maybe because sports and especially football is such a sacred cow
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Roger Goodell Made $44 Million Last Year. The NFL Is Still a Non-Profit.
In all of America's 150 largest non-profits, there is
not another executive who is paid 1/10th of what Roger Goodell is.
Here's what that looks like — and how it got this way.
By Christian Araos on March 18, 2014
Ryan Ilano/Esquire
College presidents, hospital executives and heads of charities
all operate services that aim to better the world. You might expect one
of them to be the most compensated leader of a non-profit in the US.
It’s actually Roger Goodell, the Commissioner of the NFL.
While the NFL was busy attempting to sue pop star M.I.A. for $16 million
because she extended her middle finger during the Super Bowl halftime
show in 2012, Goodell made a grand total of $44.2 million in a 12-month
period that ended on March 31 of last year, SportsBusiness Daily reports.
Goodell’s base salary is listed at $3.5 million with a $40.36 million bonus on the league’s tax return.
His most recent total was an increase from the $29.49 million he
earned according to the league’s 2011 tax return that covered April 1,
2011 to March 31, 2012.
It is difficult to say when Goodell became the most compensated
leader since salary information for the person with the second-highest
non-profit salary in 2012, Gary Radine, was not available. Radine’s 2011
salary was $18,202,904 which was nearly $7 million more than the
$11,554,000 million Goodell made in the same year.
The NFL claims that the lockout is the true cause of the $44.2
million total, telling SBD that $9.1 million of that total was deferred
salary. Even then, unless Radine got a 300% raise—and there are no
reports claiming he did—Goodell is still the highest paid head of a
non-profit organization.
Goodell is lapping the field when it comes to salaries as his $29.49
million figure is almost triple the salary of the next head which was
the $10.6 million that Joseph Trunfio earned during the 2012 calendar
year at Atlantic Health Inc.
We’ve compiled 150 of the highest earning non-profits using the
publicly available 990 forms and we’ve compared his salary to each
organization’s top executive. Goodell’s $29.49 million total in 2011 was
more than ten times the average head’s compensation. That total is also
greater than the sum of the next five salaries. His total in 2012 is
greater than the combined salaries of the next four heads. He also made
more than all the school presidents included in the top 150 combined.
If you’re wondering why the NFL is a non-profit in
the first place, look at its modern origins. The AFL’s survival in the
early-to-mid ‘60s convinced NFL owners that the two leagues could merge
together for the betterment of the owners in both leagues. Once the
owners agreed to a merger, the only stumbling block that remained was
Congress. A law needed to be passed in order to allow the NFL to be
exempt from antitrust law.
After successfully lobbying two key Louisiana congressmen, the
exemption was granted and signed by President Lyndon Johnson. The NFL
was now allowed to function as a non-profit trade association for all
its teams. For their trouble, the congressmen’s home state was rewarded
with a new franchise, the New Orleans Saints, one month after the bill
was signed.
The two leagues created a combined championship game, which would
come to be known as the Super Bowl. New television contracts were formed
with CBS, NBC and, in a new venture, ABC would broadcast games on
Monday night.
The league’s economics, its health issues and recent
discriminatory workplace dramas provide a solid foundation to base a
legal attack against the league’s non-profit status. Senator Tom Coburn made that case in recent months, but there hasn’t been much progress.
There are only four organizations included on the list that function
primarily for sport. The Prairie Meadows Racetrack & Casino’s Gary
Palmer was the only one to not receive a seven-figure salary.
Coburn says there is no justification for the league to be
tax-exempt. The taxman is not going to cripple the league by taking a
small share of its extraordinary income.
So what’s the point of letting the league function as-is? The league
told USA Today that its function as a trade association justifies its
standing. The NFL contends that all of the income it distributes to its
32 clubs, $4.3 billion, is taxable. But that’s because the 32 clubs are
for-profit. 4951