Nonprofit NFL Paid Roger Goodell $44.2-Million in 2012

National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell received $44.2-million in compensation in 2012, making him possibly the country’s highest-paid nonprofit leader, The Star-Ledger of Newark and The New York Times write.

Mr. Goodell’s pay, first reported Friday by Sports Business Journal and set to be formally disclosed in Internal Revenue Service filings Tuesday, included $35.1-million in salary and $9.1-million in deferred pension and bonus payments. The league, which is classified by the IRS as a nonprofit trade group, topped $10-billion in revenue for the past season.

The commissioner’s earnings are set by NFL team owners. His 2012 pay “reflects our pay-for-performance philosophy and is appropriate given the fact that the NFL under his consistently strong leadership continues to grow and is by far the most successful sports league,” members of the league’s compensation committee wrote in a memo to fellow owners.