NFL LAYS OFF 150 EMPLOYEES

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told employees in a memo today that the league will eliminate about 150 jobs. That represents about 14 percent of the league’s total staff of 1,100. The cuts will come at the league headquarters in New York City, at NFL Films in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, and at the league’s production facilities in Los Angeles, where NFL.com and NFL Network are located. Goodell said cutting staff was necessary because of current economic conditions, making NFL employees just the latest workers to be hit hard by the recession. “These are difficult and painful steps,” Goodell said in the memo, “but they are necessary in the current economic environment. . . . I would like to be able to report that we are immune to the troubles around us, but we are not.” The NBA, Major League Baseball and NASCAR have also recently announced layoffs.