Joe Browne
Joe Browne is an executive of the National Football League.
Joe Browne was named senior advisor to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in April 2010.[1] “[Browne] deserves a long round of applause,” wrote Yahoo! Sports following the announcement, “[he] was certainly a great soldier for the NFL’s cause.”[2]
In his new role, Browne remains involved with NFL Congressional and other political issues in Washington as well as local legislative matters in NFL markets. He also continues his work with NFL Charities, USA Football, and the NFL Youth Football Fund.
Browne, the longest serving employee ever in the NFL league office (1965), most recently was NFL executive vice president of communications and public affairs. He said at the time of his transition to senior advisor that he thought everyone should consider changing their career role every 45 years or so.[3]
Browne was appointed the NFL’s first-ever vice president by then-Commissioner Paul Tagliabue in April, 1990. He was promoted to senior vice president in 1995 and executive vice president in 2002.
Mr. Browne’s league-wide areas of responsibilities over the years included NFL media relations, public relations and community affairs in North America and overseas as well as serving as chief liaison for the 32 NFL clubs in Congressional, military and other government-related matters.
He is a member of the NFL’s executive team and reports directly to Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Mr. Browne joined the League office as a college intern in 1965. After a stint in the United States Marine Corps, he became a full-time employee in 1970 and was named to several key front office posts by then-Commissioner Pete Rozelle over the next 20 years.
Mr. Browne’s specific responsibilities included generating international publicity and media coverage for the annual Super Bowl, the most popular one-day sporting event in North America. He has worked all but the first game played in 1967. Super Bowl Sunday has evolved over the last 40+ years into an unofficial winter holiday in the United States. The Super Bowl annually attracts more than 4,000 members of an international media corps and is televised to 220 countries and territories in 30 languages.
Mr. Browne is on the Board of Directors of the Pat Tillman Foundation as well as for USA Football and the NFL Youth Football Fund. He has also served on the national Board of Governors for the United Way of America.
Mr. Browne was born in New York and was the first scholarship basketball player at Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens, New York where he is a member of his alma mater’s Hall of Fame. He is a graduate of St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights, New York.
Mr. Browne and his wife Karyn live on Long Island and have two sons.