Tagliabue: All Power, No Glory

In the coming months and years, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue will have plenty of opportunities to embellish the story, if he so desires.

For now, barely more than a week after Tagliabue secured a staggering $17.6 billion in television revenue for his league, he sticks to a truthful account of his celebration: dumplings, split with ABC President Robert Iger and ESPN/ABC Sports President Steve Bornstein, at a Chinese restaurant in Manhattan.

“Everyone had drunk so much coffee the prior four days, they couldn’t think of anything more than sharing one order of Chinese dumplings,” Tagliabue said.

No Dom Perignon, no handcrafted cigars for the man who had completed the richest television contract in sports history. Dumplings.

Not very exotic, but then, he’s not a very exotic person. If you want flamboyance, look elsewhere. If you simply want to get the job done, look to Tagliabue.

“He’s not the most public relations-oriented guy, but he is a guy who is willing to go out and take a task on and deal with it,” said Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL players’ union.

“I’ve learned one thing through the years that he’s been commissioner: If he’s not involved in it, it’s not going to get solved. It’s just that simple.”

Some would say that anyone could do this job, the TV money a result of increased competition thanks to a fourth network player, Fox, and a robust economy. And Tagliabue will always have to contend with the perception that he’s sitting in the captain’s chair with the plane on autopilot after Pete Rozelle handled the takeoff.

Tagliabue is the first to credit the late Rozelle, his predecessor and the man largely responsible for the NFL’s relationship with television and its policy that distributes the money generated by TV and other sources equally among the teams.

But there’s something to be said for taking over a good thing and not messing it up. If that were so easy, Barry Switzer still would be coaching the Dallas Cowboys.

If that’s all there is to this job, “I think that sells Paul short,” said David Cornwell, former NFL assistant counsel.

“When he came in, we were in the throes of a labor dispute. I’ve worked with [NBA Commissioner David] Stern and [NHL Commissioner Gary] Bettman. With all due respect to them, I still think Paul’s the guy.

“In ‘87, when I joined the NFL, there was a wide gulf between players and team owners. . . . He got a messed-up labor environment, and he fixed it.”

Two years after the 1987 strike, Tagliabue, who had served as an NFL legal representative for 20 years, took over for Rozelle.

“I think Paul was the right candidate because he spent so much time with Rozelle,” Pittsburgh Steeler owner Dan Rooney said. “He was ready and able to come in and bring his own style.”

He didn’t recoil from the prospect of following Rozelle, considered the commissioner in sports.

“I got a lot of comfort on that from Pete Rozelle himself,” Tagliabue said. “He was the one who kept on telling me during the selection process, ‘If it is you, you’re ready for the job.’ I didn’t have any trepidation, just because of those personal conversations, which rang true because I had been involved since 1969.

“I knew and felt that I could work with everybody.”

That has been the primary reason for his success. “I don’t think you could run this league as the commissioner trying to have 30 owners follow you,” Denver Bronco owner Pat Bowlen said. “They’re not going to do that.”

Tagliabue makes a point of integrating the league’s established and new owners. He’s big on committees.

“I think one of Paul’s best qualities is he knows how to work with people and he gets the right people around him--especially people that are involved in the league as owners and general managers, things like that,” Bowlen said. “He has a lot of people that never were involved before involved in the operation of the league. I think that really helps him, because then he has seven or eight owners involved in most issues, most questions. Usually when they come out of a committee, they’re usually unanimous for the rest of the membership. And that’s important. You see very few divided committees.”

Cornwell described Tagliabue’s method of operation as “a lot of common sense and maybe a little bit of tactics.”

Tagliabue has tried to become more involved with players, but there’s no doubt his most important relationship has been with Upshaw.

It took three years of Tagliabue’s term and a court decision by U.S. District Court Judge David Doty, but Tagliabue and Upshaw worked out an agreement that granted the players free agency, instituted a salary cap and brought the league labor stability through the end of the decade.

“What he has done is, he has listened to the concerns that we have raised,” said Upshaw, who is about to sit down with Tagliabue to consider an extension of the labor agreement. “When there have been times to make changes, we have. We’ve worked together very well over the years. It’s been a relationship that’s been beneficial for all of us.”

Bowlen credits Tagliabue’s work with civic and business leaders for prompting the current wave of football stadium construction across the country, although now sentiment seems to be shifting against publicly financed stadiums, even in cities where an agreement already has been reached.

In one of his more significant moves, Tagliabue brought Cowboy owner Jerry Jones back into the fold only two years after Jones and the league were suing each other over his renegade endorsement agreements that threatened the revenue-sharing plan. They resolved their differences and Jones played a critical role in the TV contract negotiations.

Nothing comes about by accident. During the season, from July until after the Pro Bowl, Tagliabue works seven-day weeks. He puts in 12-hour days at the office and usually travels three days a week. Even when he watches games, he’s on the clock, dictating phone memos about officiating or player and public relations.

His efforts have helped the NFL to remain the most stable, most entrenched league around. Although its television ratings have declined in recent years, it still brings men to the tube like no other programming, which is why the networks shell out billions (in a probable losing proposition) for the ability to sell commercial time to beer and car companies.

So why isn’t Tagliabue, one of the most powerful people in sports--and by virtue of his hold on the networks, the entertainment industry--more widely praised?

Part of it is his public persona. The outside Tagliabue doesn’t give many clues to who he is. Although the professorial looks make it seem as if he spent his youth solving math problems in his free time, he actually was an accomplished athlete. He played basketball at Georgetown and holds the No. 8 spot on the school’s career rebound list.

He comes across as relaxed and engaging in one-on-one interviews, providing in-depth answers. Bill Plunkett, who went to New York University law school with Tagliabue and remains a good friend, says, “He’s unassuming and he’s really self-effacing. I’ve heard people say that they don’t really know him. He’s just a really good guy, fun guy to be with.”

That’s not the Paul Tagliabue that most people see. In most public settings, he seems aloof. He was at it again at his state-of-the-NFL address Friday. He interrupted a lengthy, example-filled query on the state of league-media relations by asking, “Are we eventually going to get to a question?” and gave a generally unfulfilling performance.

Fortunately for Tagliabue, he doesn’t have to sell the league to the public. The chummy Rozelle did that. Tagliabue has to sell the league to the TV stations and let them sell it to the public.

“Pete Rozelle, whom I also knew, was a man for that season,” Plunkett said. “Paul Tagliabue is definitely a man for this season.

“The needs of the league have changed. The problems facing the league right now, he’s ideally suited for.”

While the huge TV contract showed that the absence of teams in Los Angeles and Houston, the nation’s Nos. 2 and 11 television markets, respectively, was not a problem for the moment, some around the league are concerned about a generation of fans growing up in those cities without a connection to football. The NFL has already lost ground to the NBA in marketing to kids.

Although franchise free agency appears to have slowed (nobody has moved this week), Tagliabue is virtually powerless to stop any future moves because of the court ruling that first allowed the Raiders to move to Los Angeles.

But as he sat in a small hotel conference room overlooking San Diego harbor, in the week leading up to the premier event in sports, the most important man in town had to feel good about his accomplishments.

When he first took the job, the five things he wanted to accomplish were: secure labor peace, land a lucrative and diversified television package, maintain the appeal of the game, expand the league and get new stadiums around the league.

With two more years on the labor agreement, almost $18 billion headed the NFL’s way and 12 hours of coverage on Sundays, the Jacksonville Jaguars and Charlotte Panthers up and running and new buildings in the works from Tampa to San Francisco, all of his goals have been met.

So what does he want next?

“Weekends off,” he said.

Pretty good line. He just might have the makings of a commissioner after all.