In 2017, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones fought a contract extension for Commissioner Roger Goodell. Today, Jones is singing a different tune.
Appearing on HBO’s Back on the Record with Bob Costas, Jones was asked whether Goodell is worth the $64 million per year that he reportedly gets.
“I think this,” Jones told Costas. “Certainly those numbers on the face of them are large numbers. Roger has been an excellent commissioner. I might say that back when years ago when I first came in the league they would be big numbers. I don’t know for sure what a man of your talent was making back then. But I know we could look at where we are today, and those numbers have increased a lot during that time. So everything has gotten more as opposed to maybe what we’ve looked at in the past. But I think this. I think that Roger Goodell has done an outstanding job as Commissioner of the NFL.”
Jones has come a long way, then, from thinking that the league pays Goodell too much. And that was long before Goodell cracked the $60 million per year barrier.
Still, it’s fair to wonder what Goodell would be doing, and how much he would be making, if he wasn’t the Commissioner of the NFL. It’s also fair to wonder whether the NFL could find someone else to do the job just as well for a lot less.
Then again, and as became very clear late last month when Goodell took the heat at a press conference for the league’s stubborn refusal to embrace transparency as to the Washington Football Team investigation, Goodell is paid in large part to take arrows that otherwise would be aimed at the owners. At $2 million per year per team, it is indeed money very well spent.