The NFL is ditching its controversial tax-exempt status because it has become a "distraction," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced Tuesday in a letter to team owners. Many questioned the NFL's unique exemption last year amid the league's domestic violence debacle, and some lawmakers began pushing to end the benefit, which Congress created in 1966 to smooth the merger of the NFL and AFL. Though the change is expected to have little impact on the NFL's bottom line, it should mitigate some criticism of the organization and its roughly $10 billion in annual revenue.
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