Robert Kraft, Asst. NFL Commissioner

GQ launched a special investigation into the NFL commissioner and his very difficult year. If you're in New York or Los Angeles, you can pick up the full story today. If you're based anywhere else in the country, the magazine will be hitting your shelves tomorrow morning.



As part of the feature, the magazine spoke to numerous people within the league, executives, owners, players and agents, and the relationship between Goodell and Kraft is concerning. As one league executive put it, some consider Kraft the "assistant commissioner" due to the sway he has in Roger's decision making process. The article also suggests that many owners resent the preferential treatment Goodell is perceived to extend to his inner circle. One who is referenced directly is New York Jets owner Woody Johnson.



Nobody can deny the financial growth the league has seen under Roger Goodell, but his perceived favouritism towards certain teams will come back to bite him. He needs the support of all the NFL owners, and if he doesn't come down hard on his friends, he'll never gain the respect of his detractors. Don't be surprised if he tries to sweep the whole Deflategate under the rug, while handing down a severe punishment to Woody Johnson for a slip of the tongue.

Goodell rarely went out front to face tough interviews. But Kraft was one of Goodell's closest confidants among the NFL's thirty-two owners, and his fiercest advocate and defender. As a member of the league's compensation committee, Kraft has vigorously defended Goodell's eye-popping $44 million pay package, and in the wake of the TMZ leak, he personally called owners and lobbied them to issue statements backing the commissioner, according to a senior league source. So large is Kraft's sway with Goodell that one veteran NFL executive likes to call him "the assistant commissioner."