NFL pays Goodell $29 million
Nice job, Roger Goodell. Here’s your pay: $29.49 million.
NFL owners nearly tripled the commissioner’s compensation in the 2011 tax year and probably made Goodell the best-paid commissioner in U.S. sports.
According to the league’s most recent tax return, much of Goodell’s pay comes in the form of a $22.3-million bonus. His base pay was $3.1 million. The NFL was scheduled to file the return Friday.
The Green Bay Packers released veteran defensive back Charles Woodson. General Manager Ted Thompson announced the move Friday, saying the team would not have won the 2010 Super Bowl without Woodson. Woodson, 36, has two years left on a five-year contract that was worth as much as $55 million. His agent, Carl Poston, says Woodson still wants to play for a Super Bowl contender.
The Indianapolis Colts said they will not re-sign former league sacks champion Dwight Freeney or oft-injured receiver Austin Collie. Both will become unrestricted free agents next month.
Representatives of the International Ice Hockey Federation, the NHL and the NHL Players’ Assn. ended two days of meetings about NHL players’ participation in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics with cordial comments and an understanding that they will talk again next week.
IIHF President Rene Fasel and the organization’s general secretary, Horst Lichtner, were in New York on Thursday and Friday to discuss how the sides might resolve the issues that have divided them. The NHL and union have been critical of policies that gave them little access to its players during the Games. In addition, the NHL and its players receive no financial benefits from players’ participation and the league has sought a share of revenues from such sources as video and photo images.
Fasel said last week the IIHF would like a decision to be made by May for marketing and planning purposes.
NHL players have participated in the last four Winter Games, but the league considers the long distance to Sochi and the fact that games would not be televised live during prime-time hours in North America to be drawbacks that would limit the potential gains of shutting down the league for twoplus weeks next February to let players represent their homelands.
— Helene Elliott
The University of Alabama has barred three football players from campus pending a judicial review after their arrest on robbery charges.
USC tight end Junior Pomee, who faces felony charges of burglary, grand theft and possession of stolen goods, has a preliminary hearing scheduled for March 18, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said.
Pomee, 21, was arrested on suspicion of possessing stolen goods by officers with USC’s Department of Public Safety on Jan. 29. He pleaded not guilty Jan. 31.
Pomee was suspended from all team activities, Coach Lane Kiffin has said.
— Gary Klein
Bernhard Langer holed out from the fairway for an eagle on the par-four 10th hole and finished with a 10-under 62 on to take a three-stroke in the Champions Tour’s ACE Group Classic at Naples, Fla.
Bob Tway was second after a 65, and Tom Pernice Jr., Jay Don Blake and John Huston shot 66.
An emotional Serena Williams returned to the top of women’s tennis, overcoming a series of potentially career-ending injuries since 2010 to become the oldest woman to hold the No. 1 ranking.
The 31-year-old Williams rallied from 4-1 down in the third to beat former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5,in the quarterfinals of the Qatar Open at Doha. She needed to reach the semifinals to replace Victoria Azarenka at No. 1 when the rankings come out next week.
Williams will next face Maria Sharapova, who beat Samantha Stosur, 6-2, 6-4.