PRO FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : NFC : Cowboys’ Jones Plans to Fight NFL

Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones said he plans to fight the NFL’s questioning of cornerback Deion Sanders’ $35-million contract, adding that he considers the league’s position an attack on his team.

“This is suspicious to me. It’s so transparent that the NFL is being selective,” Jones said Thursday in Dallas.

“They’re trying to intimidate the Cowboys, they’re trying to be a bully. We will not let them intimidate or bully us.”

The league told the team to renegotiate its seven-year deal with Sanders to fit under the salary cap. The league has conditionally approved the deal but held that it violates the spirit of the $37.1-million-per-team cap, said Harold Henderson, the NFL’s director of labor relations.

Jones said the contract follows the salary-cap rules completely and that he expects to win the fight.

Technically, Sanders will make the NFL base salary of $178,000 for the first three years, but his pay will average $5.5 million per year including his nearly $13-million signing bonus.

“Sanders’ contract is structured to avoid counting under the salary cap a very large portion of the compensation which Deion is to receive for his services during the early years of his contract,” the NFL’s Henderson said.