NFL commissioner Roger Goodell earned a salary of $35,017,000 for the 2013/14 league year, according to Darren Rovell of ESPN.com. The figure was revealed on the NFL’s tax return, which Rovell and ESPN got their hands on in advance of this Tuesday’s deadline for the league to file it to the IRS.
It’s been a miserable, controversy-filled season for Goodell, but this $35MM+ figure reflects his salary for the year ending on March 31, 2014, so we don’t yet know what sort of salary he earned for his work these past few months, as he dealt with scandals involving Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, and underinflated footballs.
What we do know is that 2013/14’s figure is roughly in line with the commissioner’s 2012/13 salary — as we wrote last February, he received $44MM+ that year, but about $9MM of that total was made up of deferred pay, putting his actual salary for the year in the $35MM neighborhood.
“The Commissioner’s total compensation in 2013 is a fair reflection of his leadership and contributions during the year,” said Falcons owner and chairman of the compensation committee Arthur Blank in a statement. “Compensation packages for Roger and other senior executives are reviewed annually; accordingly, the compensation committee will conduct a thoughtful review and make a determination of 2014 compensation in March.”
While Goodell’s annual salary had been steadily on the rise since his first year on the job, from $4.5MM in 2006 to $35MM+ in each of the last two seasons, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see that figure decline a little for 2014, after all the negative publicity the league received.