The NFL ain't buying it, or just didn't care for Jerry Jones' explanation over why he flipped fans the middle finger in the closing moments of Sunday's Cowboys game ... 'cause the league just hit the longtime owner with a massive $250K fine!
While the NFL hasn't released a statement announcing the fine, several NFL insiders reported the 6-figure bill on Tuesday ... about 48 hours after the incident.
82-year-old Jones admitted to the one-finger salute, but said it was all a big accident ... explaining he meant to give a harmless thumbs up to the many Big D fans at MetLife Stadium.
"That was unfortunate," Jones said of the gesture during the team's 37-22 win over the Jets.
"That was kind of an exchange with our fans out in front of us. There was a swarm of Cowboys fans out front. Not Jets fans, Cowboys fans. The entire stadium was brimming with the enthusiasm of Cowboys, certainly late in the game. That was inadvertent on my part. It was right after we made our last touchdown. We were all excited about it, there wasn't antagonistic issue or anything like that. I put up the wrong show of hand. I'm not kidding."
Jerry continued ... "If you want to call it accidental, you can call it accidental. It got straightened around pretty quick, but the intention was thumbs up and pointing at our fans because everyone was jumping up and down excited."
For the NFL, intentional or not, it happened ... and they're making Jerry pay.
While a quarter-million-dollar fine is huge, the silver lining for Jones ... he's got it. According to Forbes, his Cowboys team is worth around $13 billion.