Owners Start the Search for Commissioner

With the labor deal done, this year’s NFL meetings were supposed to be tame, with the usual arcane rules tweaks such as redefining false-start penalties.

Then Paul Tagliabue announced his retirement as commissioner.

So these become among the most important sessions in a while -- the beginning of the process of finding the person who will run the league for the next decade or so.

A commissioner will not be chosen when the owners convene today in Orlando, Fla., for sessions that will run through Wednesday. And there may be no white smoke for a while.

But the start of the process can be as critical as the end of it -- last time, in 1989, it was done the wrong way and resulted in a seven-month deadlock that finally ended with Tagliabue’s election.

“I think we have to make sure everybody is included,” said Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots. “I’m not sure that was done the last time.”

No, it wasn’t -- Kraft wasn’t an owner then, but he remembers the deadlock well because he had begun the process of buying the team.

It began when Pete Rozelle, in one of the few mistakes of his 29 years as commissioner, appointed a search committee made up entirely of insiders who had been his chief advisors for years.

That alienated the rest of the owners and the result was a stalemate between the “old guard,” which supported New Orleans general manager Jim Finks, and the newer owners who supported Tagliabue. It ended when three owners, Wellington Mara of the Giants, Dan Rooney of the Steelers and Art Modell of the Browns, switched to Tagliabue.

Tagliabue, of course, is well aware of that and will try to ensure it doesn’t happen this time. He will remain on the job until July and past then as a consultant -- or perhaps as commissioner if no successor is in place.

“The assumption is that we can work through this in the next four months. If not, I’ll stay on,” he said.

To that end, one of the first orders of business at these meetings will be to appoint a committee to begin the search for a candidate. That will probably happen Monday afternoon -- this time, Tagliabue will make sure it includes owners of varying viewpoints, of which there are plenty in a 32-team league.

That doesn’t necessarily ensure the committee’s recommendation will be chosen -- two-thirds of the teams must approve the new commissioner, meaning that 22 votes are required. That makes it easier than most other important league decisions, which need a three-quarters vote, or 24.

League officials insist the process is wide open and have cautioned that no conclusions should be drawn about candidates. Dozens of people, including former President Clinton and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, have been mentioned. Rice officially took herself out of the running on Wednesday, saying: “Unfortunately, it came at the wrong time.”

But the most likely candidates still include several league officials, headed by Chief Operating Officer Roger Goodell, plus Atlanta General Manager Rich McKay and Baltimore Raven President Dick Cass.

McKay is co-chairman of the competition committee, which often has center stage at these meetings. This year, it is recommending eliminating false-start flags on flinches by wide receivers that otherwise don’t affect plays and emphasizing safety, notably on low hits against quarterbacks.