Big Boss Man: Roger Goodell Earned More Money Than Any NFL Athlete in 2011

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We all know that there’s “big money” involved in being the commissioner of any sports industry. What we didn’t know is that it’s possible for a commissioner to earn more than the actual athletes that’s playing the game. Regardless if it’s the entertainment business, the NFL follows the same format – pay the boss higher than the workers.

That’s exactly what’s happening in the National Football League. According to Sports Business Daily, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell earned a whopping $29.49 million dollars in 2011 making Goodell the highest paid commissioner in any sport.

After the 10-year collective bargaining agreement between the Players Association and the NFL owners was agreed upon in 2011, the team owners had chosen to nearly triple Goodell’s compensation, increasing the commissioner’s salary with a bonus of 22.3 million dollars.

Roger Goodell made $30 million dollars in 2011 compared to his $11.6 million dollar revenue from the league in 2010. Now that’s the definition of a huge raise.

Let’s do some comparisons shall we? NBA commissioner David Stern and MLB commissioner Bud Selig are said to have made around the $20 million dollar range in 2011. In terms of players in the NFL, via Forbes, the highest paid athlete in 2011 was Peyton Manning making $23 million dollars. The second runner-up was Rams’ quarterback Sam Bradford who snuck in the league just before the rookie wage scale began and made a total of $18.4 million dollars.

Which makes NFL commissioner Roger Goodell the highest-paid “employee” of any sports industry.