Report: NFL commissioner Roger Goodell expected to sign new contract extension next week

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will soon sign a new contract extension. According to a report by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the league’s owners are expected to approve the contract at league meetings next week.

Goodell, 64, has been in his current position for the last 17 seasons, taking over for Paul Tagliabue in September 2006. He signed extensions in 2009, 2012 and 2017.

Now he will get another one. While a three-year extension has previously been discussed, no details have been finalized just yet.

What can be said with relative certainty, though, is that the deal is expected to be, per Schefter, “the most lucrative ... ever given to any commissioner in any sport.” It might actually be Goodell’s last extension, though. Given his age, there is a belief that the next few years will be spent grooming a successor.

While he has undoubtably been successful shielding NFL ownership from criticism, Goodell is one of the most controversial figures in sports. New England Patriots fans will remember him for the dubious role he played in the Spygate and Deflategate scandals, stripping the team of one first-round draft pick each — among other penalties — and suspending quarterback Tom Brady for the first four games of the 2016 season.

That season, by the way, ended with Goodell handing the Patriots the Vince Lombardi Trophy after a win in Super Bowl LI.