On this date in 2017, the NFL furnished Roger Goodell with a brand new five-year deal to take him through the 2023 league year. The new pact — worth up to $63MM annually — was met with criticism from some, including Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. 
Along the way, Jones accused Falcons owner Arthur Blank — head of the league’s compensation committee — of “misleading” NFL owners on the terms of Goodell‘s extension. Technically, Jones was not a member of the six-man Compensation Committee, but he was regarded as an unofficial seventh member. Using his influence, Jones helped to galvanize a small group of owners against a sizable new deal for Goodell. Or, at least, bring new scrutiny to the situation. But, over time, he lost momentum. By the end, there were only a handful of owners in Jones’ corner.
For their part, the league claimed that there was a “nearly unanimous consensus” to finalize the deal. Blank ultimately signed off on Dec. 6, 2017, much to the chagrin of Jones who was still fuming over Ezekiel Elliott‘s six-game ban.
“Our Committee unanimously supports the contract and believes that it is fully consistent with “market” compensation and the financial and other parameters outlined to the owners at our May 2017 meeting, as well as in the best interests of ownership,” the Compensation Committee said in a memo. “We also have expressed in those conversations our strong belief that we should proceed to sign the agreement now, consistent with the unanimous May resolution and to avoid further controversy surrounding this issue. We are pleased to report that there is a nearly unanimous consensus among the ownership in favor of signing the contract extension now.”
Goodell still gets his fair share of criticism, but this story does have something of a happy ending. Four years later, Jones now says that he’s in favor of the commissioner’s lucrative contract.
“Certainly those numbers on the face of them are large numbers,” Jones said on HBO recently (via the New York Post) “Roger has been an excellent commissioner. I might say that back when years ago when I first came into the league they would be big numbers. I don’t know for sure what a man of your talent was making back then. But I know we could look at where we are today, and those numbers have increased a lot during that time. So everything has gotten more as opposed to maybe what we’ve looked at in the past.”
“But I think this. I think that Roger Goodell has done an outstanding job as commissioner of the NFL.”
Wish I got paid $63 million a year to sit in my basement and hand out suspensions.
Somebody’s got to be the bad guy and take out the garbage.
Goodell isn’t consistent with any fines or suspensions, but he has made both the players and owners A LOT of money during his tenure.
Pete Rozelle deserves the credit for making NFL owners rich because he did all the heavy lifting (merging the AFL and NFL and putting together the initial network deals). Goodell’s legacy will be reinstating Josh Gordon 7 or more times.
Bad move. the NFL needs to stop the nonsense, and Goodell is the king of nonsense
Goodell keeps brining in the big bucks for the NFL. If anything, he is underpaid based on his performance. (And yes, I’m not a fan of his inconsistency when it comes to suspensions and fines.)
Used to support him. Indeed tending to the mess the NFL has become is not easy but also self inflicted. Playground for the rich and criminals. His social agenda has created yet even more division and there’s no end in sight to his unbalanced thinking and disciplinary action.