Roger Goodell

I'm in the headquarters of the National Football League, where I've just had a chance to interview the commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell, who's now serving his nineteenth year as commissioner, and had a chance to talk with him about issues like international expansion, the popularity of the NFL, and practice private equity firms are now being allowed to

It always starts with the game, David.

I think the game is one of the greatest games, if not the greatest game in the world. The competition is extraordinary, the players, the coaching, Our games are never been closer in history, and I think it brings people together and it does.

Well on media.

I think the television experience is as great as as anything in television. I think being in the stadiums better, but I think we're fortunate to have a great product. Second, I'd say the business model. I think we have a

Number of games overseas in recent years, and in fact, you opened the season going to the opening game in Brazil. Oh, so do you expect to do more overseas games and is that a part of your strategy?

It is.

We had five last year, we expect to have eight this year, which will be the highest we've ever had. Our hope would be at some stage to get to sixteen games in the next few years.

We think we can do that.

I think it's an indication of the popularity of our game every time we take our game to a new market. Brazil is a great example of it. The fans go crazy for it. They sold out the tickets in less than ninety minutes. People had a wonderful time. It was the talk of the town, and I think it will be the basis in the sort of the match that lights the excitement and the popularity of the game in that market, as well as what we're doing around the world.

Or do you ever envision having a team that's based overseas in Mexico City or in London.

Listen, We've talked awful lot about it, and I think there are markets that could, without question support in an NFL franchise. I think there's a lot of issues with expansion of our league that we have to debate on that one. You know, additional teams. We have thirty two now, we think that's a really good number for the NFL. But also I think we would probably look at it potentially as building out by divisions as opposed to individual teams.

All the Super Bowls have been held in the United States, and they had more than fifty of them so far. Do you ever envision a time when a Super Bowl will be held in a city not in the United States?

Always, I think had super Bowl in a city that has a franchise, and I think that's sort of the core principle that we've had. I think if we have an international franchise, I definitely see that happening. I think as we become global, that'll be something that as we have international franchises, that would be logical.

So let's talk about one of the franchises.

Recently, a team was sold for six billion dollars i'd say about a year ago or so Washington Commanders, for a price that nobody never thought a sports franchise in United States would reach six billion dollars. Were you surprised the price was that high?

No, I think one that's a franchise that growing up in Washington I probably have deeper emotional feelings for. But that's a franchise and a great market, and we believe that it's going to be a tremendous success there, and I think Josh Harrison his Limited investors are going to do a great job. I'm not at all surprised that they got to that price.

Recently, the NFL allowed private equity firms, including mine, to invest in NFL teams in minority stakes. I think up to ten percent, and a number of these have already been done. In fact, I think valuations are above the six billion dollar level that the commanders received. I think some of the minority stake investments are at least eight billion dollar valuations. So why did you let the bad guys known as the private equity people into the tent and why have you capped it at ten percent?

One letting the bad guys in, we really feel like there are things that you all can teach us a little bit about our business and maybe help us think about it a little differently. As you know that ten percent positions a silent position. We believe very strongly in the fact that We like the principal owner approach that we've had for years and other sports have had successfully.

But do you ever envision a time at a sovereign wealth fund could invest directly in a minority stake in the team.

I don't think will ever allow institutional in a controlling position, at least in the foreseeable future. Again, I think we feel very strongly about having a principal owner that is there operating the franchise, responsible for that both in the club level as well.

As the league level.

On television, is that the case that somebody that only subscribes the basic cable can still watch on any of his teams or her team's home games or what are the rules? It's very complicated as to what is you have to pay for what you don't have to pay for today? What is the basic rule that makes it possible for somebody to watch the NFL game for their home team.

Well, David I would say, in the NFL, it's about as simple as it gets. We're committed to free television for the home teams the home markets, so not just the home team, but the visiting team. They will get their game on free television.

In other words, everybody who wants to watch their home team can watch it on basic television for free.

Correct.

So now you have the other packages where people want to watch special games or games not their home team, they then sign up for Netflix package or something else like that.

We have a few games that are on pay service, but we still are close to ninety percent of our games are on free television for everybody, and I think that is something we're incredibly proud of, and I think it's led to the popularity of our game because people can access it and we give them opportunities to see

And what about the Taylor Swift effect. Some people say that Taylor Swift is bringing more fans in because they want to watch her watch games, and other people say that she's getting as much attention as her I guess there a boyfriend who's a player for one of the teams, the Kansas City Chiefs. So has had any impact on the NFL or not really that much.

No, I think it has had a positive impact. Listen, the most important thing is that two young people, Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift, seem to have a wonderful relationship and they're both incredible people, which I've had good fortune of getting to know.

But we just wish them well.

But as far as what it's done, I think, you know, it's brought more interest into our game.

Taylor Swift is.

One of the greatest entertainers in the world today and I think has a tremendous following, and the fact that she likes football, I think intrigues other people and causes them to, you know, be interested in the game.

That's all good thing.

Now in the United States, the biggest sporting event every year is the super Bowl.

What is super Bowl Week like for you?

You have to kind of go go to the city, You have to deal with everybody, You have to be polite to everybody. You can't get upset with everything. But is it just a lot of tension in that that weekend? Do you make the decision on what city you're going to have the super Bowl in and who the entertainment's going to be.

Let's start with the selection of it, because it usually happens five years out. It's actually a process we go through to select the super Bowl city. The owners ultimately vote on that and select that city, and then our staff works with that city for roughly five years to get ready for the super Bowl. Super Bowl Week is

So do you get people who say they knew you're from high school calling up asking for Super Bowl tickets from time to time or you never get that?

Yeah, I get that a few times.

Yes, you wrote a letter to Pete Roselle when you were in college asking for an internship. This was in the early nineteen eighties, and he responded, I guess positively because you got an internship. Have you ever thought in your wildest imaginations, what would have happened had he not responded positively and where you might be today?

Well, he was kind, I don't know about positive. They get a lot of letters and a lot of interest in becoming an intern. It pushed it off to his executive director. I think it was close to fifty three letters later when I got the internship. I see, so it wasn't an immediate response and you've got a job. It took almost a year before that happened. But I have no idea what I'd be doing today if it wasn't being here at the NFL.

So you didn't have any idea of doing something important like private equity if you hadn't gotten into the guys.

Too smart for me, David, I doubt that.

So to people that are watching now and say, what did he put in his letter that was so persuasive to get an internship at the NFL, What did you say that future people that want to write letters to people like you should put in their letter.

Well, I have a copy of it actually over there, but I would say it wasn't what was written in the letter. I think it was the fact that I wrote fifty three times. At one point, the executive director said, if you're ever in New York, come by, and I said, well, I happen to be in New York. He said, well, can you come buy at eight o'clock? I said, of course. The problem I was in Pittsburgh, so I drove all

Let's talk about your own background for a moment. Where were you born.

Jamestown, New York. I grew up in Washington, d c. Though Jamestown, New York. And what did your parents do?

My mother was a nurse. My father was a politician.

He was a congressman who was appointed by Nelson Rockefeller at one point to succeed the assassinated Robert F. Kennedy, and he became a Senator. Is that right? That's nineteen sixty eight. And then your family moved to Washington then or you were We moved to Washington at fifty nine when I was born, actually so he could serve in Congress.

Well, I couldn't be proud of my father and the courage you took for him to do something that he knew was the right thing to do. It wasn't popular, and he knew at the time that he would likely lose his seat and lose the election, but he did it anyhow. And I think when we were young, he actually gathered us around I'm one of five boys with my mother and father and said, I'm going to do this, but I will likely lose the election.

But that was a lesson that.

Stays with me to this day, that you have to do the right things, regardless of the consequences.

So let's go back to your growing up. You grew up in Washington, but then you moved back to New York after he lost the election, and then you went back to where did you live afterwards, Broxville, New York. Bronxville, and then you went to high school in Bronxville. Yes, and you were a three sports star, as I understand it, you were in football, basketball, and baseball and the captain of all all three of those teams in your high school.

From the NFL.

Were you doing, you know, working in a McDonald's or something like that.

I wasn't.

I took some time after the summer after after I graduated, and I focused on what I wanted to do. I eventually, because I did not hear back from the NFL in a positive way until I think February of the year after I graduated, I worked in the steel industry.

Briefly.

I worked for Jones and Lachlan Steel, which was a good experience for me in a management training program.

So eventually you get the job of the NFL you worked for. Then the commissioner was Pete Rosel, who was the longest serving commissioner. You're the second longest serving I guess, is that right? I think that may be true. I hadn't thought about that. So Pete Rosel, who was the person who helped orchestrate he became commission, was only thirty three years old and when the AFL and the NFL came together.

So what were you actually doing in the early years.

Well, I was an intern in the public relations department, so I did a little bit of everything, and I guess maybe my two big breaks for the Jets at once point needed an intern late in the preseason, and they asked if I wanted to go over and do that, and so I had a chance to be with the Jets for one season, and it was a remarkable experience for me to be on the club level and understand what they go through, you know it it's different than what we do in the league level, and it was

But I went back after the season.

I was actually asked by one of the coaches, the defensive coordinator Joe Gardy, just stay and be an assistant coach, and I decided I want to go back to the NFL. Even though I didn't really have an opportunity there. I was still an intern for another year and a half. I thought it was the right thing and what I wanted to do. Roselle was a hero of mine and I wanted to work for him, and I loved I thought the NFL played a really important role in society and had a great future.

So we ever thought of you'd stayed with the Jets, you could one day have become a football coach at the NFL.

I could have.

I probably wouldn't be with the Jets anymore after that, as you know, their tenure doesn't last very long.

So I think I made the right choice. David.

So in two thousand and six you became the commissioner, Yes, and so now people are probably wondering what does the commissioner actually do. It's a great title, the commissioner, but it's an awkward position in a sense that you're employed by the owners, but you have to sometimes penalize the employers if they do something wrong. You have to find

Well, I always say, just don't get twenty four owners in one day pissed off at you.

That's one thing, right.

But I think the real issue here is, yes, you're hired by the owners, they select you. But I think the commissioner's ultimate role is to protect the integrity of the game and to grow the game, and that happens by balancing a lot of interest, including players and coaches and owners and partners and the general public and our fans. There Ultimately, you work for all of them, and that's

Way that I think people are proud of.

And so the thing I'm most proud of is not just the quality of the game, but the fact that the NFL has become the big tent that brings people together, and ultimately, I think I think it's one of the few things it does bring people together in today's society.

So when you're a sports fan, one of the pleasures of being a sports fan is you get the root for your team. But you can't root for anybody, I assume, right.

I always say, and this is true. I root for the team. It's behind, okay, and the officials.

But when you're in a game, how many games do you typically go to it a year?

Roughly twenty five to thirty, Right.

So when you go to a game, everybody's watching you. You can't when somebody does a great plague, you can't jump up and say great, because you're rooting for one team if you do that. So how do you sit there kind of passively watching a games.

Well, I'm okay with rooting for a great play because that's what we look to see, right, That's one of the things people come for, is a great play.

I don't root for a specific team.

And do you ever go in the locker rooms and talk to the players or see the players or you try to avoid that?

No, I try to see them, probably well before the game. When you're getting ready for a football game and you're in the locker room, the last person you want to see as a commissioner. So I choose carefully when I see them. But I spend a lot of time talking and communicating with players. I think it's important to understand their perspective. They're incredibly smart and passionate about the game and have a really important perspective.

That is important for us to hear. So on the commissioner.

When you're dealing with players, you have to find them sometimes too, is that awkward to find them? And you're sometimes you had to find I think or not a fine, but you had to deal with Tom Brady and the famous deflateon gate issue.

The policies and the rules of the league are paramount, and so whether it's an owner, whether it's a club executive, whether it's a player, whether it's a coach. If there are violations, you deal with that with discipline, whether that's fine and or suspensions ultimately, and it's important that you be thoughtful on that. It's not my favorite part of the job, and thankfully it's a small part of my job.

And our fans.

And so we wanted to raise that bar and we wanted to make sure the great people who played this game, coach this game, and are involved with this game, we're meeting the highest possible standards on and off the field.

So would you recommend to people that they aspire to become commissioner because that's such a great job, or you say not for another ten years or so.

Should somebody wanted to commissioned? No, I encourage it, as a matter of fact. I've met several people. But I think, listen, there's a timeframe and how long you do this job. And I think you know, as you said, Peter Roseill did this twenty nine years. I'm nineteen now, there'll be a time when it's needed to be a change that's in the best interest in the NFL.

And that's an important thing. When you're very young. You're too young to president of the United States. Presidents are in their late seventies these days, and you're just sixty five. I guess so you've got a ways to go. You've signed a new contract. I think that extends your term through twenty twenty seven. So have you thought about anything past there? Or it's too early to say?

No, I have a full day. It takes up a lot of my focus and thoughts. That's where I keep it.

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