The NFL's commissioner took a pay cut and only made $34 million in 2014

Roger Goodell, the NFL’s commissioner, took a pay cut in 2014, according to the league’s IRS tax filing. That year, he only brought in $34.1 million, a decrease from 2013’s haul of about $35 million. As the New York Times reports, Goodell was paid the $34.1 million the same year he admitted to bungling the Ray Rice domestic violence case:

While Goodell’s compensation is generous by any standard, the 32 owners chose not to trim his pay even though the league was marred by domestic violence scandals in 2014 that led to calls from Congress, advocates and others for the league to do more to combat violence against women.

The Times also points out that, because the NFL shed its non-profit status in July, we’ll no longer have access to Goodell’s compensation data going forward.

No recent figures exist for MLB commissioner Rob Manfred or NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s compensation, but as recently as 2011, their predecessors were making $18.4 million and an estimated $10 million, respectively.

Though we’ll be unable to access Goodell’s exact compensation going forward, it can be expected that it will remain steady as he continues to increase league revenue to unprecedented levels. In 2014, revenue was around $11 billion, ESPN says, presumably aided by the $1.5 billion DirectTV agreed to pay the NFL that year to continue airing games.

Meanwhile, the league remains mired in a concussion crisis, with one prominent doctor theorizing over 90% of players have some degree of CTE, the degenerative brain disease. While the league works to make it difficult for doctors to find solutions to their CTE problem, their players are dying after living in pain for many years, like in the case of Fred McNeill, a former Minnesota Viking who passed away a few weeks ago:

His personality started changing, too. Fred Jr. said his dad was normally easygoing, calm, collected. But there would be moments when his dad would suddenly lose his temper and punch a hole in the wall.

He initially attributed his dad’s behavior to marital problems but realizes now it was something more. “I look back, we realize that was the first sign of that rage and that frustration of him not being able to be himself and not being able to remember things,” the son said.