4:06pm: Mark Maske of the Washington Post tweets that Goodell’s deal is “all but done.” He adds that this extension is expected to run through the spring of 2027, meaning it would indeed constitute three years tacked on to the one remaining on his existing pact.
3:44pm: At the upcoming NFL owners’ meetings, a deal giving the league continuity at the top is likely to be finalized. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that commissioner Roger Goodell is expected to sign a multi-year contract extension later this month. 
Goodell is under contract through the 2023 season, after his most recent extension was signed in 2017. That, in turn, came amidst the brief expectation that he would retire in 2024. Instead, he will continue in his current post for years to come. Schefter notes that the owners and Goodell have discussed a three-year, incentive-laden extension, though no concrete terms have been agreed upon at this point.
In any event, it is likely this latest deal will be the final one for Goodell. The 64-year-old has been in place as commissioner since 2006 and worked under four different contracts already. That has given him substantial earnings over the course of his career, and puts him essentially in line with predecessors Pete Rozelle and Paul Tagliabue in terms of age at the time their respective tenures came to an end.
Goodell’s tenure has seen a number of controversies emerge throughout his tenure, including the threat of legal action between the league and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in the build-up to Goodell’s 2017 deal. This latest one is not expected to pass with anywhere near as much issue, a testament to the regard he his held in by the owners. Labor peace has been ensured with a long-term CBA agreement ratified in 2020 as part of negotiations over revenue sharing and a general increase in player compensation.
The COVID-19 pandemic provided a new set of challenges for the league, but all scheduled games were completed without players being required to take on reduced compensation despite lost revenues. The latter point is one which “has not been lost on owners,” Schefter adds. After a one-year dip, the league’s salary cap is set for years of healthy growth for the foreseeable future.
The largest reason for that, of course, is the new slate of TV and streaming rights deals Goodell helped negotiate recently. Those long-term agreements have secured billions of dollars in new money for the league and its owners, a continuation of the financial success which has been chief among the positives in Goodell’s tenure. They, as evidenced by another new deal being on the horizon, clearly outweigh the negatives surrounding himself and the league in recent years.
Schefter notes that this latest extension has been worked on for the past year, and will likely lead Goodell and other members of the league to begin seriously searching for his successor. If the deal is indeed finalized in the coming days, though, there will be little immediate urgency for that process.
More guaranteed money than Deshaun Watson for less work than Chase Daniel.
Chase Daniel is way more useful. And less crooked.
How many billions do you turnover for revenue?
Of course he is.
Surprise, surprise. Worse game quality, higher revenue, more Goodell. But we still watch it… at least for now.
Why? He is the most useless person in the world and a horrible commissioner. He epitomizes what is wrong w/ the NFL on every front and this demonstrates how little the owners care about us fans.
Being the person you hate on behalf of the owners is a lucrative gig.
Gianni Infantino is far worse. Oversaw the winter World Cup last year. Rammed through an expanded World Cup for 2026 with more teams and thus more games. Tried to have Saudi Arabia sponsor the Women’s World Cup later this year until that blew up in his face. Last week he was re-elected president of FIFA — and he ran unopposed.
Wrong football.
Correct answer
The owners care about money and as long as fans are spending it, they’re happy. He has made them a ton with the new tv deals and the team values have skyrocketed under him. The Bowlen family just made a ton and the Snyder family is about to.
Pimp money for sure.
Rozelle was the visionary who did the heavy lifting that made the owners rich beyond their wildest dreams. Goodell’s legacy will be an unfulfilled wet dream of expanding to Europe, Asia and South America.
And Pete Rozelle was kicked out 4 years too late. Players’ strikes, clubs hopscotching, TV ratings collapse — all occurred on his watch.
Don’t forget the highly successful parity.
So says someone who probably didn’t live through the disastrous 1984 or 1987 seasons.
@ChuckyNJ / Teams relocated before Rozelle’s tenure and are still relocating so you can’t hang that on him. Players seeking a more equitable status was an inevitable result of the NFL prospering and would have occurred regardless of who was commissioner. You certainly didn’t see the level of embarrassing scandals during the Rozelle era that Goodell is drowning in now.
1982: Raiders move to Los Angeles after Al Davis wins lawsuit. Players’ strike erased 7 weeks worth of games.
1984: Colts move to Indianapolis. TV ratings collapse. Eagles nearly move to Phoenix.
1987: Second players’ strike. Replacement players. Strike collapses.
1988: Cardinals move to Arizona.
Not to mention drug problems all through the 1980s. Paul Tagliabue replaced Rozelle in 1989 yet things didn’t get better for quite some time.
It’s hard to say if the NFL would even have survived long enough to reach the 80s had Rozelle not been around to orchestrate a merger been the AFL and NFL. Whether you like him or not there’s no denying he was the best commissioner the league could have hoped for.
Somehow I neglected to add that your hero Pete Rozelle was implicated in a Super Bowl ticket scalping scandal, which Al Davis exposed in the build-up to his antitrust lawsuit against the NFL. Rozelle skated but Dominic Frontiere, whose then-wife owned the Rams, served time in federal prison as a result.
He’s such scum
Since he’s the commissioner, does he negotiate with himself?
I think he negotiates with a group of owners and then all of the owners vote on it.
Hope I live to see the day this cash cow crashes to the ground like the Hindenburg.
Goodell is part of what’s wrong with the NFL .
How about getting someone who loves the game. What happens when the fans say enough, bring back our game. Not this version you dreamed up. But the game that players can play and not have to worry about a flag if they look funny at someone.
The most overpaid commissioner in sports
Everyone bashing Goodell seems to be missing one important thing. The NFL is BY FAR the most successful sports league in the country. He has brought in a ton of money and distanced the league from all others more than it already was. The scandals that happened, like Ray Rice, Colin Kaepernick, Michael Vick, etc, weren’t his fault. He just got stuck dealing with them. I’m not a big fan of his personally and don’t like his liberal policies, but from the owner’s point of view, I can see why they are content keeping him. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.