NFL owners and Commissioner Roger Goodell are negotiating over how much severance he should receive in his new contract in the event it is terminated during the planned five-year extension, sources said. Goodell is set to earn more than $30M annually in salary and bonuses, a sum he has routinely exceeded in his current deal, which runs through March '19. But he wants to ensure he would receive most of the low nine figures that he would be due to receive from '19-24, even if for some reason the owners let him go, sources said. It is one of the primary issues holding up the deal, one source said. The agreement was thought to be nearly complete earlier in the year. Falcons Owner Arthur Blank leads the league's compensation committee, which has owners who run other key committees. Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones, though not an official member, has been allowed to participate in the process and has voiced some concerns about the pay package, sources said. Blank, Jones and the NFL declined to comment. When Goodell’s last compensation package was completed in '12, it was not known whether the issue of severance came up. But he was only then on the verge of earning tens of millions of dollars annually, and the league was coming off what is viewed in many quarters as a victory in the CBA negotiations. However, since '12, the NFL has endured a series of controversies, from domestic violence scandals to the fallout from player protests during the national anthem, prompting criticism of Goodell. The CBA runs through the end of the '20 season, and what appears to be a tough labor negotiation lies ahead.
SHOULD NOT SCUTTLE EXTENSION: Despite the negotiation over contract terms, Goodell is widely expected to renew with the owners, who have largely supported and lauded his work. Deal terms of the contracts of sports commissioners are not made public, but executive compensation expert Steven Hall, said that in corporate America negotiations over severance are commonplace. “What you have is a graceful way for the teams to go to the commissioner and say we don’t need you anymore, or want you anymore, for some pre-arranged amount of money,” Hall said. Whether that is everything remaining on his contract or a discounted amount is what is negotiated, he added. One source said he expected the deal to be ready by the fall owners meeting in N.Y. on Oct. 18, though there have previously been expectations that the agreement is imminent.
