NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue responds to questions all over a information convention on the conclusion of the Nationwide Soccer League’s homeowners spring assembly in Denver in 2006. Tagliabue died on Sunday.
Ed Andrieski/AP
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Ed Andrieski/AP
NEW YORK — Paul Tagliabue, who helped convey hard work peace and riches to the NFL all over his 17 years as commissioner however used to be criticized for now not taking more potent motion on concussions, died Sunday from center failure at 84 years outdated.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy mentioned Tagliabue’s circle of relatives knowledgeable the league of his loss of life in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
Tagliabue, who had advanced Parkinson’s illness, used to be commissioner after Pete Rozelle from 1989 to 2006. He used to be elected to the Professional Soccer Corridor of Status as a part of a different centennial elegance in 2020. Present Commissioner Roger Goodell succeeded Tagliabue.
“Paul used to be without equal steward of the sport — tall in stature, humble in presence and decisive in his loyalty to the NFL,” Goodell mentioned in a commentary. “I’m ceaselessly thankful and proud to have Paul as my good friend and mentor. I beloved the innumerable hours we spent in combination the place he contributed to shaping me as an govt but in addition as a person, husband and father.”
Tagliabue oversaw a myriad of latest stadiums and negotiated tv contracts that added billions of bucks to the league’s checking account. Below him, there have been no hard work stoppages.
Throughout his time, Los Angeles misplaced two groups and Cleveland any other, migrating to Baltimore sooner than being changed by way of a variety franchise.
Tagliabue applied a coverage on substance abuse that used to be thought to be the most powerful in all primary sports activities. He additionally established the “Rooney Rule,” by which all groups with training vacancies will have to interview minority applicants. It has since been expanded to incorporate front-office and league govt positions.
When he took workplace in 1989, the NFL had simply gotten its first Black head trainer of the trendy generation. By the point Tagliabue stepped down in 2006, there have been seven minority head coaches within the league.
In one in every of his pivotal moments, Tagliabue referred to as off NFL video games the weekend after the terrorist assaults of 9-11, 2001. It used to be one of the most few occasions the general public when put next him favorably to Rozelle, who proceeded with the video games the Sunday after John Kennedy used to be assassinated in 1963. A key presidential aide had prompt Rozelle that the NFL will have to play, a choice that used to be one of the most commissioner’s nice regrets.
Tagliabue unquestionably had his detractors, particularly over concussions. The problem has plagued the NFL for many years, despite the fact that workforce homeowners had a significant function within the loss of development in coping with head trauma.
In 2017, Tagliabue apologized for remarks he made many years in the past about concussions in soccer, acknowledging he did not have the right kind information on the time in 1994. He referred to as concussions “a kind of pack-journalism problems” and contended the choice of concussions “is somewhat small; the issue is the journalist factor.”
“Clearly,” he mentioned on Communicate of Status Community, “I do feel sorry about the ones remarks. Having a look again, it used to be now not good language to make use of to precise my ideas on the time. My language used to be intemperate, and it ended in critical false impression.
“My goal on the time used to be to make some degree which can have been made relatively merely: that there used to be a necessity for higher information. There used to be a necessity for extra dependable details about concussions and uniformity relating to how they have been being outlined relating to severity.”
Whilst concussion reputation, analysis and remedy lagged for a lot of Tagliabue’s tenure, his paintings at the hard work entrance used to be exemplary.
As one in every of his first selections, Tagliabue reached out to the avid gamers’ union, then run by way of Gene Upshaw, a Corridor of Status participant and previous megastar for Al Davis’ Raiders. Tagliabue had insisted he be immediately serious about all hard work negotiations, mainly rendering unnecessary the Control Council of membership executives that had treated such tasks for almost 20 years.
It used to be a sensible choice.
“When Paul used to be named commissioner after that seven-month seek in 1989, that is when the league were given again on course,” mentioned Joe Browne, who spent 50 years as an NFL govt and used to be a confidant of Rozelle and Tagliabue.
“Paul had insisted all over his negotiations for the placement that ultimate regulate over issues akin to hard work and all business industry dealings needed to relaxation within the commissioner’s workplace. The homeowners agreed and that used to be a big step ahead towards the super rebound we had as a league — an expanded league — within the ’90s and past.”
Tagliabue solid a cast dating with Upshaw. In breaking with the contentious dealings between the league and the NFL Gamers Affiliation, Tagliabue and Upshaw saved negotiations respectful and targeted on what would receive advantages either side. Compromise used to be key, Upshaw at all times mentioned — even supposing the union continuously used to be criticized for being too accommodating.
Tagliabue have been the NFL’s Washington attorney, a spouse within the prestigious company of Covington and Burling. He used to be selected as commissioner in October 1989 over New Orleans normal supervisor Jim Finks after a sour battle highlighting the variations between the NFL’s outdated guard and more moderen homeowners.
But all over his reign as commissioner, which ended within the spring of 2006 after pushing thru a extremely contested hard work settlement, he controlled to unite the ones divided homeowners and, in reality, relied extra at the old-timers who supported him than on Jerry Jones and most of the more youthful homeowners.
Tagliabue used to be born on Nov. 24, 1940, in Jersey Town, New Jersey. He used to be the 6-foot-5 captain of the basketball workforce at Georgetown and graduated in 1962 as one of the most college’s main rebounders on the time — his occupation moderate later indexed slightly under that of Patrick Ewing. He used to be president of his elegance and a Rhodes student finalist. 3 years later, he graduated from NYU Regulation College and due to this fact labored as a attorney within the Protection Division sooner than becoming a member of Covington & Burling.
He in the end took over the NFL account, organising a detailed dating with Rozelle and different NFL officers all over a chain of felony movements within the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties.
Tagliabue used to be reserved by way of nature and it every so often ended in coolness with the media, which had embraced Rozelle, an affable former public members of the family guy. Even after he left workplace, Tagliabue didn’t measure up in that regard with Goodell, who started his NFL occupation within the public members of the family division.
However after 9/11, Tagliabue confirmed a special aspect, specifically towards league workers who had misplaced family members within the assaults. He accompanied Ed Tighe, an NFL Control Council attorney whose spouse died that day, to Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a couple of blocks from the NFL workplace.
Artwork Shell, a Corridor of Status participant, turned into the NFL’s first modern day Black head trainer with the Raiders. He were given to look Tagliabue up shut and concept him completely suited to his task.
“After my training occupation used to be over, I had the privilege of running immediately with Paul within the league workplace,” Shell mentioned, “His philosophy on nearly each factor used to be, ‘If it is broke, repair it. And if it isn’t broke, repair it anyway.’
“He at all times challenged us to seek out higher tactics of doing issues. Paul by no means overpassed his duty to do what used to be proper for the sport. He used to be the easiest selection as NFL commissioner.”
Tagliabue is survived by way of his spouse Chandler, son Drew, and daughter Emily.
