Tagliabue Says League Needs Team in L.A.

Commissioner Paul Tagliabue publicly acknowledged Friday that the league needs a team in Los Angeles.

Of course, he offered no insight into how that would actually happen.

“At some point, we need to be there,” he said of Los Angeles during his annual Super Bowl news conference.

Tagliabue cited several reasons why football should return to the Southland.

“We know we have many, many thousands of passionate fans in the greater Los Angeles area,” Tagliabue said. “They are big supporters of our game. Our television audience there reflects that strong interest. We have many great players from that area. We’ve had many great teams there.

“So we want to leave no stone unturned to respond to that interest.”

But?

“Exactly how we do that is something that we’ve been working on. We are disappointed that we were not able to solve it in the last decade.”

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You want changes in instant replay? More coaches’ challenges? No replay in the final two minutes?

Tagliabue said you’re basically out of luck.

“The likelihood is that I don’t see a consensus of 24 clubs around any substantial changes to the replay system,” he said. “I think it’s working well.”

He said he didn’t think coaches would receive more than two challenges because it would protract the game. And he said he likes the replay official being in control in the final two minutes.

“The ultimate safeguard,” he called it, although the Oakland Raiders probably would disagree.

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Tagliabue confirmed that President Bush would not make it to Sunday’s game, although his father, former President George H.W. Bush, will participate in the coin toss with former NFL star Roger Staubach.

Advantage, Patriots, because Coach Bill Belichick’s father Steve was a longtime Naval Academy assistant coach and scout, and Staubach was Belichick’s boyhood hero.

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There might be more flexibility in the “Monday Night Football” schedule.

The league, which determines the Monday night lineup before the season, was burned again this year when neither the Patriots nor the upstart Chicago Bears appeared. Critics would like the schedule to be adjusted during the season to provide for better matchups in the final weeks.

“We’ve been discussing this internally,” Tagliabue said.

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The Times-Picayune in New Orleans printed a story this week describing how many NFL teams give their allotted Super Bowl tickets to high-paying sponsors, who then sell them to ticket brokers, who sell them to the public for astronomical prices.

Yeah, that’s how a $400 seat shows up in your classified ads for $1,200.

Instead of condemning that practice, Tagliabue surprisingly defended it.

“It’s not scalping, it’s just recognizing the value of an association with an NFL team,” Tagliabue said. “I think there’s some misunderstanding as far as what’s fair and appropriate, and what’s not.”

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One Patriot quarterback has beaten Kurt Warner twice.

Third-string Damon Huard did it while playing for Frankfurt in the league now named NFL Europe. Warner was playing for Amsterdam.

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Bill Plaschke and Sam Farmer