The National Football League has announced that an agreement has been reached to extend Commissioner Roger Goodell’s contract for an additional three years, his fourth extension since being elected to the position in 2006. Goodell has negotiated numerous media rights deals with the NFL and helped usher in a new era of digital distribution, highlighted by the record-setting 11-year media rights contract with various entities worth a reported $110 billion.
On the Wednesday morning edition of ESPN Radio’s Unsportsmanlike, co-host Evan Cohen posed the question as to whether or not Goodell is worth more money than a player. The impetus for this query came after Goodell’s previous salary, which is reportedly about $64 million annually, was reported and how his career earnings are approaching $700 million.
“If the owners are willing to pay him to do it, yeah,” co-host Chris Canty responded. “It is what it is. The owners are looking at this and saying, ‘Goodell is the one that orchestrated these record-setting media rights contracts,’ and that’s all the NFL owners care about is the bottom-line [and] how much money they’re going to make.”
Goodell works with several league officials and representatives from television networks to negotiate the media rights deals, and he was critical in key decisions over the years related to flex scheduling and the integration of an over-the-top streaming platform, Amazon Prime Video, into the weekly game rotation. NFL Head of Media Brian Rolapp recently revealed that NFL Sunday Ticket through YouTube and YouTube TV has amassed a record number of sign-ups within its first year on the platform, part of a larger seven-year deal worth a reported $2 billion per year. Canty likened the reasoning behind his analysis towards replacement-value, and conveyed just how nuanced the role of a league commissioner is in today’s day and age.
“It’s easier for the owners to find players that can go out there and produce on a football field than it is to find people in this world that can do what Roger Goodell does,” Canty explained, “and I think that’s where the owners look at it and say, ‘This is why Roger Goodell is worth the contract paying him $60-70 million a year.”
As the commissioner of the league, Goodell is frequently at the center of unpopular decisions and instances with the potential to harm the image of the game. Both Canty and co-host Michelle Smallmon described him as “the personification of the shield,” understanding that he encompasses much of what the NFL is all about. While Smallmon, a former St. Louis, Mo. radio host and producer, has mixed feelings towards the league due to the departure of the Rams and the way it values women, she knows that Goodell takes much of the negativity and renders it sustainable.
“He’s absorbing all of this heat from fans; he’s protecting owners front themselves and the scandals that we hear about ownership, and he’s somehow turning it into piles of cash,” Smallmon said, “so that, if you’re an owner, is way, way, way more valuable than a player.”
Shortly thereafter, Cohen invited listeners to call into the show to discuss the Dallas Cowboys, one of the league’s signature franchises over the years, to respond to the assertion of the team receiving a deluge of criticism. One listener implored the show to stop discussing them, as it benefits owner Jerry Jones, who also makes weekly radio appearances.
He also shared that he and his father do not speak during the football season because of his father’s zeal towards the Cowboys, nicknamed “America’s Team.” In responding to the caller, Canty shared a story of his pre-draft visit in Dallas when he was informed by Jones that the Cowboys are “the Broadway of the NFL” and always a talking point no matter their record.
“There aren’t other owners that have a weekly radio show, so Jerry makes it a spectacle,” Canty said. “Jerry makes it a big deal, and when they underachieve, it creates this dynamic where everybody is polarizing. You either feel strongly about the Cowboys potentially being able to get them next year, or you think it’s going to be the same-old Cowboys, so I think that’s the lens that everybody looks at Dallas through, and that’s why we always talk about them.”
Jones makes weekly radio appearances, and star linebacker Micah Parsons hosts a weekly podcast with Bleacher Report, the most recent episode on which he expressed frustration towards people trashing the Cowboys. Nonetheless, sports media professionals know that there is significant national interest towards the team and oftentimes, there is no shortage of talking points, partially due to the accessibility of the personnel.
“We’ve got to keep reiterating – Jerry Jones talks every week; Micah Parsons talks every week,” Cohen said. “We’re an audio-based medium; we react to audio. They’re giving us a lot of audio.”
