Sportsnaut
The NFL will not have to go through a carousel to find out who’s gonna be the commissioner. The NFL’s owners have made their call on Roger Goodell’s future—and the longtime commissioner isn’t leaving the league office anytime soon.
Goodell, who marks 20 years as NFL commissioner next month, is expected to remain at the league’s helm beyond the expiration of his current deal in March 2027. His contract, which runs through March 2027, was last extended by three years in October 2023. By the time it expires, Goodell will be 68, but all signs point to the owners keeping him in charge for the foreseeable future.
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According to Mark Maske, NFL owners are already gearing up to keep Goodell in the commissioner’s chair. Maske reported that owners expect to extend Goodell’s contract “in the coming months” and shared the update on X.
With Goodell’s current deal set to expire in March 2027, the timeline is tightening for both sides. There’s no official word yet on when a new extension will be finalized or announced, but the NFL has a few key dates on the calendar.
Owners are set to meet on Aug. 26 in Atlanta for a special session, where they’ll vote on the proposed $9.612 billion sale of the Seattle Seahawks from the estate of Paul G. Allen to a group led by the family of venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. After that, the league’s regularly scheduled owners meetings are slated for October in New York and virtually in December.
October could be the perfect stage for another Goodell announcement. That’s when owners unveiled his previous three-year extension back in 2023, making a repeat reveal feel like familiar territory. Whenever it happens, league owners appear confident the deal will get across the goal line.
If Goodell lands another three-year extension, he’d be 71 when that contract expires—potentially putting the NFL’s succession plan squarely in play. Former Colts owner Jim Irsay once floated the idea of eventually splitting the role into two positions: a chief executive to handle the league’s business operations and a commissioner focused solely on football matters.
When Goodell signed his last extension in 2023, he made it clear his focus wasn’t on an exit strategy. “There are a lot of challenges out there,” Goodell said. “But there are also a lot of opportunities for us… We’re focused on how we make the NFL better every day, how we’ve become a global sport.”
Retirement rumors have followed Goodell before. Former NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart said in 2017 that the commissioner intended to step away by 2024. Goodell never confirmed that timeline, and when his latest extension was announced in 2023, he admitted he still didn’t know when he’d eventually call it a career.
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