Paul Tagliabue
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Paul John Tagliabue (born November 24, 1940 in Jersey City, New Jersey) is the outgoing Commissioner of the National Football League. He took the position in 1989 and is expected to leave office in July 2006. He had previously served as a lawyer for the NFL.
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Personal life
The Tagliabue family is Italian American. Tagliabue's forebears originate from the vicinity of Como in Lombardy (Lombardia). ("Tagliabue" is roughly translated from Italian as "cut the steer"). Tagliabue was the third of four children in a working-class family and grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey. He graduated from Georgetown University in 1962, where he played basketball for the Hoyas before the school became a major basketball power, and was one of the leading rebounders in school history. He still ranks in the school's top 20 in career rebounds and top 10 in rebounding average. Tagliabue earned a law degree from New York University School of Law in 1965. In the same year, Tagliabue married Chandler (Chan) Minter of Milledgeville, Georgia. They were married in Washington, D.C., and lived there from 1965 until he became NFL Commissioner in 1989. Tagliabue has two children: a son, Andrew Philip, born in 1969, and a daughter, Emily Elizabeth, born in 1972. In 1996, Emily joined the prominent Rockefeller family by marrying Jamie Rockefeller, the son of Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV).
National Football League
After serving as a lawyer for the NFL, Tagliabue was selected by NFL owners to succeed Pete Rozelle as Commissioner of the NFL in 1989.
Response to September 11 attacks
After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Tagliabue took no chances and canceled all games because players felt that games cannot be played after so much death and destruction were seen live on television and most importantly, there were concerns about security needed to have so many events so soon after the attacks. This was the first time the NFL had postponed all its games. Because of the attacks, all Super Bowl games starting in 2002 have been designated National Special Security Events (NSSE).
Retirement
On March 20, 2006, Paul Tagliabue announced that he will retire in July, after serving as NFL commissioner for more than 16 years. Tagliabue has said that he would be willing to defer his retirement temporarily if a new commissioner has not been elected by his retirement date.
Legacy
Praise
Tagliabue is widely regarded to have done an outstanding job as commissioner, with some sports writers going so far as to call him the greatest commissioner in the history of North American professional sport. Proponents of this claim point to such accomplishments as:
- No players' strikes or lockouts during Tagliabue's term, an accomplishment unmatched by any of the other current commissioners. Furthermore, Tagliabue ended his tenure as commissioner by negotiating a new agreement with the NFL players union that will ensure labor peace until the end of the 2011 NFL season.
- 17 new stadiums built during Tagliabue's tenure. More than half of the league is playing in stadiums that did not exist when Tagliabue took office. In most cases Tagliabue was able to help secure government financing to cover the cost of these expensive structues. The improved atmosphere of the new stadiums led to increased attendances, especially by women and children.
- The strictest substance abuse policy of any professional league. Tagliabue's hard line against drug abuse has led to increased respect for NFL players and even been complimented by members of the U.S. Congress.
- The institution of revenue sharing that is far more extensive than any other major league, and the negotiation of a salary cap system that is the strictest of any of the major leagues. Both revenue sharing and the salary cap were successfully introduced without recourse to work stoppages.
- A separation in the popularity between the NFL compared to the other North American major sports leagues which took place over his 16-year tenure. Although the NFL was undoubtedly already a major league when Tagliabue took office, he will leave the NFL as the world's most lucrative sports league with annual revenues that tower over its three main rivals - despite the fact that the NFL plays a much shorter schedule and only a fraction of the games played by Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association or the National Hockey League.
Criticism
The accomplishments listed above have all contributed to franchise stability that is unmatched by any North American league. Under Tagliabue's tenure, even the Green Bay Packers, who play in relatively tiny Green Bay, Wisconsin have successfully competed both on and off the field with teams from the larger U.S. cities.
However, Tagliabue's time in office has not come and gone without its share of critics, who point to:
- The re-location of both Los Angeles franchises and the subsequent failure to replace at least one of them in the second largest U.S. city. Tagliabue instead chose to replace teams in Cleveland and Houston. However, Tagliabue's supporters point out that Cleveland and Houston both agreed to replace their delapidated stadiums with government financing, something that Californian politicians have generally been unwilling to do. They also point out that Tagliabue has subtlely used the threat of re-locating a team back to L.A. as a powerful hammer to convince other NFL cities to replace or at least upgrade their stadiums.
- The pursuit of what some see as excessively strict rules against taunting, "show-boating," dress code violations, etc. These policies led to many critics dubbing the NFL as the No Fun League. However, Tagliabue's supporters counter that such measures were necessary to appease conservative Americans, especially the religious right who form a large section of the NFL's fanbase. Along with the NFL drug policy the crackdown on show-boating is believed to have helped improve the image of NFL players. Tagliabue could hardly afford a reputation for tolerating immorality in his league - even such incidents as the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy caused the commissioner much headache with his conservative fanbase despite the fact he could not reasonably be blamed for a "wardrobe malfunction"
Potential Successors
No successor had been named as of April 2, 2006, although Roger Goodell the league's Chief Operating Officer and Rich McKay, general manager of the Atlanta Falcons, are considered leading candidates. Dick Cass, president of the Baltimore Ravens, is considered a "dark horse". Current U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was also considered to be a possibility, the Commissioner of the NFL is her dream job, but said she would decline if asked to succeed Tagliabue. NFL Network employee and longtime sportscaster Rich Eisen announced his serious interest on the March 27 edition of the show he anchors, NFL Total Access.