540MINUTES

By DAVE GOLDBERG

NEW YORK (AP) — The recession has hit the NFL. The league said Tuesday it is cutting more than 10 percent of its headquarters staff in response to the downturn in the nation's economy. Commissioner Roger Goodell announced the cuts in a memo to league employees. The NFL is eliminating about 150 of its staff of 1,100 in New York, NFL Films in New Jersey and television and Internet production facilities in Los Angeles.

"These are difficult and painful steps," Goodell wrote in the memo. "But they are necessary in the current economic environment. I would like to be able to report that we are not immune to the troubles around us, but we are not. Properly managed, I am confident the NFL will emerge stronger, more efficient and poised to pursue long-term growth opportunities."

The NFL has been symbolic of the wealth surrounding professional sports — its players will be paid $4.5 billion alone this year — but it now joins the NBA, NASCAR and the company that runs Major League Baseball's Internet division in announcing layoffs.

The cuts will take place over the next 60 days, running past the Super Bowl, which will be played Feb. 1 in Tampa. Employees who volunteer to leave will be offered what was termed "a voluntary separation program."

They are separate from the cuts in front-office and other personnel being made by the 32 individual teams.

Goodell said last month in an interview with The Associated Press that the league and its teams could feel the economic slump in cutbacks in sponsorship and marketing.

Economic slump makes NFL cut headquarters staff....