Roger Goodell To Retire At End Of $200 Million Extension

Roger Goodell seemed to have upset some people in the NFL when he signed a $200 million contract extension last week, but the commissioner has since made a major announcement.

Roger Goodell contract extension news

Goodell will retire at the end of the lucrative contract, which is set to expire after the 2023 season.

“The commissioner I think has been clear that he views this as his last contract and will allow him to deal with some of the important issues that we know are on the horizon,” league spokesman Joe Lockhart said at the luxury Dallas-area hotel where NFL meetings were held.

Goodell, 58, has been in charge of the NFL since 2006, when he replaced Paul Tagliabue. 

The current collective bargaining agreement is set to expire in 2021. Goodell could also have a say in negotiations over new broadcast contracts, Lockhart added.

Among the NFL owners who objected the most to Goodell’s extension, which was handled by the league’s six-member compensation committee headed by Atlanta Falcons CEO Arthur Blank was the Dallas Cowboys’ Jerry Jones, who even threatened to sue the league. Jones viewed Goodell’s handling of Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott’s six-game suspension for an alleged domestic violence incident to have been poorly carried out. Elliott was never formally arrested in the case. Blank reportedly removed Jones as an ad-hoc member of the committee following the latter’s lawsuit threat last month.

“I’ve got a great respect for Jerry,” Blank said. “I spoke to him … on the phone about a week and a half ago. It was a very good conversation. I thanked him, which I didn’t get a chance to do, or chose not to do really, the time we played because I didn’t think it was the right setting.”

Lockhart said 90 percent of Goodell’s contract will be incentive based, which he added was an increase in non-guaranteed income over previous deals.

Goodell earned nearly $32 million in 2015, the last year for which public records of the NFL are available. League revenues have more than doubled to $14 million since Goodell became commissioner in 2006.

HOUSTON, TX – FEBRUARY 01: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell speaks with the media during a press conference for Super Bowl 51 at the George R. Brown Convention Center on February 1, 2017 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Tim Bradbury/Getty Images)