NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell Made $34.1 Million in 2014
Photo via AP
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell raked in $34.1 million in salary and bonuses in 2014, even as his league was marred by high-profile domestic abuse scandals and growing research on football’s devastating effect on the human brain.
Goodell, 56, received a base salary of $3.5 million, plus $26.5 million in bonuses, $3.7 million in retirement benefits, and $273,000 in “other reportable compensation,” ESPN reports. The grand sum of $34.1 million is down from the $35 million he received the year prior. The numbers were outlined in the NFL’s tax filings, which became public record Tuesday thanks to the league’s dubious status as a tax-exempt non-profit.
The NFL announced it would relinquish this status last year, so don’t get your hopes up for any details on what Goodell earned throughout Deflategate.
Despite a chorus of calls for his job, Goodell steered the ship through rocky seas in 2014. Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was filmed punching out his wife inside an Atlantic City elevator. Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was indicted for allegedly beating his four-year-old son, leaving cuts and bruises on the child’s legs, arms, buttocks, and scrotum. To make matters worse for the NFL, more information emerged on chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, and the league’s previous efforts to hide the information.
In spite of all that, the NFL is more popular, watched, and lucrative than ever. Goodell made the league’s owners millions, and so he received millions in return.
