NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s recent five-year contract extension will, by the end of its term, "roughly double his current annual pay of about $10 million," according to sources cited by Daniel Kaplan of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Falcons Owner and NFL Compensation Committee Chair Arthur Blank "confirmed the extension would bring Goodell in line with other top sports commissioners." MLB Commissioner Bud Selig is "believed to earn more than $20 million annually." Goodell, the "shortest-tenured of the major sports league commissioners, has long trailed Selig and presumably NBA chief David Stern, whose compensation has never been public." NHL tax filings indicated that Commissioner Gary Bettman’s "total compensation was $7.5 million" for the '09-10 season. The NFL files its tax returns "publicly and is due to do so by" tomorrow, unless it seeks an extension. In the league's most recent public return, "filed last year, Goodell’s compensation was $9.89 million with a contract running" to '14 (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 2/13 issue). ESPN's Mike Greenberg said, “Roger Goodell is doing his job at an extraordinarily high level, and that’s why the people he works for, who are the owners, are giving him all of this money.” ESPN’s Mike Golic said, “He is head of a $9 billion a year business. Everybody is getting huge money and this guy is running it. ... He is the man at the top and he is making a lot of people a lot of money.” He added, “This guy is running an incredibly profitable and successful business. It is pretty impressive” ("Mike & Mike in the Morning," ESPN Radio, 2/14).
