annual compensation varied but reportedly was required to have an average of $25 million in bonus pay over any given three-year period. His yearly was reported at $44 million in 2014 and $34 million in 2015. But his salary is no longer a matter of public record after the NFL surrendered its non-profit status in 2015.

The argument over the new deal is whether to make it even more incentive-based. The contract the committee is working on is to be as much as 88 percent incentive-based, according to a Nov. 11 report by The New York Times.

But Jones and a few other owners reportedly believe that the incentives are so loosely defined that Goodell’s pay wouldn’t rise or fall too much whatever happened, even with the league facing a number of challenges at the moment — player suspensions, owners fearful of the controversy over protests, ratings in a nosedive, etc.

A curiously timed report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen relayed some of Goodell’s contract demands that paint the commissioner in a flattering light. He wanted $49.5 million per year, a private jet, and lifetime health insurance for him and his family, according to an unnamed owner cited in the report.

"That number for Roger just seems too much," the owner said. "It's offensive. It's unseemly."

The league denied that claim. They later said, in the cease and desist letter to Jones, that those contract details were old and outdated ones.

Blank issued a statement on Monday, Nov. 13, that seemed to shoot down some of the claims about Goodell’s deal reported previously. The statement read:

"The Committee is continuing its work towards finalizing a contract extension with the Commissioner, consistent with the mandate provided in the unanimous May 2017 Resolution. Regardless of what may have been reported, the Committee is working within the financial parameters outlined to the ownership at the May meeting. The negotiations are progressing and we will keep ownership apprised of the negotiations as they move forward. We do not intend to publicly comment on our discussions.”

Who has the final approval for Goodell’s deal?

A unanimous 32-0 vote by owners in May authorized the six-member compensation committee to finalize and approve the extension for Goodell, and normally that would be the only vote needed.

Jones’ argument now is that the contract needs to go back to the full ownership group, instead of just the committee, because of the ratings decline, protests, etc.

Goodell is said to be “furious” over Jones’ effort to derail his contract, according to ESPN’s OTL.

"He feels as if the owners have made a lot of money and he should be compensated accordingly," a source told ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham. "The incentives thing really angers him."

Jones was a non-voting ad hoc member of the league’s compensation committee, the six owners tasked with finalizing Goodell’s deal. His membership was revoked on Nov. 2 when he informed the group of his threat to sue.

What’s his basis for threatening the lawsuit?

Jones is said to be one of four of five owners who want Goodell gone. There are reportedly another six wavering in their commitment, who Jones hopes to rally to his side with the threat of a lawsuit and hiring a big-name attorney, David Boies, to push it.

The OTL report says Jones is trying to change the two-thirds majority vote needed to approve a deal to three-fourths majority, giving his voting bloc guaranteed veto power. Jones’ play with the lawsuit is, in part, to get Goodell’s contract back in front of the full ownership group where he could prevent it from going forward if he can rally a small group of owners to his side.

Jones was supportive of a new contract for Goodell as recently as May. His latest threatening letter to the league makes an issue of what’s happened since then.

He claims that Falcons owner Arthur Blank and chair of the compensation committee was not honest about the details of Goodell’s proposed contract extension, according to a Thursday report from Mortensen.

Jones claims that details of the contract were not disclosed and that the deal moved away from a more incentive-based version. He also alleges that the committee is not unanimous on the deal, going back on Blank’s assurance that the committee would be in complete agreement on it.

The league disputed Jones’ claims with a very direct shot at him.

"Your description of the proposed extension is so at odds with the actual facts that we can only conclude that you are either uninformed or seek deliberately to mislead the other owners."

When news first broke that Jones was threatening to sue, it was not at all clear what the basis was for the potential lawsuit. This letter clarifies it — he’s trying to get the contract out of the committee’s hands and back to the full group of owners, in the hopes that he can rally enough of them to block Goodell’s deal and send the commissioner packing.

Still, it feels like an awfully weak case.

He may not have to sue. Jones could be fighting a delaying action. He could conceivably hold up the proceedings on Goodell’s contract to give himself time to rally enough owners to his cause.

Jones suggested as much in a Nov. 14 interview, telling 105.3 radio station in Dallas “we just need to slow this train down and…discuss the issues at hand in the NFL."

He pressed his fellow owners on that same point a week later. In a letter to owners first reported Nov. 16, Jones asked for a special meeting to address Goodell’s contract.

“This is not the time for the League to undertake massive contractual obligations which are inconsistent with the League’s performance,” he said in the letter.

His request was denied, and owners will use their regularly scheduled Dec. 13 meeting to discuss the issue.

If he can successfully get a delay on finalizing Goodell’s contract, it gives him more time to push his case before the commissioner’s current deal expires in March 2019.

What can the league do about it?

In the most aggressive response yet from the NFL’s compensation committee, Jones got a cease and desist letter on Monday, Nov. 13, threatening him with punishment if he doesn’t drop his effort to block Goodell’s contract extension. Possible punishments include fines, loss of draft picks and a suspension for Jones.

The NFL could punish Jones on the basis that his conduct is detrimental to the league. And, yes, that’s fitting given that personal conduct fueled this fracas in the first place.

A more extreme measure for dealing with Jones has reportedly been discussed by a few owners. The league could force Jones to forfeit the Cowboys, something that the Wall Street Journal reports a few owners have talked about, informally. That’s unlikely to happen, and was probably just a strategic leak put out there to threaten Jones.

He shrugged off the notion that the league could take away his team during his regular Tuesday radio show on Nov. 14.

Jerry Jones on @1053thefan on report he may be ousted - “I’ve had NOT ONE inkling of communication with the league office or any owner that would suggest something that laughable and ridiculous."

— Roy White III (@RDubThree) November 14, 2017

Jones’ lawyer, Boies, got a letter from fellow owners threatening action for his “antics” that could be considered “conduct detrimental,” according to the New York Times.

If the league does punish Jones, whatever form that takes, he could fight it in court.

Is this the end for Roger Goodell?

Jones may not have much of a case, but his timing is impeccable.

It’s a strange moment for the NFL. The league was a juggernaut that watched its ratings climb every year, pushing toward Goodell’s stated goal of $25 billion in annual revenue.

Those days are gone.

The NFL skated through mishandled scandal after mishandled scandal without much impact on the bottom line. Now, television ratings are down for the second consecutive season. Owners certainly didn’t like the president turning the sport into a new front in the culture war, and they’re divided on how to respond to the handful of players kneeling during the national anthem to draw attention to police brutality and racial inequality.

There’s plenty for team owners to be concerned with and no real certainty for what to do about it. Jones is using those things as a cudgel in his fight with Goodell.

The question now is how many owners can he actually get on his side. Goodell’s given owners plenty of reasons to be dissatisfied with his job performance, but there’s said to be trepidation about replacing him for an unknown commodity, or worse, a commissioner of Jones’ choosing.

Jones’ moves here are certain to make him more enemies among his peers. The OTL story from Wednesday reports that some owners are upset with Goodell because they feel like he gave Jones too much power in the first place.

NFL owners are not a unified group who all think the same way. In fact, one thing that’s helped solidify Goodell’s status has been his ability to bring them together. Nowhere was he more effective at that than during the collective bargaining negotiations in 2011, when he was able to hold together the rift between small market and big market teams, like the Cowboys, to get a deal that enriched all 32 team owners at the expense of the players.

There’s another collective bargaining agreement on the horizon in 2021. Negotiations for that will be even more contentious than the last one. There’s more at stake this time around. Television viewership patterns are changing fast, meaning the NFL might not be able to count on multi-billion dollar rights deals for easy money down the road.

Having Goodell at the table for the next CBA negotiation was one of the main reasons for getting his contract extension done in the first place. Owners will be leery of switching commissioners with 2021 right around the corner. That might ultimately be Goodell’s firewall against Jones’ palace coup.

I can’t in good conscience endorse either side here. The league could use a different commissioner given the missteps Goodell’s made since the 2011 labor deal. The risk in replacing Goodell is that it’s more likely the next commissioner will have to accept a deal more along the lines of the one Jones wants, and that means the new commissioner’s pay would be subject in part to placating Jones. An even worse option is a commissioner handpicked by Jones.

(Our best hope, for fans, in 2021 is still going to be players willing to miss games to get a more favorable CBA.)

This has been the most interesting NFL season in a long time, on and off the field. And whatever two teams wind up playing in Super Bowl LII, it’s going to be hard to beat a Jerry Jones vs. Roger Goodell matchup. Nothing less than the future of professional football is at stake.

[aromanticasterisms]

some red/blue + ai matchups to consider:

caboose + delta

sarge + theta

simmons + eta

grif + iota

donut + gamma

doc + omega

carolina + sigma

discuss