The National Football League is one of the most profitable organizations in the country with revenues reaching around $10 billion every year. With legions of fans across the country and a promotional machine aimed at getting more and more money each year, it’s incredibly confusing as to how the NFL managed to secure nonprofit status for itself and the tax exemptions that go along with it. And yet, this is the case. An organization that is blatantly for profit and that has a horrible record with outreach and support of causes (unless they actually affect the NFL itself) has somehow managed to dupe the country into believing that it deserves nonprofit status and shouldn’t be taxed. Roger Goodell, the commissioner for the league, made $35 million this year and is still one of the highest paid executives of any type in the country, including for-profit businesses.
While many involved in the NFL (as in the owners) might see Goodell’s pay and the nonprofit status as reasonable, it just simply isn’t the case. The NFL pulls in 10 billion tax-exempt dollars a year and those dollars deserve to be taxed. The passing of the NFL as a nonprofit organization is a joke. While the NFL might point to outreach efforts as a sign of how they deserve the status, the truth of the matter is that there is only outreach when PR is needed. Take, for example, Ray Rice and the slew of domestic assaults that the NFL has been dealing with since its inception. If you were to research all of the domestic assaults caused by players then you would see that they stretch back decades and that the outreach only started this year after Ray Rice was video taped knocking his fiance out. Even with the tape, the NFL fought and fought against admitting anything.
The outreach caused by the scandal was pathetic and barely deserves to be called that. Somehow Goodell has been able to survive this controversy and still make millions. Somehow the NFL has been able to continue to skate by as a tax-exempt nonprofit when the entire sport of football has been built around the ability to advertise frequently throughout the game. How anyone still thinks that it deserves nonprofit treatment is beyond me. Something needs to change.
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