NFL Chief Roger Goodell only made $35 million in 2013, just revealed in the group’s Form 990 filing posted to GuideStar. The NFL is a tax free not for profit foundation, although last week Goodell announced that was coming to an end. The non profit status was the only way the NFL had any transparency.
Goodell would be the 6th highest paid CEO in the US in 2013 if you go by the Wall Street Journal’s rankings. He made more than the heads of Disney, Time Warner, Aetna, and General Electric.
The $35 million may seem like a decrease. It’s not. In 2011, Goodell earned $29.5 million. In 2012, the compensation jumped to $44 million including bonuses. Now we know that in the year when domestic violence and deflated footballs diverted attention, Goodell was still raking it in last year.
It’s notable that the NFL keeps a litigation settlement reserve of $438,500,000. They claim total assets of $727 million. But that’s not net assets. Somehow, with clever accounting, the NFL says they’re $741 million in the hole. They’re definitely using an abacus to come up with those numbers.
The NFL no longer lists all the salaries of their top executives. But they do note that they loaned $2 million to one exec, and $500,000 to another.
The NFL– now this is the trade organization, not the individual teams, had a total of $308 million in total expenses. Legal fees were around $18 million. Research and development– you can only imagine– was just under $10 million.
We have to enjoy this news while we can. Only more year before Goodell and the NFL disappear into the dark of night.
