We don't just cover the San Francisco 49ers here at Niners Nation -- we also occasionally take a look at the collective train wreck that is the rest of the NFL as well. On Friday, an interesting story came out that I felt like touching up on to see how this community in particular takes it. There were a lot of issues with the NFL as a whole this past season, with commissioner Roger Goodell (rightly) coming under fire for his managing of the league and handling of certain things (hint: domestic violence) more so than ever before.
Well, if any part of you started to feel sorry for Goodell for any reason (you shouldn't, regardless), don't worry yourself too much. The guy made exactly the amount of money one needs to make to be totally impervious to all criticism -- $35 million, to be exact, according to tax returns submitted by the league, via the Associated Press.
Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson and Goodell's good buddy, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft comprise a committee that decides the commissioner's pay, and they've settled on $35 million in 2013.
They'll meet in March to determine what he's going to make for this past season and if I were to hazard a guess, I'd say he makes about the same, if not more. Despite leading the NFL into one of its biggest PR nightmares ... ever ... Goodell still managed to do what the owners desperately need him to do: shield them from criticism. He does that very well, and he's getting paid a whole lot of money for it.