Goodell ‘going nowhere,’ says NFL consultant

Marc Ganis, a regular consultant to the NFL’s 32 team owners, says the embattled Roger Goodell isn’t going anywhere.

Sometimes dubbed the NFL’s 33rd owner because of his ties to the sport’s power brokers, Ganis says Goodell’s job is safe, even as Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones tries to block the approval of the commissioner’s contract extension.

“He is the best person to manage and run the National Football League going into the collective bargaining agreement and the new TV contract negotiations. Period. Full stop,” Ganis said on the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast. “The owners know how much value he has brought to them and to the league. He is going nowhere.”

Jones has escalated his feud with Goodell, hiring high-profile attorney David Boies and threatening to sue the league and fellow owners over talks to extend the commissioner’s contract, according to the New York Times. The squabble stems from the commissioner’s suspension of Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott, who was accused of domestic abuse by a former girlfriend. Goodell banned Elliott for six games, even though no charges were filed. Elliott had continued to play up until this week, when his suspension is expected to begin.

In May, the owners, Jones included, voted unanimously to extend Goodell’s contract, according to the Times. Jones, however, began lobbying against ratification of the deal after his running back was suspended.

Goodell’s annual compensation has grown to more than $34 million since he became the NFL’s commissioner in 2006. When his contract was last extended in 2014, his pay package put him at No. 62 on the Bloomberg Pay Index, a ranking of the highest-paid executives of publicly traded U.S. companies.