"" In the wake of the fallout over National
Football League Commissioner Roger
Goodell’s handling of his players’ domestic
violence arrests, there have been multiple
reports by journalists, who read the league’s
filing of form 990 with the Internal Revenue
Service, that Goodell was paid $44 million in
the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013.
But there are lots of other leads for reporters
to pursue based on what is in that filing,
which is a report that every tax-exempt
nonprofit organization has to file with the IRS.
For starters, there’s the existence of the form
in the first place. How could the NFL — which
helps negotiate billions in media and
promotion deals for its member teams and
which itself reported an operating profit of
more than $9 million and $326 million in
“program service revenue” — be given
nonprofit tax-exempt status?
According to the filing, the NFL claims its tax
exemption under section 501c(6). The IRS
regulations define eligible 501c(6)
organizations as the following:

Business leagues
Chambers of commerce
Real estate boards
Boards of trade
Professional football leagues

Huh? How did that happen? Neither the
National Basketball Association nor Major
League Baseball have that valuable status.
What’s the story behind that?
In addition, is that status now in
jeopardy in light of the NFL’s recent
nosedive in public standing?
In fact, that same form 990 hints that
the NFL has long been worried about at
least the possibility of losing its special
tax-exempt status. A footnote to a
section related to the league’s
liabilities states that the organization,
since 2009, does an annual review to
“determine whether a tax position of
the League Office is more likely than
not to be sustained,” and that, based
on the review conducted for this report (the
year ending March 31, 2013), the league
believes its tax position will continue as is.
The next filing is due this February. I wonder
what the footnote will say then.
Other items worth pursuing in the NFL 990:
The league reported $1,276,000 in lobbying
expenses, plus another $7,139,000 in fees to
Covington & Burling, the powerhouse
Washington law firm (on top of $9,030,000 to
Paul Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, its
New York firm). That’s a lot of money being
thrown around in Washington. What issues
was the money spent on?
In addition to Goodell’s $44-million paycheck,
the league’s “executive vice president for
media,” Steve Bornstein, took home $26
million, and general counsel Jeff Pash received
$7,862,000.
That is an unusually high salary for a general
counsel — let alone one working for a
“nonprofit.” It might be a good hook for a
story reviewing the NFL’s multi-front legal
problems — from head injury litigation, to
disciplining players accused of domestic
violence, to maintaining the status of that tax
exemption.
In all three cases, most of the money the
executives received was listed as bonus
compensation — $40 million for Goodell, about
$23 million for Bornstein and $4.8 million out
of $7.8 million for the general counsel. In light
of the league’s current troubles, a reporter —
or a member of Congress at a hearing — ought
to ask the league owners who set these
executives’ compensation, what the bonus
criteria have been and whether they will now
be changed to reflect the league’s obvious
need to worry about issues other than money.
Under “grants,” there’s a $20,000 donation to
the National Association of Black Journalists.
Should groups of reporters be seeking and
accepting money from an organization they
cover, especially one that is so much in the
news?
Finally, there’s a $15,000 grant “to support
2012 convention” for something called
“Association Women in Sports,” which on the
form 990 lists an address in Neptune, New
Jersey. I could not find any trace of that
organization on the Internet, and its address
appears to be a residence. Who is this group?
And is it going to send back the $15,000?""
Per Reuters.

That is fuken ridiculous!!!! A grand example of the US dollar at work!

It was definitely news to me