Roger Goodell Will Reduce Salary to $1 a Year if There’s a Strike, PR Stunt?

The Super Bowl is almost upon us and there is still no guarantee that there will be NFL football in 2011.  None of want to believe it, but a work stoppage is still very possible at this point and many knowledgeable sources have even said it’s likely.  The deadline to reach a new agreement is in March.

Fear not, ye morally correct businessmen and businesswomen.  NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and chief NFL negotiator Jeff Pash have vowed to reduce their salaries to $1 per year if there is a work stoppage.  That’s a nice gesture, but the question is whether or not the men are doing it because they believe they don’t deserve to make money if there is no football or simply as a public relations stunt.  My gut tells me it’s the latter.

Goodell made a base salary of $2.9 million in 2009 with a compensation package of $9.76 million.  Sure, he has plenty of headaches to deal with and fines to hand out, but that’s a good chunk of change in any profession.  By vowing to essentially be paid nothing if an agreement can’t be reached, Goodell has a way of proving he wants a deal to get done just as much as the other side and can negotiate in good faith.  The move is certainly a public relations stunt, but that doesn’t make it a bad one.