....DALLAS (AP) - Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones says individual NFL teams should seize control of drug testing from the National Football League.
In an interview published in Sunday editions of The Dallas Morning News, Jones said the teams would punish as they deem necessary and distinguish between marijuana and cocaine use in the penalties.
...."My focus is getting to be more involved in the knowledge and decision-making process of our NFL drug-testing policy," he said. "I want teams to have more to say about it than they have now in terms of every aspect of it.
...."I think to some degree the ones who would be the most sensitive and care the most about it is the individual clubs, the management of the clubs and the coaches on the team. I'm not at all saying that the testing standards we would implement with the Cowboys would be any more or any less severe," he said.
....Messages left at Jones' Dallas home by The Associated Press were not immediately returned Saturday.
....Jones pushed his idea at last month's NFL owners meeting in West Palm Beach, Fla. The presentation came one week after an incident in an Irving motel room that led to a drug indictment against All-Pro receiver Michael Irvin.
....Irvin could be suspended without pay for four games at the discretion of NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue if the player is convicted of drug-related criminal misconduct.
....The Cowboys owner insisted that he doesn't believe the Super Bowl champions have a widespread drug problem or that Irvin is drug-dependent.
However, he said he was confident that his players would face fewer problems if the NFL policy, which he said is stricter than those in any other professional sport, is changed.
...."The substance-abuse program of the NFL is more inclusive and has more constraints than the FAA has for pilots," he said. "The program in its concept leads me to believe we have a stronger program than at any time and might therefore identify more players than at any other time in the NFL."
....As for his wish to discriminate between marijuana use and cocaine use, and whether marijuana even should be removed as a banned substance, Jones said: "Let me just say this: I think it is very noteworthy that we're the only sports league where it is banned. And certainly I'd like it if we just didn't have any type of substance abuse in the NFL."
....Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt rejected Jones' idea. In fact, the Dallas-based owner said the league program should be toughened to add one preseason drug test with advance notice to all players who have not otherwise violated the policy.
....Hunt also advocated mandatory random testing during the regular season and off-season.
...."The tests should be year round, and those who want to do that kind of thing should find another way to make a living," Hunt said.