But a growing disparity between high- and low-income teams has raised questions about how long the NFL can keep all this up. The delicate task of protecting the league’s prosperity now falls to Goodell, the league’s former chief operating officer who two weeks ago was tapped to replace longtime NFL head Paul Tagliabue. Goodell, 47, must now quarterback 32 franchise owners whose interests often conflict and stave off signs of labor unrest from the Players Association (NFLPA). If he is any less sure-handed than his predecessor, these could be tall orders.
In March, Tagliabue brokered a four-year extension of the NFL’s collective-bargaining and labor agreements. The deal raised the salary cap and the percentage of the league’s total revenue paid to players; it also required the league’s richest teams to contribute a total of more than $850 million to a fund to subsidize poorer teams. High-revenue clubs found this hard to swallow. “I think it’s a deal that needs a lot of work,” says Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, one of the league’s richest clubs. “It’s an agreement that will have a difficult time perpetuating itself. It’s too favorable to the union.”
Despite its detractors, the deal was widely praised as a victory for Tagliabue and a testament to the authority he commanded as commissioner. “With a revenue-sharing plan, a good plan is one that nobody is happy with,” says Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. “We got that.” It’s unclear whether Goodell will wield the same influence. Jeffrey Kessler, an antitrust lawyer who has worked with several pro sports leagues, including the NFL, says owners like Kraft, Jones and the often contentious Dan Snyder in Washington might try to “undo some of what’s been implemented.” This could cause a rift with other owners, or the players; in turn, labor uncertainty could undermine future television contracts. “It is labor peace,” Kessler notes, “that has given the television networks confidence to enter long-term agreements.”
Preserving that confidence—and that cashflow—is of utmost importance. “It’s all about the TV money,” says Michael Leeds, a professor of sports economics at Temple University’s business school. “If you take the NFL’s TV contract and switch it around with the National Hockey League’s, you basically reverse the positions of the two leagues.” George Bodenheimer, the president of ESPN and ABC sports, credits Tagliabue with this success, saying the ex-commissioner’s magic touch was getting all parties “seeing the bigger picture and working together.”
As Goodell tries to do the same, his first major test will come in Los Angeles. The L.A. area is one of biggest TV markets in the United States, and home to large Hispanic and Asian communities the league is itching to tap. But the NFL hasn’t had a team there since 1995, a situation Tagliabue has called his single largest failure as commissioner. Getting a team to L.A. won’t be easy. The NFL isn’t eager to expand, given that adding a new team would create scheduling complications and potentially dilute the value of the existing franchises. Nor is there a franchise ideally fit for relocation. A year ago, the beleaguered New Orleans Saints seemed a perfect candidate, but Hurricane Katrina threw a monkey wrench. “Moving the Saints at this point would be the worst PR for the league since they played the weekend after Kennedy’s death,” says Leeds. “I’m not sure the new commissioner wants to start with a public-relations nightmare like that.”
Goodell also faces the question of how to make the NFL a globally relevant brand. Gene Upshaw, the president of the Players Association, says this is one of the toughest questions facing the new commissioner: “You have to look at international markets, even China. Next year we’ll probably have a game in China.” Closer to home, the league is also looking south, at the possibility of expanding into Mexico. Kraft says China, India and Mexico are “natural markets” for the league. Still, past efforts at foreign expansion have fallen flat. “The NFL tried that with NFL Europe,” says Leeds. “Now that’s basically just NFL Germany. Countries have their own sports, so it’s very hard for the U.S. to bring them something else.”
Fortunes can shift quickly in football, but for now, at least, the momentum is behind Roger Goodell. “The good news is that we’ve gotten to know Roger very well,” says Kraft. “He’s a leader, and he’s put a lot of sweat equity into this position.” Just as helpful, perhaps, will be the ongoing guidance of Goodell’s role model. Tagliabue has said he would like to stay involved with the league—and that he may live for a while in China, where the NFL would no doubt love to have a high-profile ambassador. Ultimately, though, Goodell’s fortunes will rest on his ability to work with the league’s most powerful owners: “Tagliabue could hold Jerry Jones in check,” says Leeds. “The question on everybody’s minds is, will Goodell be able to do the same with someone like Snyder?”
