On January 17, 1941, the NFL franchise owners amended the league's constitution to change the chief executive's title from "president" to "commissioner." This was part of an attempt to bring all professional football leagues under the authority of a single commissioner with powers similar to those of
Commissioner of Baseball Kenesaw Mountain Landis. The owners had already reached working agreements with the American Football Association and the
Dixie League and invited all other leagues, including the
American Football League, to join.
Elmer Layden (1941–1946) Election At their January 17 meeting the owners also narrowed the list of candidates to eight people. They pledged not to reveal who the finalists were, although it was reported that former
United States Postmaster General and
Democratic National Committee Chairman
James Farley was considered for the job.
Chicago Tribune journalist
Arch Ward was offered the position of commissioner, but he turned it down and suggested
Elmer Layden for the position. Layden, famous from his playing days as a member of the
Four Horsemen, resigned as head coach of the
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team on February 3, 1941, to accept the position of Commissioner of Professional Football. His appointment was not voted on by the entire league, which upset owners
Alexis Thompson,
Bert Bell, and
Dan Topping. Bell stated that Layden had been "railroaded" into office over other finalists (Philadelphia political leader
John B. Kelly Sr. and
University of Minnesota athletic director
Frank G. McCormick, the latter of whom had yet to be interviewed). Chicago Bears owner
George Halas contended that Layden's hiring was legal because it had been agreed upon by a majority of owners. Layden was signed to a five-year contract with an annual salary of $20,000.
Tenure as commissioner In five years as Commissioner, Layden saw the NFL through the
World War II years, in which teams had to use many men of inferior abilities as replacements while most of the regulars were fighting in the war (as did
Major League Baseball). During this period a few teams temporarily merged due to lack of manpower, most notably the
Pittsburgh Steelers, who merged with the
Philadelphia Eagles and earned the nickname the Phil-Pitt
Steagles (unlike the Keystoners idea, which was intended to be permanent, the Steagles lasted only one year) in 1943 and then merged with the
Chicago Cardinals to form
Card-Pitt in 1944. The
Cleveland Rams ceased operations for the 1943 season. Layden's tenure as NFL commissioner came to an end in January 1946. After Brooklyn owner
Dan Topping withdrew his team from the league to join the new
All-America Football Conference, some owners opposed renewing Layden's contract, as they felt that he was too much of a gentleman and not forceful enough to deal with the competing league. Layden resigned on January 11, 1946.
Bert Bell (1946–1959) On the day of Layden's resignation, Pittsburgh Steelers co-owner
Bert Bell was elected commissioner and given a three-year contract at $20,000 per year. He subsequently sold his stake in the Steelers to co-owner
Art Rooney. A year later, the contract was changed to a five-year pact at the same salary, a move that was followed in 1949 by a ten-year agreement that boosted his annual pay to $30,000. Bell's salary was raised to $40,000 in 1951, which was extended for a dozen years in 1954. Before his appointment, Bell had been active in the NFL since its beginning, first occasionally playing against them as a member of the
Union Quakers of Philadelphia, then a decade later as co-founder, owner, general manager and head coach of the Eagles, then as part-owner of the Steelers. Among his accomplishments as commissioner, Bell merged the league with the
All-America Football Conference, and did battle with the
Canadian Football League over scheduling and player rights. He also coined the phrase, "On any given Sunday, any team can beat any other team." One of his first major acts dealt with a gambling scandal that marred the
1946 NFL Championship game. In response, he successfully lobbied legislators in virtually every state to enact laws that made it a crime for an athlete not to report a bribe attempt. In addition to all these duties, he also single-handedly plotted out league schedules each season on his dining-room table by using a giant checkerboard. He created the revenue-sharing system that enables the small-market teams to make larger profits and remain competitive. He also embraced the idea of television blackouts for home teams, especially after watching the
Los Angeles Rams lose money after they televised all of their 1950 season games. However, he was seen as being a little too strict when he refused to lift a blackout for
Detroit viewers to watch the sold out
1957 NFL Championship between the
Lions and the
Cleveland Browns, claiming it would be considered "dishonest" to the paying customers. Bell died of a
heart attack on October 11, 1959, at Philadelphia's
Franklin Field, while watching a game between the team he co-founded, the
Eagles, and the
Steelers. The Eagles actually scored the game-winning touchdown the moment Bell died, as fans were paying more attention to Bell than the game. He had been under a doctor's care for two years and had recovered from a heart attack the previous February. Few knew that at the time, Bell was planning to retire as commissioner in order to regain ownership of the Eagles before the next season.
Austin Gunsel (acting commissioner, 1959–1960) In 1952,
Gunsel was hired by the NFL to head the league's investigative department, a move made in response to commissioner
Bert Bell's fear of a scandal damaging the league's image. Gunsel became league treasurer in 1956, holding the post until his retirement ten years later. He served as acting president of the NFL after Bell's death in October 1959. In January 1960 at a meeting of NFL owners, he was the early frontrunner to retain the commissioner's job, but
Los Angeles Rams general manager
Pete Rozelle was ultimately elected to the post on January 26 after 23 ballots.
Pete Rozelle (1960–1989) Election After
Bert Bell's death in 1959,
Rozelle was the surprise choice for his replacement as NFL commissioner. The owners first met on January 20, 1960, and took eight ballots without any candidate receiving the two thirds vote needed to be elected. On the first ballot
San Francisco 49ers attorney
Marshall Leahy defeated interim commissioner Austin Gunsel 7 to 5. Gunsel was soon dropped from consideration in favor of
Baltimore Colts general manager
Don Kellett. On the final ballot of the day, Leahy defeated Kellett 7 to 4, but once again did not receive enough votes to be elected. Leahy received strong opposition from four owners,
Carroll Rosenbloom,
Art Rooney,
George Preston Marshall, and
Frank McNamee, who objected to his plan to move the league office to
San Francisco if he was elected. Conversely, seven other owners remained supportive of Leahy as they felt he was the best man for the job. The second owners meeting resulted in six more ballots taken without electing a commissioner. On the final ballot, Leahy once again led Kellett seven to four. In an attempt to end the stalemate, Rooney suggested seven compromise candidates to the owners; former Congressman and NFL deputy commissioner
Samuel A. Weiss,
Sportsman's Park general manager and former Chicago Cardinals executive
Ray Bennigsen, former Cleveland Rams general manager
Chile Walsh, Philadelphia attorney
Frank Sullivan, former
Kentucky Governor and
Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler,
Detroit Pistons general manager
W. Nicholas Kerbawy, and attorney
Don Miller. None of these candidates were able to end the stalemate and for the third day in a row the owners were unable to elect a commissioner. On the fourth day of the owners meetings, the issue of electing a commissioner was not brought as the owners chose to address other league business. Two more ballots were held on day five, both ending with seven for Leahy and four for Kellett. On the sixth day, the anti-Leahy group switched their support from Kellett back to Gunsel. However, the voting still ended 7–4–1. By the seventh day, 23 ballots had been taken without electing a commissioner. Rozelle's original contract in 1960 was $50,000 annually for three years. In May 1962, he was granted a $10,000 bonus for and a new five-year contract at $60,000 per year.
1960s When Rozelle took office there were twelve teams in the NFL playing a twelve-game schedule to frequently half-empty stadiums, and only a few teams had television contracts. The NFL in 1960 was following a business model that had evolved from the 1930s. NFL sources credit Rozelle with originating gate and television profit-sharing. However, it was the rival
American Football League which initiated both concepts at its formation in 1959. The revenue-sharing was a major factor in stabilizing the AFL and guaranteeing the success of its small-market teams. Rozelle recognized the value of such an arrangement, and following the lead of the rival AFL, Rozelle negotiated large television contracts to broadcast every NFL game played each season. In doing so, he not only deftly played one television network against the other, but also persuaded NFL team owners — most notably
Carroll Rosenbloom of the Baltimore Colts and
George Preston Marshall of the Washington Redskins — to agree to share revenues between teams, as the
American Football League (AFL) had done since its inception. His business model, which emulated that of the AFL, was essentially a cartel that benefited all teams equally, from revenue sharing to the player draft.
JFK assassination On November 24, 1963, only two days after the
assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the NFL played its full schedule of seven games (untelevised due to uninterrupted coverage of the assassination, but well-attended), while the rival
American Football League (AFL) postponed its four games out of respect for the fallen president. Rozelle soon came to regret his decision to have the NFL play, and frequently stated publicly that it had been his worst mistake. However, Rozelle and
White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger had been classmates at the University of San Francisco years before, and Rozelle had consulted with him. Salinger urged Rozelle to play the games. Rozelle felt that way, saying that "it has been traditional in sports for athletes to perform in times of great personal tragedy." He also said that football was Kennedy's game and the late president thrived on competition. Woodard would serve in that role for the rest of the AFL's existence.
1970s The 1970s saw Rozelle at the peak of his powers as a sports league commissioner. He presided over a decade of league expansion.
Monday Night Football became a staple of American television viewing, and the Super Bowl became the single most watched televised event of the year. During this decade, the upstart
World Football League organized, pushing player salaries higher even as it ended up in bankruptcy. Towards the end of the decade, labor unrest and litigation over issues such as the
NFL Players Association and team movement to new markets foreshadowed Rozelle's decline as commissioner. In February 1974, Rozelle agreed to a ten-year contract at $200,000 per year, effective January 1973 through December 1982. It was replaced and updated in 1977.
1980s The 1980s saw drug scandals and further struggle with powerful owners over team movement. Rozelle, again according to
Monday Night Football commentator
Howard Cosell, pushed the NFL into an internecine struggle with Al Davis concerning the movement of the
Oakland Raiders franchise to Los Angeles. Other owners, such as
Leonard Tose of the
Philadelphia Eagles, sought to move their franchises elsewhere. Ultimately, the NFL lost its court case with Davis, and the Oakland franchise moved to Los Angeles in
1982. The sports world was very aware of the men's dislike for one another, going back to Davis' brief
time as AFL commissioner in 1966. In early
1981, the Oakland Raiders won
Super Bowl XV; as commissioner, Rozelle presented the
Vince Lombardi Trophy to Davis. It was said by some that he used both hands to give Davis the trophy so that he wouldn't have to shake his enemy's hand. Additionally, the
United States Football League launched in early
1983, pushing player salaries higher, and ultimately embroiled the league in further legal troubles; under Rozelle, the league lost an
antitrust suit to the USFL in 1986 (nevertheless, the token amount of money awarded as a result forced the money-bleeding USFL to cease operations). For nearly three decades under Rozelle, the NFL thrived and had become an American
icon, despite two players'
strikes and two different upstart He announced his retirement in March and stepped down in November; the number of teams in the league had grown to 28 (in ), and team owners presided over sizable revenues from U.S. broadcasting networks. Rozelle's annual salary in the late 1980s exceeded
Paul Tagliabue (1989–2006) After serving as a
lawyer for the NFL,
Tagliabue was selected by NFL owners to succeed Pete Rozelle as
Commissioner of the NFL in
1989.
Election On March 22, 1989, Pete Rozelle announced that he would retire as commissioner as soon as a successor was elected. Many owners wanted Rozelle to be succeeded by two equally responsible chiefs; a president that would oversee the business aspects of the game, and a commissioner responsible for maintaining the game's integrity. A six-owner search committee consisting of
Wellington Mara,
Lamar Hunt,
Art Modell,
Robert Parins,
Dan Rooney, and
Ralph Wilson was formed to find candidates for the job and the firm of Heidrick & Struggles was hired to assist in the search. The committee narrowed the candidates to five finalists;
New Orleans Saints general manager and minority owner
Jim Finks,
New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority President and CEO
Robert E. Mulcahy III, former
Green Bay Packers defensive end and businessman
Willie Davis, former
Democratic National Committee Chairman
Paul G. Kirk, and league attorney Paul Tagliabue.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary and former
Buffalo Bills quarterback
Jack Kemp was considered for the job, but chose to remain in his cabinet post. Although committee chairman Mara had said they would present the owners with three or four candidates, the committee unanimously endorsed Finks and reached an agreement with him on a five-year contract. This group did not object to Finks' candidacy, but abstained on principle because they wanted more of a voice in the selection process, felt that they had not given enough information on the search process from the committee, were upset that the committee only recommended Finks despite promising several candidates, and were upset by the fact that the committee had begun contract negotiations with Finks before he was even elected to the post. The second owners meeting ended in deadlock with 13 votes for Finks and 13 for Tagliabue. A third committee, made up of five owners, was formed to present the owners with a unanimous candidate for commissioner. It was chaired by neutral owner
Dan Rooney, who was joined by Finks supporters Mara and Modell and Tagliabue supporters Lynn and
Pat Bowlen. At the third meeting, a compromise was reached by the two groups that would make Tagliabue commissioner and Finks president in charge of football operations. However, Finks declined this position and Tagliabue was elected commissioner by an undisclosed number of votes.
Tenure In 1998, Tagliabue's $2.5 million annual salary was doubled to $5 million. His final contract, signed in 2004, paid Tagliabue about $8 million per year. Two days after the
terrorist attacks on the
original World Trade Center and
the Pentagon, Tagliabue announced that the games scheduled for the upcoming weekend were canceled. Tagliabue said the NFL was acutely aware of Commissioner
Pete Rozelle's well-publicized regret not to cancel the games on the weekend following the
assassination of John F. Kennedy in
1963. During Tagliabue's tenure, the
Carolina Panthers and
Jacksonville Jaguars joined the league in 1995, while the
Los Angeles Rams moved to St. Louis and the
Los Angeles Raiders returned to Oakland, leaving Los Angeles without an NFL team, in 1996, the
Cleveland Browns relocated to Baltimore and were renamed as the
Baltimore Ravens, in 1997, the
Houston Oilers relocated to Tennessee and before the start of the 1999 season, it became the
Tennessee Titans and in that same year, the
Cleveland Browns returned to the league. In 2002, the
Houston Texans became the 32nd team. Both the AFC and the NFC were formed in four divisions (North, South, East and West) of four teams each. The
Seattle Seahawks switched from the AFC to the NFC in 2002. New stadiums were built in Atlanta, St. Louis, Jacksonville, Charlotte, Tampa, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Denver, Foxborough, Houston, Seattle, Detroit and Philadelphia between 1992 and 2003.
Roger Goodell (2006–present) In 1987,
Goodell was appointed assistant to the president of the
American Football Conference (
Lamar Hunt), and under the tutelage of Commissioner
Paul Tagliabue filled a variety of football and business operations roles, culminating with his appointment as the NFL's Executive
Vice President and
Chief Operating Officer in December 2001. As the NFL's COO, Goodell took responsibility for the league's football operations and officiating, as well as supervised league business functions. He headed NFL Ventures, which oversees the league's business units, including media properties, marketing and sales, stadium development and strategic planning. Goodell was heavily involved in the negotiation of the league's current
collective bargaining agreement. He had worked extensively with Tagliabue since the latter became commissioner in 1989. He has played an extensive role in league expansion, realignment, and stadium development, including the launch of the
NFL Network and securing new television agreements as well as the latest collective bargaining agreement with the
National Football League Players Association. Goodell was chosen on August 8, , to succeed Paul Tagliabue and assumed office on September 1 — the date Tagliabue set to leave office. In November 2006, amid rumors that the NFL may expand outside the United States, Goodell stated, "I don't know if it will become a reality, but it is certainly a possibility." In April 2007, following a year of significant scandal surrounding some NFL players' actions off-the-field, Goodell announced a new NFL Personal Conduct Policy.
Tennessee Titans cornerback Pacman Jones and
Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry were the first two players to be suspended under the new policy, and
Chicago Bears defensive lineman Tank Johnson was suspended months later due to his conduct involving weapon ownership and drunk driving. On August 31, 2007, Goodell suspended
Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks coach
Wade Wilson for five games and fined him $100,000, and suspended
New England Patriots safety
Rodney Harrison four games without pay, after they admitted the use of banned substances for medical purposes and to accelerate healing, respectively. The league indicated to Wilson that his more severe penalty was because they held "people in authority in higher regard than people on the field." On September 13, 2007, Goodell disciplined the
New England Patriots and head coach
Bill Belichick after New England attempted to
videotape the defensive signals of the
New York Jets on September 9. Belichick was fined the league maximum of
$500,000 and the team itself was fined $250,000 and the loss of their first round 2008
draft pick. Goodell said he considered suspending Belichick, but decided against it because he felt the penalties were "more effective" than a suspension. He never considered
forfeiture of the affected games. In response to the
New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, where players had allegedly been encouraged during previous seasons to knock certain players out of games, Goodell suspended New Orleans head coach Sean Payton (the entire 2012 season), general manager
Mickey Loomis (first eight games of the 2012 season), assistant head coach
Joe Vitt (first six games of the 2012 season), and former defensive coordinator
Gregg Williams (indefinitely). It was the first time in modern NFL history that a head coach has been suspended for any reason. The Saints organization was fined $500,000, and forced to forfeit their second-round draft selections in
2012 and
2013. Four former Saints players (
Jonathan Vilma,
Anthony Hargrove,
Will Smith, and
Scott Fujita) were suspended after being named as ringleaders in the scandal. The players' suspensions were vacated by Goodell's designated appeals officer, former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. In the late summer and early autumn of 2014, a series of domestic-violence scandals broke, tarnishing Goodell's reputation, as he was seen as initially not having reacted quickly or severely enough to them. The first two players embroiled in these scandals, both
running backs, were
Ray Rice, whose tenure with the
Baltimore Ravens was terminated and who was indefinitely suspended from the NFL after the scope of his scandal broadened, forcing Goodell to change NFL policy on its handling of domestic-violence cases, and
Adrian Peterson of the
Minnesota Vikings, against whom child-abuse charges were filed. On May 11, 2015, the NFL announced that it suspended
New England Patriots quarterback
Tom Brady without pay for four games of the
upcoming season based on "substantial and credible evidence" that Brady knew
Patriots employees were deflating footballs and that he failed to cooperate with investigators. The Patriots were also fined
$1 million and lost their first round pick in the
2016 NFL draft and their fourth round pick in the 2017 NFL draft. On May 14, the
National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) filed an appeal of Tom Brady's four-game suspension. The NFL also announced that Goodell would preside over Brady's appeal, despite objections from the NFLPA, which requested a neutral arbitrator. On July 28, Goodell upheld the four-game suspension, citing Brady's destruction of his cell phone as a critical factor. On July 29, the NFLPA announced that they filed an injunction to prevent the NFL from enforcing the four-game suspension that commissioner Roger Goodell confirmed. On September 3, Judge
Richard M. Berman threw out Brady's suspension due to a lack of fair due process for Brady. The NFL appealed the decision, eventually having Brady's suspension reinstated for 2016. Brady dropped further appeals and served the suspension . Goodell's compensation from the league for the
2021 season was $63.9 million, more than any other professional sports commissioner in North America. ==List of presidents/commissioners==