Goodell's Ship Has Come In; NFL Pays Its Commish a Shipload of Cash

Is $29.5million a preposterous amount of money to pay someone?

Well, it's all relative. How much money is that person generating or administering for his employers?

Back in the day, Jack Nicholson earned $60million for being the Joker. He was smart to take a piece of the action in place of a higher salary, which was $6million. The movie did $413million worldwide, Nicholson was the top star, and he delivered. As well, there are similar examples in the music business.

Roger Goodell oversees a league that generated over $8billion last year.

So, is it too much to pay the commissioner of the NFL? It's a coin toss. And everyone knows there are two sides to a coin.

At first glance it would seem that he is overpaid, since the highest paid NFL athlete last season made about $10million less than Goodell did, and the commissioner didn't have to take one snap or endure one hit. But then, we flip the coin and see that a player sees action in an average of four preseason games followed by 16 regular season games. Toss in a few weeks of training camp and it still isn't the year-round gig the commissioner works.

Then there is the logistics of what one job versus the other. The player in is just an employee, and like every other job in comparison with what a CEO makes, the little guy makes far less.

To be more accurate, let us compare coins, because everyone knows a penny is not worth the same as Flowing Hair Silver Dollar. From this perspective, does Goodell's pay seem excessive for a commissioner of a major sports league? Here are the others:

• NBA commissioner David Stern makes around $23million;
• Bud Selig of MLB rakes in about $22million; and
• Gary Bettman of the NHL trails the pack by earning approximately $8million.

What seems like astronomical numbers to the average Joe is quite reasonable for the insanely rich. Many CEO's of large companies make even more. CEO of CBS Leslie Moonves reportedly made $69.9million in the latest reporting year, so maybe Goodell is underpaid.

No matter what we think, the NFL owners who authorize his paychecks seem to think that Goodell is a sure bet. They're pleased with how he's raised the league's revenues.

But at what expense? Goodell is still pushing for an 18-game season, which would put even more wear and tear on players whose health concerns have now become a major headache -- literally -- in this multi-billion-dollar cash machine.

Let’s just hope Goodell isn't playing with a double-sided coin.