Goodell to be paid $0 during pandemic

Commissioner Roger Goodell will not be paid during the coronavirus pandemic as part of a leadership-initiated reduction in pay by the NFL.

Multiple outlets reported the terms of the widespread pay reduction confirmed by a memo sent to teams on Wednesday. The NFL reductions include furloughs for employees who will still receive full medical benefits.

“We hope that business conditions will improve and permit salaries to be returned to their current levels, although we do not know when that will be possible,” Goodell wrote in the memo.

Goodell’s salary is no longer public record due to a change in tax status for the NFL. His last confirmed salary plus incentives was more than US$40 million.

Salary reductions take effect in May and include manager-level staffers accepting a reduction of five per cent, director pay trimmed by seven per cent and 10 per cent for vice-presidents. Senior vice-presidents are taking a 12 per cent reduction and executive vice-presidents lose 15 per cent.

Any employee with a base salary of less than $100,000 is not impacted by the reduction and the NFL determined it would not lower any salary below $100,000 as a result of these reductions, the memo said.

Furloughed employees are primarily based in the New York offices. Goodell wrote in the memo the league is not certain when those employees might return.

“We do not know how long a furlough will last, but we are hopeful that we will be able to return furloughed employees back to work within a few months,” he wrote.