NFL's Top Lawyer Will Give Up Multimillion-Dollar Paycheck in Event of Lockout
The NFL’s chief lawyer made about $4.9 million in 2009, but he will kiss his multimillion-dollar paycheck goodbye if there is a lockout.
Jeff Pash, the league’s general counsel and chief labor negotiator, has joined Commissioner Roger Goodell in pledging to take a $1 annual salary if there is a work stoppage, Bloomberg News reports. Their vow was revealed in an internal staff memo written by Goodell.
The news spread on Twitter, leading to a Twitter response by DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the players union, the New York Times reports. Smith said he would work for 68 cents if an agreement is reached by the Super Bowl.
According to the Times, the dispute ‘is the first in sports history to be played out extensively on digital turf.” The newspaper interviewed Stanford law professor William Gould IV, who said the league and the union are “trumpeting their positions to the public.”
“But my sense is that this stuff does not fundamentally change things in disputes that are difficult to resolve,” Gould said.
