The National Football Foundation will present the NFL and Commissioner Goodell the organization’s highest honor December 10 in recognition of their significant contributions to our country and the sport of football.
IRVING, Texas (July 31, 2013) – The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) announced today that the National Football League (NFL) and Roger Goodell, the innovative and influential commissioner of the NFL, have been named the 2013 recipients of the NFF Gold Medal.
“The NFL and Roger Goodell have made powerful contributions to our country,” said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. “Their commitment starts with improving the health and safety of the young people who play our sport, and their impact extends to countless community projects and initiatives that address a wide array of issues. We are proud to bestow our top honor on them.”
The highest and most prestigious award presented by the National Football Foundation, the Gold Medal recognizes an outstanding American who has demonstrated integrity and honesty, achieved significant career success, and has reflected the basic values of those who have excelled in amateur sport, particularly football. The award will be presented to Commissioner Goodell and the NFL on December 10 during the 56th NFF Annual Awards Dinner at the Waldorf=Astoria in New York City.
“Nobody better understands the impact that football can have on a community than Roger Goodell,” said NFF Chairman Archie Manning. “The NFL and Roger Goodell have been staunch supporters of the NFF for many years and our mission of using football to promote the scholar-athlete ideal and leadership in the community. We are thrilled to shine a light on their long list of contributions by presenting them the NFF Gold Medal.”
Originally presented to President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the NFF Annual Awards Dinner in 1958, the Gold Medal boasts an impressive list of past recipients, including seven presidents, four generals, three admirals, one Supreme Court Justice, 28 corporate CEOs and chairmen, actor John Wayne and baseball immortal Jackie Robinson. Goodell will become the 59th recipient of the NFF Gold Medal. (See below for the full list of past recipients.)
"We are proud that the National Football Foundation has selected the NFL to receive this prestigious honor,” said Goodell. “I am privileged to be part of the NFL and we will work hard every day to uphold the values represented by the award."
The NFL’s support of the NFF includes endowing one of the prestigious NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards and helping launch the NFF’s Play It Smart program, which places academic coaches on football teams in disadvantaged communities. The NFF honored former NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle in 1990 with the NFF Distinguished American Award.
Goodell is the eighth chief executive in the NFL’s history. He was chosen by the NFL club owners to be commissioner on August 8, 2006 and took office on September 1, 2006. Commissioner Goodell has focused his priorities on successfully growing the NFL’s popularity and strengthening the game and all 32 NFL franchises through innovation.
Fan interest in the NFL has soared under his leadership, including the largest television audiences in league history, enormous growth in online and social media engagement, and other measures of business success.
In his first seven seasons as commissioner, Goodell has addressed a wide range of issues to improve the NFL, including player health and safety; the medical needs and pensions of retired players; personal conduct; revenue sharing; stadium construction; media innovation; and international development.
In 2011, his leadership helped secure a landmark 10-year Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NFL Players Association, the longest in the history of professional sports. That was followed by long-term extensions of the NFL’s television contracts. The nine-year agreements with CBS, FOX and NBC are the longest ever for NFL broadcast television contracts and continue the NFL’s tradition of being the only sports league that televises all of its games on free, over-the-air television.
During his tenure, Commissioner Goodell also has strengthened the league’s anti-steroids policy, launched innovative media initiatives and a new series of international regular-season games, improved the NFL’s news media access policies to better serve fan interest, and revamped and enhanced the league’s programs to support and assist players and former players in their lives off the field.
Goodell, 54, joined the NFL in 1982 as an administrative intern in the league office in New York. After spending the 1983 season as an intern with the New York Jets, Goodell returned to the league office in 1984 as an assistant in the public relations department. In 1987, he was appointed assistant to the president of the American Football Conference, Lamar Hunt, by then-Commissioner Pete Rozelle.
Under Rozelle’s successor, Paul Tagliabue, Goodell served in various senior executive roles and was appointed executive vice president and chief operating officer in 2001. As chief operating officer, Goodell was responsible for the league’s football operations and officiating departments in addition to supervising all league business functions.
Goodell was instrumental in many league accomplishments prior to becoming commissioner, including expansion, realignment and stadium development. He directed the dramatic transformation and growth of the NFL’s business units, played a lead role in the launch of the NFL Network, and was a key member of the negotiating team that produced the NFL’s television agreements.
In football operations, he helped lead the 1994 initiative for rules changes to improve offensive production, initiated the creation of a senior football operations position in the league office, oversaw the administration of the instant replay system, and restructured the officiating department.
Roger Goodell was born in Jamestown, N.Y., about an hour south of Buffalo, on February 19, 1959, the third of five sons of Charles and Jean Goodell. The late Charles Goodell represented his western New York district in the United States Congress from 1959-68. In 1968, he was appointed by then-New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller to serve the final two years of Robert Kennedy’s term in the U.S. Senate following Kennedy’s assassination.
The Goodell family moved to Bronxville, N.Y, in 1971, where Roger graduated from high school. A three-sport participant at Bronxville High School in football, basketball, and baseball, Goodell captained all three teams as a senior and was named the athlete of the year at Bronxville High. Goodell graduated magna cum laude from Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pa., in 1981 with a degree in economics and received the school’s Walter Hudson Baker Prize for excellence in economics.
Goodell serves on the boards of Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City and Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, N.Y. Roger and his wife Jane live in the New York City area with their twin daughters.
Goodell will accept the award December 10 alongside the recipients of the other NFF Major Awards, including Oklahoma Athletics Director Joe Castiglione (The NFF John L. Toner Award for excellence in athletics administration), NCAA Vice President Dennie Poppe (The NFF Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award) and the yet-to-be announced winners of the NFF Distinguished American Award and the NFF Chris Schenkel Award for excellence in broadcasting.
In addition to the presentation of the NFF Major Awards, the 56th NFF Annual Awards Dinner will provide the stage for the induction of the 2013 College Football Hall of Fame Class from the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS); the presentation of the 2013 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards; and the bestowing of the 24th NFF William V. Campbell Trophy to the nation’s top scholar-athlete.
This year’s College Football Hall of Fame FBS Class includes: Ted Brown (North Carolina State), Teddy Bruschi (Arizona), Ron Dayne (Wisconsin), Tommie Frazier (Nebraska), Jerry Gray (Texas), Steve Meilinger (Kentucky), Orlando Pace (Ohio State), the late Rod Shoate (Oklahoma), Percy Snow (Michigan State), Vinny Testaverde (Miami, Fla.), Don Trull (Baylor), Danny Wuerffel (Florida) and coaches Wayne Hardin (Navy, Temple) and Bill McCartney (Colorado). The 2013 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class will be announced on Oct. 31, and the winner of the Campbell Trophy will be announced live at the event.
For ticket information regarding the 56th NFF Annual Awards Dinner, please contact NFF Director of External Relations Will Rudd at 800.486.1865 or wrudd@footballfoundation.com.
Past Recipients of the NFF Gold Medal include (Click for further information
):
2012 - Roscoe C. Brown, Jr.
2011 - Robert M. Gates
2010 - Bill Cosby
2009 - Bill Bowerman
2009 - Phil Knight
2008 - John Glenn
2007 - Pete Dawkins
2007 - Roger Staubach
2006 - Bobby Bowden
2006 - Joe Paterno
2005 - Jon F. Hanson
2004 - William V. Campbell
2003 - Tommy R. Franks
2002 - George Steinbrenner III
2001 - Billy Joe "Red" McCombs
2000 - F.M. Kirby
1999 - Keith Jackson
1998 - John H. McConnell
1997 - Jackie Robinson
1996 - Eugene F. Corrigan
1995 - Harold Alfond
1994 - Thomas S. Murphy
1993 - Norman Schwarzkopf
1992 - Donald R. Keough
1991 - George H. Bush
1990 - Thomas H. Moorer
1989 - Paul Brown
1988 - Clinton E. Frank
1987 - Charles R. Meyer
1986 - William H. Morton
1985 - William I. Spencer
1984 - John F. McGillicuddy
1983 - Jack Kemp
1982 - Silver Anniversary - All Past Honorees Recognized
1981 - Justin W. Dart
1980 - Walter J. Zable
1979 - William P. Lawrence
1978 - Vincent dePaul Draddy
1977 - Louis H. Wilson
1976 - Edgar B. Speer
1975 - David Packard
1974 - Gerald B. Zornow
1973 - John Wayne
1972 - Gerald R. Ford
1971 - Ronald W. Reagan
1970 - Thomas J. Hamilton
1969 - Richard M. Nixon
1968 - Chester J. LaRoche
1967 - Frederick L. Hovde
1966 - Earl H. "Red" Blaik
1965 - Juan T. Trippe
1964 - Donold B. Lourie
1963 - Roger M. Blough
1962 - Byron "Whizzer" White
1961 - John F. Kennedy
1960 - Herbert C. Hoover
1960 - Amos Alonzo Stagg
1959 - Douglas A. MacArthur
1958 - Dwight D. Eisenhower
ABOUT The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame
Founded in 1947 with early leadership from General Douglas MacArthur, legendary Army coach Earl "Red" Blaik and immortal journalist Grantland Rice, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame is a non-profit educational organization that runs programs designed to use the power of amateur football in developing scholarship, citizenship and athletic achievement in young people. With 120 chapters and 12,000 members nationwide, NFF programs include the College Football Hall of Fame, the NFF Scholar-Athlete Awards, presented by Fidelity Investments, Play It Smart, the NFF Hampshire Honor Society, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Alumni Association, and scholarships of more than $1.3 million for college and high school scholar-athletes. The NFF presents the MacArthur Bowl, the William V. Campbell Trophy endowed by HealthSouth, and releases the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Standings. NFF corporate partners include the Allstate Sugar Bowl, the BCS, Fidelity Investments, Herff Jones, Liberty Mutual Insurance, NCAA Football, and Under Armour. For more information, please visit www.footballfoundation.org.
