Report: NFL paid Roger Goodell $35.1 million last year

boozeman

28 Years And Counting...
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
121,730
Report: NFL paid Roger Goodell $35.1 million last year

By Ryan Wilson | CBSSports.com

February 14, 2014 03:25 PM ET


Two years ago, when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was thought to make only $20 million, Falcons wide receiver Roddy White sent this tweet:

Got some bad news for you, Roddy. Goodell more than doubled his pay over the next 12 months.

To be clear: That's $35.1 million -- plus another $9.1 million in deferred payments -- for the year that ended March 31, 2013.

So how do we come across this information every year? Turns out, the multibillion-dollar money-making machine that is the NFL is, in the eyes of the government, a nonprofit organization. Thanks to an exemption written into the tax code, the league is exempt from federal corporate taxes.

(If you're so inclined, US Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) explained the particulars in Wastebook 2012.)

The downside -- if you want to call it that -- to being classifed as a nonprofit: this Tax exemption also makes Goodell's salary publicly available, circumstances no doubt eased by the fact that he made nearly $3 million a month.

in a letter obtained by Daniel Kaplan of the Sports Business Journal, NFL owners Arthur Blank, Robert Kraft and Jerry Richardson wrote to their fellow owners that "Goodell's compensation reflects our pay-for-performance philosophy and is appropriate given the fact that the NFL under his consistently strong leadership continues to grow."

Kaplan notes that the three owners comprise the league's compensation committee, adding that Goodell's salary almost certainly makes him the highest-paid sports executive.
 

Cotton

One-armed Knife Sharpener
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
119,696
Good lord.
 

Cotton

One-armed Knife Sharpener
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
119,696
It's not his fault if he is overpaid.
No, it's his fault that he is an insufferable douche who is trying to change the game I love.
 

boozeman

28 Years And Counting...
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
121,730
Just think...everytime you go to a game and spend $15 on a beer, $1 of that goes to Goodell.
 
D

Deuce

Guest
My guess is when the league negotiated his salary, they put Jerry in charge. He's notorious for overpaying perceived "talent".
 

dallen

Senior Tech
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
Messages
8,466
He's commissioner of the most successful sports league. It is a lot of money, but the NFL generates a lot of money
 

townsend

Banned
Joined
Apr 11, 2013
Messages
5,377
Yeah yeah, douche makes a bunch of money. How is it the NFL is a non-profit organization?!!
 

Clay_Allison

Old Bastard
Joined
Apr 8, 2013
Messages
5,488
Yeah yeah, douche makes a bunch of money. How is it the NFL is a non-profit organization?!!
probably because all of the franchises are for profit and make all of the money and pay all of the taxes.
 

Irving Cowboy

DCC 4Life
Joined
Feb 7, 2014
Messages
1,583
NFL explains that it does indeed pay taxes
Posted by Mike Florio on February 14, 2014, 7:10 PM EST

From time to time, the NFL faces criticism and confusion over its ‘tax-exempt” status. Some think this means the NFL and its teams pay no taxes at all.

But taxes are indeed paid. And the NFL felt compelled to point this out on Friday, in the wake of the news that Commissioner Roger Goodell has been paid roughly $74 million in the two-year period beginning April 1, 2011 and ending March 31, 2013.

‘NFL attorney Jeremy Spector notes the league pays taxes on every dollar of income that it earns,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said via Twitter.

“Claims that the NFL is using a tax exemption to avoid paying the tax due on these revenues are simply misinformed,” Spector said. “The confusion arises from the fact that there is one small part of the NFL unrelated to all this business activity, that is tax-exempt: The N.F.L. league office.”

Specter is right. The money passes through the league office to its teams, and the teams pay the taxes.

Still, the NFL undoubtedly realizes a net benefit by using this structure — especially since the league could keep the compensation of Goodell and other key executives completely secret if the league office weren’t exempt from taxation.

That’s the real question, which the NFL probably won’t be answering via Twitter or otherwise. (We’ll ask them anyway.) How much money is saved by using this approach?

Yes, taxes are paid. But the taxes are surely less than they would be, unless the NFL has no concern about telling the world that Commissioner Roger Goodell has made in two years nearly 60 percent of the one-season spending limit for an entire team.
 

Rev

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
19,327
Just think...everytime you go to a game and spend $15 on a beer, $1 of that goes to Goodell.
Well thanks to Jerry neither of them get any money from me.
 
Top Bottom