I had to do a double take when I read the headline.
It said: "THIS JUST IN: NFL commissioner Roger Goodell made $44.2 million in 2012 fiscal year, according to league taxes."
One of the replies to the tweet included, "What [...] does he need this money for, it's absurd." Another read, "That's gotta change and fast!!" A third said, "That's laughable and unbelievable all at the same time."
But if you stop and think about it for a minute, is it so unreasonable and unbelievable?
I realized that I wasn't surprised because I thought he didn't deserve that money. It was rather that, given my current state as a college student, seeing the number written out as someone's single-year income was a little shocking.
In fact, the more I thought about it, that figure only scratches the surface of what his worth is to his company, the National Football League. The business as a whole made $9.5 billion in revenue in 2012, with approximately $5.5 billion coming from media deals that Goodell himself had a significant part in.
Football as a television product plays on many of the major cable networks, including CBS, NBC, Fox and ESPN. Deals with these networks are priced at approximately $42 billion over the lifetime of the contracts. Additionally there is a five-year, $1 billion deal with DirecTV and another $1 billion contract with Verizon Wireless to stream games via their NFL Mobile app for four years. No other sports league can attain programming in primetime through all these mediums, nor could they do so at these price levels.
The average team is valued at just over a billion dollars ($1.17 billion). To put this in perspective, the Oakland Raiders are the least valuable team at $825 million. This is roughly equivalent to the second most valuable NHL team, the New York Rangers. According to a Sept. 13, 2007 Forbes article, professional football is "the most profitable sport on the planet," and it has only grown since then.
Along with generating billions of dollars in revenue for the teams and league, Goodell has also played an integral role in saving money. He was able to settle a deal with retired players - one which could have easily run up into the billions of dollars - at just $765 million. While the number still looks high, it was a bargain in the eyes of most.
With all of this in mind, is it that hard to believe that Roger Goodell is worth just .465 percent of the total league revenue?
Given the salaries for players these days, his contract appears to be even smaller. I am fairly confident in saying that Goodell is over three and a half times more valuable to the league than TambaHali, a linebacker for the Chiefs who made $12.3 million this past year.
The man has dedicated his life to the NFL and this is his reward. He started with the league as a lowly administrative intern in 1982, and, after an internship with the Jets, he received a job back with the NFL as an assistant in the public relations department. At the turn of the 21st century, he became Chief Operating Officer of the NFL and was named commissioner in 2006.
In the capitalistic market and country that we live in, we should encourage those who rise to the top to be paid a fair salary based on their worth to the company, no matter the number. By any significant statistics regarding value added to the business, Goodell has earned and deserves this money. It's time to appreciate the work of others, instead of trying to demean it, or else - you're sacked!
Jordan Bean is a sophomore majoring in economics. He can be reached at Jordan.Bean@tufts.edu.
