NFL Officials Make Decision on Roger Goodell’s Future as League Commissioner

Roger Goodell will be the NFL commissioner for another few years. On Wednesday, the NFL announced Goodell has agreed to a new contract with the league through March 2027. The 64-year-old has been NFL commissioner since 2006 when he was elected to replace Paul Tagliabue. 

“I’m obviously honored to do this job,” Goodell told reporters on Wednesday after the Fall League Meeting in New York, per NFL.com. It’s not going to change how I’m approaching my day-to-day job, and it hasn’t to date.” This is the fourth time Goodell has extended his contract with the previous three happening in 2009, 2012 and 2017. There is speculation that this extension could be his last, but Goodell declined to speculate on his future beyond 2027. 

“From my standpoint, I signed a three-year extension. That’s what I’m going to do,” he said. “We’ll see what the future holds. I don’t know. We’ll see. I’m not making any commitments other than the next three years.” Goodell has been in the NFL since 1982 as an administrative intern in the league office under then-Commissioner Pete Rozelle. During his time as commissioner, Goodell has emphasized making the game safer, growing the game globally with the introduction of the NFL International Series in 2007 and getting the NFL through the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

But Goodell is not focusing on his legacy. “If I was focusing on my legacy, I wouldn’t be standing in front of you,” Goodell told reporters. “I wouldn’t have signed an extension. My job is to be commissioner of the National Football League. Do the best I can, and that’s what I’m going to do. You guys can decide legacies later. That’s not what I’m focused on. I’m focused on what we can accomplish as a league.”

As for Goodell’s next move, he said there’s still a lot of work to do. “There are lot of challenges out there, but there are also a lot of opportunities for us, and we’re focused on how we make the NFL better every day, how we become a global sport,” he said. “I think some very exciting things are happening in that context and I feel really good about where the National Football League is today, but we don’t sit around and tell ourselves that. We really shouldn’t, and we really focus on what are the things we need to do.”