They do touch on it..."It would be higher still if not for the fact that the NFL's tax-exempt status allows its employees to avoid paying any local sales taxes for their dinners or hotel stays during Super Bowl week; in New Orleans, this amounted to $800,000 in lost sales tax revenue."
Sales tax exemptions for non-profits are state-level exemptions. States don't have to accord the NFL non-profit status for state taxes if they don't want to.
I don't see the article arguing otherwise. The article is just arguing that states shouldn't be playing the NFL's bullshit game, not that it's the federal government's fault they are.
