Goodell paid $35M in 2013 (actually, a pay cut)

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<figure> <figcaption>NFL commissioner Roger Goodell continues to be well compensated. (Getty Images)</figcaption> </figure>NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was paid $35 million in 2013. That's 21 percent less that he made in 2012, when his salary was $44.2 million, though that included a one-time deferred payment of more than $9 million.


According to the New York Times, Goodell's base salary is $3.5 million, while the other 90 percent of his compensation was in the form of a bonus. Goodell's 2013 earnings also make him one of the nation's highest paid chief executives.


So how do we come across this information every year? Turns out, the multibillion-dollar money-making machine that is the NFL, in the eyes of the government, is a nonprofit organization. Thanks to an exemption written into the tax code, the league is exempt from federal corporate taxes.


Earlier this month, the new chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Republican Jason Chaffetz, told CNN.com that he might call Goodell to Capitol Hill to justify the league's nonprofit status.


"Was that a nonprofit event going on or was that a for-profit venture?" Chaffetz said the day after the Patriots defeated the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX. "It's a for-profit venture. You tell people that the NFL is a nonprofit entity and they just start laughing and giggling. But it's not fair. If there's another side to that, then let the commissioner come in and make that case."


Either way, it's the 32 owners -- not the fans or anyone else -- who pays Goodell's salary. And clearly, those owners are happy with all the money Goodell has made them, despite the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson scandals, or the issues surrounding concussions.


From 2006 to 2013, Goodell earned approximately $157 million.

One of the greatest modern CEO's of all time, worth every penny.