Paul Tagliabue led the NFL to greater riches, more diversity and soaring popularity during his 17-year tenure as commissioner of America's favorite sport. His stewardship also was marked by the league's dawdling recognition of the impact and severity of concussions.
Tagliabue, who died Sunday of heart failure at age 84
, was commissioner from 1989 to 2006. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2020.League revenues skyrocketed during
the 17 years under Tagliabue, who was succeeded by current commissioner Rodger Goodell after brokering new television and labor deals. In addition to billions of dollars in broadcast revenue, the league also saw construction of a slew of new stadiums and expansion to 32 teams.
Tagliabue established the “Rooney Rule,” under which all teams with coaching vacancies must interview minority candidates. It has since been expanded to include front-office and league executive positions. Although the rule is named for the late Dan Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, it could easily have carried Tagliabue’s ID.
There were no labor stoppages during Tagliabue's 17 years in charge, and that contributed to the sport's increasing popularity, not only in the U.S. but globally. Tagliabue's death was announced Sunday morning during the NFL's game in Berlin, where the Indianapolis Colts beat the Atlanta Falcons 31-25 in overtime in the first regular-season game played in the German capital.
Taking heed of his predecessor's regrets, Tagliabue called off NFL games the weekend after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. One of Pete Rozelle's great regrets was proceeding with games two days after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963. The league pushed the Week 2 slate of games in 2001 to the first week of January and pushed the playoffs back a week.
Tagliabue insisted the Saints remain in New Orleans after owner Tom Benson sought to move the team to San Antonio following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. A few years later, Drew Brees and Sean Payton, who arrived for the rebuild, brought the Big Easy its first Super Bowl title.
Among Tagliabue's major achievements was implementing a policy on substance abuse that was considered the strongest in all major sports. Yet his long wait for enshrinement in Canton, Ohio, was pinned on the issue of concussions, which have plagued the NFL for decades. Team owners played a major role in the lack of progress in dealing with head trauma while Tagliabue was commissioner.
In 2017, Tagliabue apologized for remarks he made decades earlier about concussions in football, acknowledging he didn’t have the proper data at the time in 1994 when he called concussions “one of those pack-journalism issues” and contended that the number of concussions “is relatively small; the problem is the journalist issue.”
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