With two years left on his deal, don't expect Roger Goodell to retire any time soon

When Commissioner Roger Goodell signed a new contract eight years ago, former NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart declared that it would be Goodell’s final deal.

It wasn't. And the one he signed after it likely won't be, either. (Lockhart, meanwhile, didn't last much longer after he said Goodell would be leaving.)

While perusing the latest edition of John Ourand's indispensable Varsity newsletter for Puck, I saw that ESPN's Don Van Natta Jr. told Ourand this week that Goodell will renew his current deal, which runs into 2027.

“What I’ve heard is that he isn’t going anywhere,” Van Natta Jr. told Ourand on his Puck podcast. “Maybe that’s not surprising when you consider how much money he’s making and how good everything is going. . . . He’s enjoying the job. The business is almost on autopilot. I would be surprised if Roger retires after the conclusion of his current contract.”

Given the money Goodell is making (the amount is no longer publicly known because the league office stopped during business as a non-profit trade association more than a decade ago), why walk away from a job he has perfected? The 32 people who determine his status and his compensation are happy with him. And there's currently no viable alternative, either inside or outside the halls of 345 Park Avenue.

“He has been able to grow the NFL’s revenues in a remarkable way," Van Natta told Ourand. "He set an audacious goal of $25 billion annual revenues for the NFL by 2027. He’s going to meet it. And he has managed to do all of that and keep all of these owners happy. That’s a real feat.”

The hard part was getting the job. For Goodell, whose been the Commissioner since 2006, the easy part is keeping it. Now 65, what else would he do? As long as he's physically able to keep going and motivated to do so, there's no reason to step aside.

And with no clear successor in place (none of the usual suspects who emerge from time to time have the chops do the job the way Goodell does it, in my view), the league would be foolish to force a change. Still, at some point, they need to be thinking about the future.

Some believe that, post-Goodell, the league might opt to hire a traditional CEO to run the NFL's ever growing empire, with a top football executive in the position that the next Commissioner ordinarily would have occupied. While it's moot until Goodell goes, the owners need to eventually be thinking about a future without Goodell.

Until Goodell is willing to embrace his plans for a future without football, it will be a delicate subject, to say the least. For now, the league can keep printing money under Goodell's stewardship and worry about tomorrow whenever tomorrow comes.