Paul Tagliabue, who served as NFL commissioner for 17 seasons and led the league to tremendous prosperity and growth, died Sunday morning at the age of 84, his family announced.
The apparent cause of death was heart failure complicated by Parkinson’s disease.
Tagliabue became commissioner in 1989, replacing Pete Rozelle. He was succeeded by current commissioner Roger Goodell in 2006.
“Paul was the game’s ultimate manager – tall in stature, humble in presence and decisive in his loyalty to the NFL. He viewed every challenge and opportunity through the lens of doing the best for the greater good, a principle he inherited from Pete Rozelle and passed on to me,” Goodell said in a statement sunday.
“…I am forever grateful and proud to have Paul as my friend and mentor. I cherish the countless hours we spent together, where he helped shape me not only as an executive but also as a man, husband, and father.”
News of Tagliabue’s death came shortly before the start of Game 7 on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET. Many teams observed silence throughout the day for Tagliabue and Marshon Neeland dallas cowboys defensive tackle who died on thursday,
The value of many of the league’s franchises increased tenfold during Tagliabue’s tenure as commissioner. When he left, more than two-thirds of the NFL’s 32 teams were either playing in or building stadiums that did not exist when he took over as commissioner in 1989. The league also added four franchises – the carolina panthers (1995), jacksonville jaguars (1995), present time cleveland browns (1999) and houston texans (2002) — During his tenure, the team expanded from 28 teams to 32 teams.
He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a contributor in 2020.
Tagliabue said during his Hall of Fame induction speech, “In examining what makes the NFL so attractive, I always return to the players who make the game what it is.” “The athletes who thrive in the competitive environment of the National Football League are highly motivated individuals with clear values and extraordinary goals. … We need to respect players for these qualities and what they represent as leaders in sports and society.”
Tagliabue was Commissioner during two of the largest crises in recent U.S. history: the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Tagliabue canceled weekend NFL games after September 11, prompting other sports leagues to follow suit.
“I was convinced that it had no real historical analogue [Sept. 11] attacks,” Tagliabue wrote in his 2017 memoir “Jersey City to America’s Game.” “…On a conference call with our owners’ executive group on Wednesday, I told them ‘This is not the Kennedy assassination. This is not Pearl Harbor. This is even worse. I knew I couldn’t support playing any games that weekend.”
He also ensured that saints Would move back to New Orleans during the 2005 season after being displaced to San Antonio due to Hurricane Katrina.
When he announced his retirement in 2006, Tagliabue said that the greatest accomplishment of his tenure was “building a stronger relationship with the NFL Players Association”, noting that “everybody involved in the NFL in the ’80s thought of it as negative.”
Working with Players Association Executive Director Gene Upshaw and following the advice he has been given for some time pittsburgh steelers While owner Dan Rooney never “paid too much attention to any one owner”, Tagliabue helped restore peace in owner-player relations after labor strikes in 1982 and 1987. There were no labor disruptions during his 17-year tenure. The league also enjoyed historic television contracts, and under Tagliabue, free agency and a salary cap were introduced.
Tagliabue said of labor peace, “The system put every team in the football competition on roughly equal footing, and it took a great player and a great owner.” “It took Gene Upshaw and Dan Rooney to reach that kind of agreement and that kind of solution to a complex problem.”
Tagliabue implemented a policy on substance abuse that was considered the strongest in major sports. He also instituted the “Rooney Rule” requiring all teams with coaching vacancies to interview minority candidates. It has since expanded to include front office and league executive positions.
When he took over in 1989, the NFL hired its first black head coach of the modern era. By the time Tagliabue stepped down in 2006, there had been seven minority head coaches in the league.
He said his biggest regret as commissioner was allowing both rams And raiders To leave Los Angeles after the 1994 season – to the St. Louis Rams and the Raiders to Oakland before moving to Las Vegas in 2020. The Rams returned from St. Louis to Los Angeles for the 2016 season. chargers Joining them in 2017 after relocating from San Diego.
The Browns and Oilers also relocated during his tenure. moved to baltimore to become browns crows In 1996, and the Oilers relocated from Houston to Tennessee, becoming titans in 1997.
In 2017, Tagliabue apologized for comments he made decades earlier about concussions in football, admitting that he did not have proper data at the time in 1994. He called concussions “one of those pack-journalistic issues” and argued that the number of concussions “is relatively small; the problem is the journalistic issue.”
“Obviously,” he said on Talk of the Fame Network, “I regret those comments. Looking back, that was not sensible language I used to express my thoughts at the time. My language was intemperate, and it caused a serious misunderstanding.
“My intention at the time was to say one thing that could have been said quite simply: that better data was needed. There was a need for more reliable information about outcomes and uniformity in terms of how they were being defined in terms of severity.”
After retirement, Tagliabue was appointed by Goodell in 2012 to hear the appeals of four players who were suspended in the Saints’ “Bountygate” scandal. Tagliabue overturned the suspension, saying that although three of the four players had engaged in conduct harmful to the league, the case “was tainted by the coaches and others in the Saints organization.”
Tagliabue also served as Chairman of the Board of Directors at Georgetown University from 2009 to 2015.
Before his legal career, Tagliabue was a standout college basketball player george townBefore taking over as commissioner, Tagliabue was a league lawyer who spent much of that time in Washington as the NFL’s representative and unofficial lobbyist.
He is survived by his wife Chandler, son Drew and daughter Emily.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
