I bet NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is a big fan of the band Queen. How’s the lyric go? “I want it all, and I want it now.” Can you blame him? The man is in charge of the biggest sport in the country. He’s making money hand over fist for the owners he represents. Is it greed? Some would say it is. Others would say he’s capitalizing on opportunity.
Every time the NFL announces a new initiative, schedule tweak, or added international game, all I hear is “cha-ching.” Is investing in a professional flag football league good for the health of the sport or the back pockets of owners? How many international games will the NFL hold next year? Nine — a new record high after playing 62 regular-season games internationally so far. Plus, Goodell has openly discussed a goal of 16 international games per season, one for each of the NFL’s 32 teams.
Then came news this week that the NFL is considering placing a game on Thanksgiving Eve as early as this coming season. Once again, the question surfaces. Is it greed or just smart business? And can there ever be too much football?
Without question, Roger Goodell has done a masterful job as commissioner of the National Football League. Since taking over the role 21 seasons ago, he’s experienced a number of highs and lows. He navigated a lockout, two collective bargaining agreements, landmark player discipline cases, and attacks from controversial politicians. Oh, and there was also a global pandemic and a social justice reckoning within the sport.
Through all of that, business in the NFL has never been better.
Last year, the average NFL franchise was valued at $7.65 billion. That represents an 18% jump from 2024. The NFL salary cap has climbed from $167 million in 2017 to a record $301.2 million this season — the first time it has crossed the $300 million mark.
Owners are making more. Players are making more.
In 2025, NFL attendance dipped 0.8%, but games still averaged 69,055 fans. That still remains the fifth-highest leaguewide average since 2004.
Television contracts tell the same story. The league is currently in the middle of a $110 billion media rights deal and will open discussions for the next one later this year. What once included FOX Sports, CBS Sports, ABC Sports/ESPN, and NBC Sports now also features YouTube, Netflix, Prime Video, and likely others soon.
And Goodell is still pushing for an 18-game regular season.
The league has a stranglehold on sports in America. NFL free agency collides with March Madness and the World Baseball Classic. The NFL Draft overlaps with the start of the NBA and NHL postseasons. Training camp coverage dominates attention during the dog days of the MLB calendar.
College football isn’t immune either. The NFL added games on Black Friday to invade college football’s rivalry weekend. NBA on Christmas? Why bother when the NFL is playing multiple games that day.
In the eyes of many fans, the league already owns Labor Day, October baseball, and the start of the NBA and NHL seasons. So what’s left to own?
That’s where Goodell is a genius.
Thanksgiving Day viewership, which the NFL has long dominated, set new regular-season records last year. An estimated 57.2 million watched the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys while sitting down for dinner. The three Thanksgiving Day games combined averaged 44.7 million viewers.
Then came Black Friday. Prime Video carried a matchup between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers that drew an average audience of 16.3 million viewers — the most-watched sporting event on that day since 1991.
If the audience is there, networks will pay for it and fans will watch it. Even on one of the busiest travel days of the year.
So why wouldn’t the NFL place a game on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving? It’s another day to own and another opportunity to cash in.
That’s not greed. It’s smart business.
Yes, the NFL remains the most violent sport in America. Careers end too soon and added games increase the risk of injuries. The league protects players more than ever before because it has to. If everyone associated with the sport is going to make more money, the league must protect the people needed to make the games happen.
Moving an already scheduled regular-season game from Sunday to Wednesday isn’t necessarily “too much” football.
If history and ratings data are any indication, there may not be a way to fully satisfy the nation’s appetite for the sport. Fans continue to watch, buy tickets and merchandise, gamble, and flood social and traditional media with reactions to every play, injury, and headline.
For every sports media voice shouting from the mountaintop that the NFL’s greed knows no limits, you’re probably right. But you would do the same thing if you had Goodell’s job.
He’s doing nothing different than a great sports talk show host does every day: strike while the iron is hot and play the hit as often as possible.
As much as it stinks for teams to lose a home game for an overseas trip, they don’t lose money and they expand their brands internationally each time. For every complaint about how the league doesn’t care about players, the salary cap continues to rise.
When Roger Goodell says he isn’t competing with the NBA or MLB, he means it. He says the NFL is competing with Apple and Google. And increasingly, the league is winning that race. The NFL’s influence now stretches far beyond the games themselves. That’s a credit to Goodell and should be celebrated more than criticized.
Maybe that’s the real lesson here.
The NFL isn’t succeeding because it plays it safe. It’s succeeding because it pushes boundaries. It tests ideas. It expands until someone tells it to stop. So far, no one has.
Roger Goodell isn’t apologizing for wanting more — more games, more viewers, more revenue, more reach. Because as long as fans keep showing up, turning on the television, clicking the stream, and arguing about every call online, the NFL has no reason to slow down.
The appetite for football keeps growing. Goodell’s job is simply to feed it.
So if another game appears on the schedule or another holiday suddenly belongs to the NFL, don’t be surprised. When you run the most powerful sports league in America, you don’t wait for opportunity.
You take it all. And you take it now.
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