Tagliabue Was A Success As NFL Commissioner

Paul Tagliabue did what needed to be done to be a successful sports league commissioner.

Paul Tagliabue did what was needed to be done to be a successful sports league commissioner. Tagliabue, who recently passed away at the age of 84, had a tough act to follow in Pete Rozelle. Tagliabue made the NFL owners money and that is the name of the game when answering the question of what makes a good sports commissioner. Tagliabue got lucky when Rupert Murdoch’s flailing FOX television syndication platform in 1993 made a desperate bid to stay alive. Murdoch needed programming and outbid CBS to land the National Football Conference package. Tagliabue took Murdoch’s money and Murdoch got the programming he needed for FOX and took various CBS affiliates which suddenly got shows like The Simpsons and Married With Children and lost 60 Minutes.

Tagliabue had some sort of deal going with the National Football League Players Association’s Executive Director Gene Upshaw and there was labor peace during his tenure although there were a number of legal rulings including a court ordered form of free agency which helped keep the labor peace. During the 1990s, the NFL saw a number of franchise shifts. Al Davis took his Los Angeles Raiders franchise to Oakland in 1995. Georgia Frontiere took her Los Angeles Rams franchise to St. Louis in 1995. Art Modell took his Cleveland Browns franchise to Baltimore for the 1996 season. Bud Adams took his Houston Oilers franchise to Tennessee in 1997. The city of Cleveland sued the NFL and forced the league to expand into Cleveland in 1999. In the early 1990s, the league expanded to Charlotte and Jacksonville. In 1999, the league decided to add a 32^nd team and was desperate to return to Los Angeles but a stadium deal never materialized and the league went into Houston. Tagliabue retired in 2006. Tagliabue made the NFL money during his tenure.

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Paul Tagliabue