Cowboys owner Jerry Jones sounds off on million dollar settlement paid to cheerleaders
Jones has reacted to the situation.
Members of the iconic Dallas Cowboys cheerleading squad made some disturbing allegations against longtime Cowboys boys senior vice president for public relations and communications Rich Dalrymple, who retired earlier in the month after 32 years with the franchise.
Eventually, a $2.4 million settlement was paid.
Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones has reacted to the situation, explaining that he and the organization took the allegations very seriously.
“First of all, the cheerleaders are iconic,” Jones explained on Friday. “A vital part of what our organization is, the Dallas Cowboys. We took these allegations very seriously. We immediately began to look-see, an investigation into the situation. I can assure you that had we found that it need be, there would have been firings or there would have been suspensions. As it turns out, in the best interest of our fans, what we decided to do was show the cheerleaders how seriously we took these allegations, and we wanted them to know that we were real serious and so the settlement was the way to go.”
Four women alleged that Dalrymple filmed them changing in their locker room while standing behind a partial wall following an event at AT&T Stadium in 2015. Of course, Dalrymple had also been accused of taking upskirt photographs of team senior Vice President Charlotte Jones Anderson, who also happens to be the daughter of Jones.
While the Cowboys said there was no evidence that any videos or pictures were taken, they didn't deny that Dalrymple used his access card to enter the cheerleaders' locker room while they were changing.
While the identity of the cheerleaders in question has not been publicly revealed, one former member of the squad said that the incident became common knowledge.
"It hurt my heart because I know how much it affected the people who were involved," the former cheerleader said. "It was a very ... shut the book, don't talk about it, this person is going to stay in his position ... They just made it go away."
