[jccooper]

The Leauge Office is; the teams aren't. The teams make all the money, so it doesn't matter too much.

But it still doesn't make much sense for even the League Office to be tax-exempt. It doesn't meet any of the general criteria of operation for the public good. It would be hard for the government to address, since that status has a lot of history and the league has a lot of money and goodwill behind it. And there's some complication with player pensions or something. The best scenario would be for the NFL to give it up voluntarily; it wouldn't be a high price to pay to remove a common criticism.

[ghaff]

The "public good" criterion is for charitable organizations. The NFL League Office is a trade association that is tax exempt under a different set of criteria. (Of course you may disagree with trade association exemption criteria but they're pretty common--including within the software industry--as well as things like chambers of commerce. Or you may object to the specific exemption for sports leagues that's in the law.)

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/01/nfl-tax-exem...