NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue Announces Retirement

After 37 years of being involved with the National Football League, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue announced he will step down from his position in July. After having considered retirement for the past two years, Tagliabue decided to retire after locking down a new collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Players' Association two weeks ago (see NFL Owners Vote to Extend CBA). Tagliabue will stay on as a consultant to the NFL through 2008.

Paul Tagliabue announced his decision first to Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, then to the rest of the owners via e-mail. Sign-on San Diego quoted a statement made by Tagliabue regarding his retirement. "I believe that now is a positive time to make the transition to a new commissioner," Tagliabue said. "We have a collective bargaining agreement in place, long-term TV contracts, and have undertaken many other strong elements in league and club operations." As for a new NFL Commissioner, one could be chosen at during the NFL's annual spring meeting, set to commence next week.

Before gaining the NFL Commissioner's chair, Paul Tagliabue was a buttoned-down lawyer in Washington. He had been an East-Coaster his whole life. He inherited a revenue-sharing system put in place by Pete Rozelle, but did not have peace with the players' union, and did not have a way of capping the salaries of the teams. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel talked to Green Bay Packers president about Paul Tagliabue's mandate after taking over the NFL authority. "He told me one time that Pete Rozelle mentioned to him that keeping Green Bay part of this league will be a major challenge and there is a lot of work to do." Packers President Bob Harlon recalled. "Years later I went up to him at a league meeting and shook his hand and told him I couldn't thank him enough for getting a salary cap. For Green Bay, it was one of the things that saved us. Pete Rozelle got us revenue sharing in the '70s and Paul Tagliabue got us the salary cap in the '90s. Those two things gave Green Bay a chance to compete"

After coming into the position in the shoes of Pete Rozelle, Paul Tagliabue, 65, had quite the reputation to live up to. He took vastly different approaches to the Commissioner's office. Paul Tagliabue started negotiating with the NFLPA instead of competing with them. He approached the situation understanding that harmony with the players is more important than getting his way. Paul Tagliabue instituted a revised system of revenue sharing between the owners and the players, and has avoided any work stoppages as a result. Also, Tagliabue managed to walk away from the NFL with a recently signed CBA, ensuring no labor stoppages for at least six years. Perhaps his crowning achievement is free agency, which endeared him to players.

Looking at the labor stoppage in the NHL this past year, under Commissioner Gary Bettman and seeing the way MLB Commissioner Bud Selig has almost criminally ran baseball, Paul Tagliabue can easily be thought of as the best commissioner of any sport in the past 10 years. There are new football stadiums in a vast majority of cities (19 to be exact), players are making money and are happy with it, players now have a free agency system and he has addressed the issues of the game as well as issues surrounding marketing. As was reported by The Sporting News, "The Sporting News twice chose him as sports' most powerful person. In reality, he could have swept that honor for the last five or six years. No other sports figure commands the resources or presides over a league with the prestige and power of the NFL. He took a great situation and made it even better.

Paul Tagliabue has had his fair share of downsides, however. Tagliabue started out amid criticisms of not building stadiums at the rate of baseball, its major competitor. He also neglected football issues until he brought in George Young, former New York Giants general manager, as a liaison to the teams. The mid-90s saw the league lose both markets in California, with the Rams and the Raiders leaving. This also set off a period of city-swapping, in which four franchises relocated between 1995 and 1997.

These downers were to be balanced out by Tagliabue, who made sure teams got new homes as they relocated, and that the league expanded from 28 teams to 32 teams. As well, the league is now the most financially successful league in professional sports. Perhaps the only place Paul Tagliabue left a lasting bad impression was in San Diego. San Diego hosted the Super Bowl XXXVII on Jan 24th, 2003. His State of the NFL address illustrated his disappointment with the City of San Diego by saying, "From my own perspective, I'm surprised that we are here this week." Tagliabue's comments, directed at city officials for backing out on promises made to the NFL, stung the city and has embittered them to Tagliabue ever since.

With all said and done, Paul Tagliabue can look back on his 16 years as NFL Commissioner and say to himself, "Job Well Done". The league is in the best shape it has ever seen, fan attendances are at record highs, the players are making the money they want, small-market teams are still big-league competitors, and 19 cities across the country have new stadiums to showcase. Paul Tagliabue's successor, which could by Atlanta Falcons' GM Rich McKay, NFL executive Roger Goodell, or a number of other candidates, will inherit a working system which need only be maintained for some time. Whoever succeeds Paul Tagliabue is going to have quite the reputation to live up to

[Additional Sources: Sign-on San Diego, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Sporting News]