Goodell had a tough year, but isn’t going anywhere

PHOENIX

Roger Goodell held his annual Super Bowl news conference Friday and answered questions ranging from his job performance to deflated footballs to franchise relocation to Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch refusing to engage much with reporters this week.

The NFL commissioner admitted it had been a tough year, that his office had experienced its share of adversity (you think?), that there has been much soul-searching within the league leading up to Sunday’s game between Seattle and New England at University of Phoenix Stadium.

He also never considered resigning, which isn’t surprising from a guy who takes home $44 million a year.

When you receive that level of cheese, you make the bosses show you the door.

Which isn’t happening, either.

Goodell isn’t being fired any time soon.

The off-field distractions can continue to occur and scrutiny intensified and investigations questioned and balls from here to Foxborough doctored with on a daily basis, but the main reason Goodell will remain the face of this league is constant and indisputable: He makes the owners money.

Boatloads of it.

How do you combat charges of corruption and cover-ups and shattered images, of favoritism toward specific franchises and a moral compass thought long ago abandoned?

You make the product as popular as it has ever been.

You grow attendance annually, and make it so a family of four has to spend almost $500 to attend a game. You attract more than 200 million unique TV viewers during the 2014 season and have Forbes Magazine estimate that 25 of your 32 teams are worth more than $1 billion.

You sit and watch and smile at the fact that of the $1.74 billion wagered on football across Nevada last year, 55 to 60 percent of the handle was for NFL games.

You sign a TV rights deal that guarantees each team more than $200 million annually before one ticket is sold.

You sign a technology deal worth $750 million.

You make progress on an earlier stated goal of the NFL reaching $25 billion in revenue by 2027.

That’s how.

If the leading responsibilities of a commissioner range from making money for his league to serving its fans to not embarrassing the product, you can’t imagine how much more important the part about money is to those most interested in the bottom line.

So when Goodell stands in front of a packed room two days before Super Bowl XLIX and chuckles emerge each time he uses words such as humility and fairness, you have to realize that none of it truly matters to those for whom he works.

Do you know when it will matter?

When we stop watching and wagering on games, when ticket and beer and jersey sales decline, when the financial projections don’t take, when popularity wanes, when corruption and lies and cover-ups and cheating and scandal coincide with lighter wallets for the owners.

When the average price for a Super Bowl ticket, as it is Sunday, doesn’t top $10,000.

Which is, in all likelihood, never.

“Football’s popularity is extraordinary,” Goodell said. “The credit goes to the players, coaches and fans. We know the NFL’s impact is far-reaching. It is most dramatically seen on Super Bowl Sunday. It means we have enormous responsibility to lead every day by example. It is what our fans deserve. We are humbled by, and grateful for, their passion. We know we must earn the trust of our fans every day.

“This is my responsibility – to protect the integrity of the game. I represent 32 teams. All of us want to make sure that the rules are being followed, and if we have any information where the potential is that those rules were violated, I have to pursue that and I have to pursue that aggressively. This is my job. This is a job of the league office. It is what all 32 clubs expect and what I believe our partners, our fans expect. We will do so vigorously, and it is important for it to be fair.”

That’s when the chuckling really began.

He was asked if his performance this past year deserved a pay cut and said he doesn’t make those decisions, that the owners evaluate his compensation annually and he doesn’t argue with their decision.

I wouldn’t think so.

It wasn’t a great day for Goodell on most fronts, which was expected given the previous 12 months of the NFL’s domestic violence issues and personal conduct policies and officiating blunders and deflated footballs.

He didn’t offer much substance on any issue, but rarely does at this annual gathering of talk-a-lot-and-say-nothing. It does seem, reading between the vague lines of his prepared statements, that he might consider cutting off his arm to ensure the NFL eventually lands a franchise in London.

Which would only add a few more boatloads of cash to the fleet.

Which is why Goodell was so emphatic when asked if he could envision any set of circumstances that would lead to his resignation or firing.

“No, I can’t,” he said. “Does that surprise you?”

Not in the least.

Not when you consider the only thing that matters to 32 owners.

First, last, foremost, the NFL is about green.

And we’re not talking the environment.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on “Gridlock,” ESPN 1100 and 100.9 FM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.