NEW YORK — NFL teams were notified Sunday that commissioner Roger Goodell has finalized a four-season contract extension that runs through the 2030 league year, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported. The contract expires March 31, 2031.
Goodell’s previous deal, a three-year extension completed in October 2023, was set to run out in March 2027. He turned 67 in February. By the time the new contract ends, he will be 72.
The 2023 agreement was Goodell’s fourth extension since owners elected him to replace Paul Tagliabue in 2006. Sunday’s deal is his fifth.
On July 20, Front Office Sports’ Mark Maske reported that owners expected to complete an extension in the coming months so Goodell would remain in place for negotiations on new broadcast agreements and a new collective bargaining agreement with the players. The current CBA runs through the 2030 season. It also prohibits the league from adding an 18th regular season game on its own. The NFL’s broadcast deals, completed in 2021, are worth more than $110 billion over 11 years, and the league holds an early opt-out.
Financial terms of the new contract have not been reported. Goodell’s salary is no longer publicly disclosed because the league office gave up its tax-exempt status.
Jerry Jones Fought The 2017 Extension
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones opposed Goodell’s last five-year extension. In the fall of 2017, Jones threatened to sue the league and members of its compensation committee to block the deal, ESPN reported. He hired attorney David Boies to represent him, according to CBS Sports. Falcons owner Arthur Blank, the committee chairman, removed Jones from his non-voting seventh seat on the committee after the lawsuit threat.
That dispute followed the league’s six-game suspension of Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott under the personal conduct policy. Jones denied the suspension played a role in his objections. He backed off the lawsuit and later paid the legal fees the league incurred in dealing with his threats, according to Pro Football Talk.
Goodell signed the five-year deal in December 2017. Owners gathered for meetings at a Dallas-area hotel one week later, and Jones hugged Goodell when replacing him at the podium.
In October 2022, owners voted 31-1 to authorize the compensation committee to negotiate Goodell’s next contract. Jones was the lone dissenter. That extension was announced at the October 2023 owners meeting in Manhattan and did not require a formal ratification vote, because the owners had already authorized the committee to complete it.
Maske reported in July that there was no known opposition among owners to the extension finalized Sunday.
Timeline Of The Latest Deal
In May 2025, The Athletic reported that owners were set to approve a Goodell extension at that month’s league meeting, then revised the report to say the item had been pushed to a later date. Jones told reporters at the meeting that the extension had not been discussed, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
By July 2026, four people familiar with the owners’ views told Front Office Sports the deal would get done, with one calling its completion “critical” ahead of the labor and broadcast negotiations.
At the news conference announcing the 2023 extension, Goodell said the league was focused on becoming a global sport and that he felt good about where it stood.
“We’ll see what the future holds,” Goodell said. “I don’t know. We’ll see. So I’m not making any commitments other than, for the next three years, I’m going to bust my butt.”
The NFL Players Association elected JC Tretter as its executive director in March. Formal CBA negotiations between the league and the union had not started as of July.
The owners’ next regularly scheduled quarterly meeting is in October in New York. A December meeting will be held virtually.
