The NFL is giving back $723,724 following an internal audit of payments made to the league for sponsored military tributes. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sent a letter to Senators Jeff Flake and John McCain describing how the league conducted an audited review of 100 marketing agreements from 2012 to 2015 by accounting firm Deloitte & Touche. Goodell also wrote that marketing activities would be audited more frequently to catch such activities in the future. Last year, Flake and McCain announced that at the Department of Defense had spent $5.4 million in contracts with 14 NFL teams from 2011 to 2014, prompting “paid patriotism” criticism.
“In order to ensure that the military appreciation activities remain separate form military recruitment in the future, the NFL will include an assessment of marketing contracts in our regular internal audit reviews,” Goodell states in the letter.