The NFL paid Commissioner Roger Goodell $31.74M in ‘15, the first pay period after the player misconduct scandals of ‘14. While a 7% decline from the previous year, the amount shows owners did not punish him greatly in his wallet for his self-admitted mistakes in handling the Ray Rice suspension at a time when many were calling for him to resign. The figure is based on the last tax return filed by the NFL, which will now no longer need to be made public since the league changed its status from exempt to taxable. The compensation section of the filing, which the NFL mailed to the IRS in May and recently amended, covers the first six months of ‘15 and shows Goodell earned $15.87M. Doubling that figure to extrapolate his full annual compensation is accurate, the NFL said. The NFL dropped the tax exempt status in July ‘15. Goodell’s salary stayed the same at $3.5M, while his bonus fell to $23M from $26.5M, a 13% decline. The remainder of his compensation includes what is termed “other compensation” and retirement pay.
OTHER TOP EXECS: Among other notable names on the list of top compensated NFL officials is Exec VP/Football Operations Troy Vincent, who had not appeared previously. He earned roughly $2.2M for ‘15, based on the filing. The second-highest paid exec was NFL Exec VP & General Counsel Jeff Pash, who earned roughly $6.5M, down 13% from the year earlier. His bonus fell 16% to $3.27M. NFL Exec VP/Business Ventures Eric Grubman, who handled the L.A. relocation process, earned roughly $3.9M, roughly the same as the previous year. NFL CFO Joe Siclare earned roughly $2.76M, an 8% increase from ‘14. Former Exec VP/Communications & Public Affairs Paul Hicks earned $1.75M in ’15; he was not listed on the ‘14 form.
