The NFL will make a big decision about the future of Roger Goodell soon. According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the league owners and Goodell are expected to finalize a multi-year contract extension for the commission at next week’s owners’ meeting in Phoenix. The NFL’s compensation committee is scheduled to present the proposed extension to team owners next Tuesday, and only one member from each team is permitted in the meeting.
Goodell’s contract extension has been in the works since last year when the compensation committee was allowed by the full membership to get a deal done. Both sides have discussed a three-year extension, but no length of time has been agreed to yet, according to ESPN.
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This will be the fourth contract extension for Goodell who took over for Paul Tagliabue as NFL commissioner on Sept. 1, 2006. The last three extensions come in 2009, 2012 and 2017. In his tenure as league commissioner, Goodell has helped finalize a collective bargaining agreement and a new TV contract with CBS, NBC, Fox, ESPN and Amazon worth $100-plus billion.
There was speculation that 2017 was going to be the final contract extension for Goodell who is 64 years old. ESPN says Goodell’s upcoming contract extension will likely be his final one since former commissioners Pete Rozelle and Tagliabue stepped down when they were 63 and 65, respectively.
During his annual Super Bowl press conference in February, Goodell talked about where the game of football can be improved “We have some techniques that we’ve seen develop through the season that we want to look at,” Goodell said per Sports Illustrated. “There’s a couple that we think have led to injuries, so we want to be cautious of and try to see if there’s a way to remove those from the game. We still see elevated injuries, particularly concussions on special teams.”
Goodell also shared his thoughts on the 17-game schedule having to do with increased injuries. “Injuries were down 6% this year. Total injuries. We think that’s an incredible positive reinforcement as some of the changes we’re making both to the preseason and the offseason training. But most importantly, training camp period where we’re escalating the level of intensity over a number of weeks. Also on Week 18, the injury rate is absolutely no different than any other week.”
