Hit Hard by Economy, NFL Is Downsizing

Even the mighty NFL is not safe from the economy's tailspin. The league will eliminate around 14% of its workforce—office workers, not the fellows who wear helmets—and is freezing salaries and hiring until 2009, Bloomberg reports. “I would like to be able to report that we are immune to the troubles around us, but we are not,” the commissioner said.

The downsizing will affect the league's production facilities in LA, its film unit in New Jersey, and its headquarters in New York. The NFL is not alone in its plight, as Bloomberg notes that the NBA and MLB are also tightening their belts. While sport has weathered recessions before, “most of those recessions were when ticket prices were a heck of a lot lower than they are now,” one economist said. (More NFL stories.)