Roger Goodell Pulled In a Cool $29.49 Million In 2012, Highest Paid Player Made $20 Million

You can safely assume the the large figure which Roger Goodell pulled in for 2012 will be talked argued about for a while moving forward. The NFL commissioner raked in $29.49 million in 2012, with $22.3 million of that being a bonus and his base pay was around $3.1 million. NFL owners nearly tripled the commissioner’s compensation in the 2011 tax year. Goodell had earned a paltry $11.6 million in 2010.

According to Sports Business Daily:

For the year beginning April 1, 2011, and ending March 31, 2012, Goodell was paid $29,490,000, which included $3,117,000 in base pay, $22,309,000 in bonus and incentive compensation, and most of the rest in “other reported compensation,” the tax return said.

“The NFL is the most successful and best-managed sports league in the world,” said Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, who is chairman of the league’s compensation committee, in a statement. “This is in no small part due to Roger’s leadership and the value he brings to the table in every facet of the sport and business of the league. His compensation reflects that.”

It should also be noted that the NFL is setup as a non-profit organization:

“Unlike most CEO’s of major companies, who are compensated with stock options, the NFL does not provide that,” said Marc Ganis, the president of SportsCorp, which does consulting work with the NFL. “So a performance-based bonus is another way of compensation.”

As a frame of reference, Saints quarterback Drew Brees is the highest-paid player at about $20 million.