Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has been under fire all season for his support of and commitment to defensive end Greg Hardy, but the ex-wife of former Cowboys offensive lineman Nate Newton says this isn’t the first time the organization has knowingly supported an abuser.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Maggie Gray, Dorothy Newton reveals that the Cowboys knew of his abuse toward her, which she says escalated after the first of three Dallas Super Bowl wins in the 1990s.

But there were a number of factors, Dorothy says, that contributed to his abuse of her.

“I believe there is a root cause. I believe the success, and just the community and the sports bubble — I think there were so many factors involved,” she says. “And I’m certainly not making excuses for his behavior, but I think there were a lot of factors involved that, and pressures involved that just triggered him to where it was something that happened quite often. (With) Nate, the success was great, but privately Nate was in trouble.

“There were character flaws such as DUIs and DWIs, so there was a lot of factors involved as well, and I think I just became the result of his way of releasing anger, frustration and just a lot of things he was dealing with.”

The scariest outburst, Dorothy says, occurred after word of his alleged abuse reached someone within the Cowboys organization.

“That’s when he came home and shoved a custom-made kitchen table into my pregnant stomach and scraped it, thank God, and also shot at me.”

Dorothy Newton spoke at a team-sponsored luncheon to support anti-domestic violence programs last month and is the author of Silent Cry: The True Story of Abuse and Betrayal of an NFL Wife.