- NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sought an internship at the league office with a persistent letter-writing campaign, eventually leading to his more than four-decade career.
Before Roger Goodell rose to the top job in the most popular sports league in the country, his tenure in the National Football League started with a letter in the early 1980s to then-Commissioner Pete Rozelle.
Like many college graduates, Goodell, a recent alum from Washington & Jefferson College, was in search of an internship. He reached out to Rozelle with a letter.
He heard nothing, then wrote another letter but still did not receive a response from the league. He didn’t stop there.
“I think it was close to 53 letters later when I got the internship,” Goodell said on The David Rubenstein Show on Bloomberg TV, adding that it took almost a year before getting a response.
When asked what Goodell wrote that was so persuasive, he replied that it was the quantity of the letters sent, rather than what he said.
Eventually, the league invited Goodell to stop by its office the next time he happened to be in New York City. He said he was coincidentally there already — even though he was in Pittsburgh. The executive director invited him to come in at 8 a.m. The next morning.
“So I drove all night to get there,” Goodell said. “And I think you just have to take advantage of your opportunities and distinguish yourself in some ways of what you’re deeply passionate about and what you think you can create value for someone.”
Three-sport athlete in high school
Son of U.S. Senator Charles Goodell, Roger spent most of his childhood growing up in the nation’s capital in and around politics. Sen. Goodell, R-New York, made a name for himself opposing the country’s involvement in the Vietnam War, an unpopular stance during this time for a Republican.
The opposition ultimately ended in him losing his seat.
“Well, I couldn’t be prouder of my father and the courage it took for him to do something that he knew was the right thing to do,” Goodell said. “It wasn’t popular and he knew at the time that he would likely lose his seat and lose the election.”
After his father lost his Senate seat, the Goodell family moved to Bronxville, New York. A three-sport athlete in high school, Goodell captained the football, basketball, and baseball teams. After graduating high school, he went on to earn his degree in economics at Washington & Jefferson College in western Pennsylvania.
While waiting to hear back from the NFL during his letter-writing campaign, Goodell had a stint in the steel industry with the Jones and Laughlin Steel Company.
“Which was a good experience for me in a management training program,” he recalled.
‘A little bit of everything’
Then Goodell finally started his NFL internship in 1982, doing public relations and “a little bit of everything.”
As the 1983 season approached, the New York Jets were in search of an intern and called up Goodell, who accepted the role, saying his experience at the club level was much different than at the league level.
After that season, Goodell was offered an assistant coaching position with the team, but opted to go back to the league office.
Above all, Goodell’s hero was Rozelle, and he had aspirations to work for him in any capacity. He remained an NFL intern for a year and a half.
“I thought the NFL played a really important role in society and had a great future,” Goodell said.
When asked to speculate about a coaching career if he had stayed on with the Jets, Goodell alluded to the team’s frequent turnover.
“I could have. I probably wouldn’t be with the Jets anymore after that,” Goodell said. “As you know, their tenure doesn’t last very long.”
Ultimately in 2006, Goodell was elected the NFL commissioner and is the second-longest tenured commissioner in the league behind Rozelle.