Tagliabue a Low-Profile but Powerful NFL Force

It became a regular routine the last few years.

Every time a sticky problem faced the NFL, Pete Rozelle summoned his top aides to discuss a solution. After everyone was heard, Rozelle asked one more question:

“What does Paul think?”

Paul, in this case, is Paul Tagliabue, the self-effacing, low-profile lawyer who was selected today to succeed Rozelle.

It’s ironic in a way that the 6-foot, 5-inch former Georgetown basketball player, who from 1960 to 1962 wore the “33” later worn by Patrick Ewing, emerged as the candidate of the dissident owners who in July blocked the election of Jim Finks, the president and general manager of the New Orleans Saints.

Tagliabue has been a quiet but powerful NFL insider for 20 years--a voice that counts in the league office and a man whose role in the last few years has expanded beyond legal counsel to all-around adviser.

Finks, by contrast, has been a team executive, a breed sometimes given to complaint about highhandedness emanating from the New York headquarters.

But Tagliabue is hardly highhanded.

On the surface, he is self-effacing, friendly but reserved, a man whose athletic prowess was demonstrated primarily on the tennis court--against Finks, among others.

In fact, he did not know he was the seventh-leading rebounder in Georgetown history until he went to a game a few years ago with his son, Drew, who thumbed through the program, then turned to his father and asked: “Hey, Dad, did you know your name’s in here?”

He also has a sense of humor, one that emerged after he met with the owners at a meeting in Grapevine, Tex., where they were trying to resolve the deadlock over who should be the new commissioner.

“I didn’t promise them ‘a chicken in every pot,’ ” he said later. “Read my lips, ‘No free agency.’ Read my lips, ‘More television money.’ I’m not George Bush running for an office.”

But, most often, he is cautious, lawyerly.

“He’s very controlled, very logical,” said Michael Chernoff, general counsel for the Indianapolis Colts. “But he’s not just a pin-striped suit. I’ve seen him in Docksiders with no socks.”

“I’ve never believed that Paul is interested in prolonging conflict,” said Gene Upshaw, NFL Players’ Assn. executive director. “In fact, if the situation were different, I wouldn’t mind having a beer with him,” said. “He realizes that in sports there are many things to do beyond litigation.”