Goodell was given a nice pat on the back in 2011. Apparently the league awarded the NFL commissioner a $29.49 million salary in 2011. This nearly tripled his salary from the previous year. In 2010 he made $11.6 million. His salary was revealed on Friday from a tax return. The reason this can be public knowledge is because the NFL is structured like a non-profit. (This means they avoid taxes-which is a whole other rant).
Sports Business Journal’s Kaplan stated that the raise was in response to the collective bargaining agreement and the television contract. A majority of the money was a $22.3 million bonus. This likely makes him the highest paid commissioner in professional sports.
The real question sports fans are now asking is-does he deserve it?
Well, in 2011 he had just negotiated the new CBA that reduced the players’ share by four percent. This meant that no regular season games were missed. Additionally he solidified new television contracts with ESPN, CBS, Fox and NBC. Both of these things made a lot of money for the owners. Considering that his ultimate responsibility is to make the owners happy it is easy to see why he got the raise.
However, what about the rest of the people in the NFL? Say, the players, and well, the fans.
The commissioner is not held in the same high esteem amongst NFL players. Perhaps the most outspoken players on the matter of commissioner are Jonathan Vilma and James Harrison. Neither of these players trusts the commissioner. Now that Goodell’s salary is public knowledge there are even more players added to this list. Roddy White tweeted that he can’t believe that the Goodell is paid this much money when he can’t run, catch or tackle. Fans are mostly in the same frame of mind. He is not the most liked character and a great number of people are upset with his salary increase.
On the other hand, he does work for the most lucrative sports organization in the world. That, and he does face constant criticism from all sides.
What do you think? Does he deserve his salary?
