Roger Goodell's five-year extension will be his last contract with the NFL.
The embattled NFL commissioner last week signed a deal that expires in March 2024 when he will be 65 years old. NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart said Wednesday that Goodell will not sign another and will not work as a consultant with the league or have any post-retirement payments.
The extension can be worth up to $200 million with nearly 90 percent of the money represented by performance-based on incentives that will be decided by owners on various committees. In the past, just the compensation committee determined Goodell's bonus pay. His base pay was never as low as 10 percent of the deal and in one recent year he made $40 million.
Although his base will be just over $4 million per year, he can cash in with the incentives based on TV ratings, the league image and sponsorship deals. One source said it's unlikely Goodell's annual take will ever approach $40 million in any of the five years of the extension.
Goodell will have the use of the NFL's private jet service at the company's corporate rate after he retires, but it will be at his expense, just as it now when he uses the service for personal use.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was trying to get owners to reject the contract or at least delay it. But the six-owner compensation committee finalized the deal and signed it last week as did Goodell. It was their way of preventing Jones from killing the deal at Wednesday's owners meetings.
The news that Goodell will not attempt to extend his stay as commissioner beyond the 2023 season will be welcome news to fans who have voiced their unhappiness. But he will be around to oversee the next collective bargaining agreement, which expires after the 2020 season, and the next round of network television negotiations, sometime after the CBA is done.
