NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is hoping to get a contract extension through 2024 when all is said and done, despite a resistance battle with a high-profile NFL owner on his hands. If he does get the new contract he desires and he stays on board for the duration, he will have been the commissioner of the NFL for a total of 18 seasons.
But Goodell is well aware of how much he may be flirting with being in such a position for too long for his own good.
“I’ve studied this for a long time having been in the NFL for 36 years, and I watch other sports. I think there’s always a risk that people stay too long, and I don’t want to be in that category,” Goodell explained in an interview with Bloomberg. The comments come toward the end of the interview in the video below, in which Goodell discusses the possible succession plan he would like to see play out and plans he would still like to see through for the league.
We're live with the NFL's Roger Goodell, discussing the #TheYearAhead in football https://t.co/BwFoN5hvfL
— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) November 8, 2017
“It’s not just a succession,” Goodell says. “You have to make sure the succession is properly structured for all levels to be able to address all the other challenges that we have.”
Goodell is clearly not ready to give up on his job right now, despite the backlash he is receiving from outside the league and from even inside the owners’ circle. Goodell’s latest contract demands to continue as commissioner have included a nearly $50 million salary, lifetime use of a private jet and lifetime health insurance for his entire family. Those kinds of demands have not been sitting well with the likes of Jerry Jones, who has spearheaded the resistance movement against Goodell moving forward.
Goodell is not the most well-respected commissioner in sports right now by fans, but that tends to be true of most sports commissioners. It can be a thankless job to be a sports commissioner, and Goodell is certainly experiencing that. But he’s also handsomely paid for doing the job, so nobody is going to be feeling bad for him. But even being NFL commissioner can have an expiration date before you are ready to step aside. It would seem Goodell is already thinking that this may be his last contract with the NFL, but we’ll see how he feels about it in another few years.
Hasn’t he already stayed too long?