Most Recent Posts

If you're a football fan, Sunday is kind of like Christmas.

Two conference championship games will determine the teams that advance to the Super Bowl, and the matchups couldn't be more exciting: Denver vs. New England (Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady). And some would say the other game, pitting San Francisco against Seattle, might just feature the two best teams in the league.

America shows its love for the sport in many ways beyond breathless anticipation of big games. It also gives back to the National Football League with tax breaks and publicly funded stadiums.

But does the multibillion-dollar business really need the help, or is the NFL getting a free ride?

Not For Profit

If you walk into NFL headquarters on Park Avenue in Manhattan, "you think you're in the headquarters of Goldman Sachs," says Gregg Easterbrook, author of King of Sports: Football's Impact on America.

The NFL is registered as a not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization — even with a commissioner who makes nearly $30 million a year. From the tax code to big stadium deals, critics say the NFL is getting millions of public dollars that would be better spent elsewhere.

The NFL league office is organized as a 501(c)(6), a part of the tax code that exempts thing like business leagues, chambers of commerce and trade associations.

But that's just the league office, not the 32 individual franchises. "There is no tax break at the NFL for revenue earned from things like ticket sales or jersey sales or corporate sponsorships or television money," says Jeremy Spector, outside tax counsel for the NFL and a partner at Covington and Burling LLP.

Spector tells NPR's Arun Rath that the NFL, including its teams, brings in around $10 billion of annual taxable income.

"None of those revenues are escaping tax. It's the league office — that organizational or administrative arm — that's exempt," Spector says.

The administrative arm handles things like writing the rulebook, hiring referees, running the college draft and negotiating stadium deals.

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma says it's absurd to call the NFL a "trade association." He's proposed changing the tax code to end the exemption and start collecting taxes from pro sports organizations.

"In a time when we have a $640 billion deficit — and that's the best we've had in five years — shouldn't very wealthy ... sports leagues pay their share?" he asks.

Spector, lawyer for the NFL, says sports organizations are being unfairly singled out.

"I think it's very dangerous if Congress starts picking and choosing which industry or which industry trade associations are eligible for the tax exemption," he says.

If You Build It ...

Besides the tax exemption, the NFL can also get a break through big stadium deals. Take, for example, the Dallas Cowboys.

In the late 1990s, the Dallas Cowboys and the team's owner, Jerry Jones, began plans to expand their stadium or build a new one. Jones shopped in and around Dallas for years, asking for public assistance to fund the stadium.

He found an audience in Arlington, a city just outside of Dallas. The price tag for the public was $325 million. (Jones was responsible for the balance of the money for the $1.2 billion stadium. Dallas News says Jones' contribution "was paid with commercial loans, league funding and proceeds from a ticket and parking tax.")

Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck saw an opportunity for the city, and a tough sell to voters.

Tom Coburn will leave the Senate with a reputation as "Dr. No," but not necessarily as doctrinaire.

The Oklahoma Republican, who at age 65 is undergoing his fifth bout of cancer, announced that he will resign in December, two years before his second term expires.

"This decision isn't about my health, my prognosis or even my hopes and desires," Coburn, a physician, said in a statement. "As a citizen, I am now convinced that I can best serve my own children and grandchildren by shifting my focus elsewhere."

The departure of Coburn, a leading conservative who previously served three terms in the U.S. House, will divest Congress of one of its most ardent budget and debt hawks.

His zeal is reflected his annual, much pored over "Wastebook." It details examples of what he views as flagrant government spending excesses. Last year's compilation of 100 included $65 million for post-Hurricane Sandy tourism advertising, as well as $10,000 for a National Endowment for the Arts grant to produce a live "pole dancing" performance that featured power linemen, their bucket trucks and 20 utility poles.

"Tom Coburn was fighting runaway spending long before it was cool," wrote Jim Geraghty, columnist for the conservative National Review, under a Friday headline that read, "Depressing news this morning."

Kurt Hochenauer, an Oklahoma Democrat and author of the political blog Okie Funk, says that while Coburn's actions often felt like political theater, his war on wasteful spending resonated across the political spectrum.

"I disagree with Tom Coburn on many issues, but I have found common ground with him at times, especially his interest in wasteful government spending," says Hochenauer. "Sometimes his actions as so-called Dr. No have seemed like political stunts to me, but I admire his consistency and focus."

"I also admire that he stands up for his principles and views," Hochenauer says, "even when it means going against more extreme members of his political party."

Coburn's decision to step down early also returns to the sidelines a strict social conservative, but one who would occasionally buck his own party — and who unfailingly avoided vilifying his political opponents.

It was President Obama, in fact, who wrote about Coburn last year for Time when the senator was named to the magazine's annual list of its picks for the 100 most influential people in the world.

Obama and Coburn famously befriended each other at an orientation dinner in 2005 when they were both new senators. Their wives bonded, and so did they, the president wrote, "over family and faith."

The men collaborated, Obama said, on government transparency legislation, trimming earmarks, and efforts to "close tax loopholes that benefit only the well-off and well connected."

"After I took office, Tom received dozens of letters from Oklahomans complaining that we looked too close on TV," Obama wrote. "Tom's response was, 'How better to influence somebody than to love them?' "

Self-Examination

Coburn loves his party, too, but he was willing to give it hell.

He excoriated Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz's "defund Obamacare" mission that led to a partial government shutdown last year.

Here's what he said on MSNBC's Morning Joe program: "To create the impression that we can actually defund Obamacare, when the only thing we control, and barely, is the House of Representatives, is not intellectually honest."

Back in the spring of 2008, during the height of the chaotic battle for the GOP nomination for president, he accused Republicans of being in a state of "paralysis and denial." He lambasted fellow party members for hiding a "big-government liberal agenda" (read: spending) inside a GOP package.

Here's more of what he wrote in the Wall Street Journal:

"Regaining our brand is not about messaging. It's about action. It's about courage. It's about priorities. Most of all, it's about being willing to give up our political careers so our grandkids don't have to grow up in a debtor's prison, or a world in which other nations can tell a weakened and bankrupt America where we can and can't defend liberty, pursue terrorists, or show compassion."

After Obama won a second term in 2012, Coburn, who decided to become a doctor at age 30 after his first bout with cancer, urged Republicans to "never give up."

"Many want to blame our setbacks in the Senate, in particular, on the Tea Party," he said. "I agree we need to do a much, much better job of candidate recruitment. The problem in Republican politics isn't the challengers: It's the incumbents — career politicians who say they are for limited government and lower taxes but make decisions that give us bigger government and higher taxes."

The Dysfunction Factor

Less than a month ago, Coburn decried Washington dysfunction in a Wall Street Journal commentary headlined, "The Year Washington Fled Reality."

His disillusionment was palpable, including with Obama for having "conformed to, rather than challenged, the political culture that as presidential candidate he vowed to reform."

Coburn, who opposed the president's health care legislation, criticized the disastrous rollout of the law — though in a Senate floor speech in December, he said its health insurance exchanges will ultimately "work, and work well."

But his real ire was reserved for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who deemed that a simple majority of senators could override filibusters on presidential nominees, except those to the Supreme Court.

Reid's "narrative about Republican obstruction of appointees is a diversion for his own war against minority rights," said Coburn, who last year offered more amendments than any other senator.

Coburn's seat is expected to remain in Republicans hands when a successor is picked in November, and his party is within sight of winning Senate control.

But Coburn, in an interview with The Oklahoman newspaper, said he's ready to move on.

"I've had a lot of changes in my life," he told the newspaper. "This is another one."

Subpoenas are hitting his closest aides and allies. His approval rating in New Jersey has taken a modest hit. And suddenly, politicians long afraid of him are speaking out about his revenge-style of governing.

But headed into a three-day weekend, there's some good news for Christie. The conservative base of the Republican Party, long skeptical of the New Jersey governor because of his bro-hug with President Obama after Sandy, is beginning to rally to his side. Here's some evidence:

1) Christie's political advisers tell NJPR that national donors who have long coveted a Christie presidential candidacy are calling to express support, not skepticism. According to Bill Palatucci, the governor's confidante and link to the national donor base, interest in Christie fundraisers spiked after the scandal broke. Christie is headlining events this weekend in Florida for Republican Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican Governors Association, and Palatucci said in recent days he has gotten about two dozen calls for people looking to buy tickets at the last minute.

2) Other potential presidential candidates have taken a wait-and-see approach to the scandal. He has not been publicly attacked by other Republican governors or potential Republican presidential rivals, indicating that Christie's stature within the party is not yet weakened.

3) The all-important conservative media is actually coming to Christie's defense. It's as if he earned some street cred by getting dragged through the media gauntlet. FOX News' Sean Hannity used the opportunity to slam "liberal media" for not pushing harder on the Benghazi situation: "You can rest-assured that if Christie does go on to run for President, this issue will be mentioned by the liberal media in virtually every conversation or analysis. If Hillary Clinton runs for president, will Benghazi or the host of other scandals similarly coincide with their analysis? Highly doubtful." Hannity said that compared to the evasive Clinton, Christie handled his scandal with "moral courage." And Rush Limbaugh, who once went so far as to call Christie a "Democrat," also rushed to the governor's defense this week after liberal rocker Bruce Springsteen and late-night host Jimmy Fallon made fun of Christie in a "Born To Run" parody.

4) Polls don't indicate that Christie's standing as the Republican presidential front-runner has diminished. A New Hampshire poll from Public Policy Polling taken after the release of the Bridgegate documents indicate Christie has a larger lead among Republicans than he did in September. And get this: 14 percent of GOP voters said it made them like him more.

But about those subpoenas. As Christie takes off for warmer climes, the Assembly committee investigating the Bridgegate scandal has made public some of the subpoenas they've issued, including one to the custodian of records at the Governor's office. Others being ordered to turn over correspondence related to the bridge include:

- Bill Baroni, former Port Authority Deputy Executive Director

- Maria Comella, Christie Deputy Chief of Staff, Communications

- Michael Drewniak, Christie Press Secretary

- Regina Egea, Christie Chief of Staff

- Christina Genovese, Christie Director of Departmental Relations

- Charles McKenna, Christie Chief Counsel

- Evan Ridley, Christie aide

- Colin Reed, Christie Deputy Communications Director

- Kevin O'Dowd, former Christie Chief of Staff/Attorney General nominee

- David Wildstein, former Port Authority Director of Interstate Capital Projects

- Bill Stepien, Christie Campaign Manager/Former Deputy Chief of Staff

- David Samson, Port Authority Chairman

Listen to the report here.

Matt Katz covers Gov. Chris Christie for WNYC and New Jersey Public Radio.

Tom Coburn will leave the Senate with a reputation as "Dr. No," but not necessarily as doctrinaire.

The Oklahoma Republican, who at age 65 is undergoing his fifth bout of cancer, announced that he will resign in December, two years before his second term expires.

"This decision isn't about my health, my prognosis or even my hopes and desires," Coburn, a physician, said in a statement. "As a citizen, I am now convinced that I can best serve my own children and grandchildren by shifting my focus elsewhere."

The departure of Coburn, a leading conservative who previously served three terms in the U.S. House, will divest Congress of one of its most ardent budget and debt hawks.

His zeal is reflected his annual, much pored-over "Wastebook." It details examples of what he views as flagrant government spending excesses. Last year's compilation of 100 included $65 million for post-Hurricane Sandy tourism advertising, as well as $10,000 for a National Endowment for the Arts grant to produce a live "pole dancing" performance that featured power linemen, their bucket trucks and 20 utility poles.

"Tom Coburn was fighting runaway spending long before it was cool," wrote Jim Geraghty, columnist for the conservative National Review, under a Friday headline that read, "Depressing news this morning."

Kurt Hochenauer, an Oklahoma Democrat and author of the political blog "Okie Funk," says that while Coburn's actions often felt like political theater, his war on wasteful spending resonated across the political spectrum.

"I disagree with Tom Coburn on many issues, but I have found common ground with him at times, especially his interest in wasteful government spending," says Hochenauer. "Sometimes his actions as so-called Dr. No have seemed like political stunts to me, but I admire his consistency and focus."

"I also admire that he stands up for his principles and views," Hochenauer says, "even when it means going against more extreme members of his political party."

Coburn's decision to step down early also returns to the sidelines a strict social conservative, but one who would occasionally buck his own party — and who unfailingly avoided vilifying his political opponents.

It was President Obama, in fact, who wrote about Coburn last year for TIME when the senator was named to the magazine's annual list of its picks for the 100 most influential people in the world.

Obama and Coburn famously befriended each other at an orientation dinner in 2005 when they were both new senators. Their wives bonded, and so did they, the president wrote, "over family and faith."

The men collaborated, Obama said, on government transparency legislation, trimming earmarks, and efforts to "close tax loopholes that benefit only the well-off and well connected."

"After I took office, Tom received dozens of letters from Oklahomans complaining that we looked too close on TV," Obama wrote. "Tom's response was, 'how better to influence somebody than to love them?'"

Self Examination

Coburn loved his party, too, but he was willing to give it hell.

He excoriated Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz's "defund Obamacare" mission that led to a partial government shutdown last year.

Here's what he said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program: "To create the impression that we can actually defund Obamacare, when the only thing we control, and barely, is the House of Representatives, is not intellectually honest."

Back in the spring of 2008, during the height of the chaotic battle for the GOP nomination for president, he accused Republicans of being in a state of "paralysis and denial." He lambasted fellow party members for hiding a "big-government liberal agenda" (read: spending) inside a GOP package.

Here's more of what he wrote in the Wall Street Journal:

"Regaining our brand is not about messaging. It's about action. It's about courage. It's about priorities. Most of all, it's about being willing to give up our political careers so our grandkids don't have to grow up in a debtor's prison, or a world in which other nations can tell a weakened and bankrupt America where we can and can't defend liberty, pursue terrorists, or show compassion."

After Obama won a second term in 2012, Coburn, who decided to become a doctor at age 30 after his first bout with cancer, urged Republicans to "never give up."

"Many want to blame our setbacks in the Senate, in particular, on the Tea Party," he said. "I agree we need to do a much, much better job of candidate recruitment. The problem in Republican politics isn't the challengers: it's the incumbents — career politicians who say they are for limited government and lower taxes but make decisions that give us bigger government and higher taxes."

The Dysfunction Factor

Less than a month ago, Coburn decried Washington dysfunction in a Wall Street Journal commentary headlined, "The Year Washington Fled Reality."

His disillusionment was palpable, including with Obama for having "conformed to, rather than challenged, the political culture that as presidential candidate he vowed to reform."

Coburn, who opposed the president's health care legislation, criticized the disastrous rollout of the law – though in a Senate floor speech in December, he said its health insurance exchanges will ultimately "work, and work well."

But his real ire was reserved for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who deemed that a simple majority of senators could override filibusters on presidential nominees, except those to the Supreme Court.

Reid's "narrative about Republican obstruction of appointees is a diversion for his own war against minority rights," said Coburn, who last year offered more amendments than any other senator.

Coburn's seat in is expected to remain in Republicans hands when a successor is picked in November, and his party is within sight of winning Senate control.

But Coburn, in an interview with The Oklahoman newspaper, said he's ready to move on.

"I've had a lot of changes in my life," he told the newspaper. "This is another one."