Paul Tagliabue

Paul Tagliabue
Paul John Tagliabueis the former Commissioner of the National Football League. He took the position in 1989 and was succeeded by Roger Goodell, who was elected to the position on August 8, 2006. Tagliabue's retirement took effect on September 1, 2006. He had previously served as a lawyer for the NFL. Tagliabue served as Chairman of Board of Directors of Georgetown University from 2008 to 2015...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSports Executive
Date of Birth24 November 1940
CountryUnited States of America
I've spoken to many owners already, and I think there's a really strong consensus that what is needed is a pretty effective leader and someone who can be around for a good, long period of time. Whatever differences people have on specific issues will be pretty well submerged as they try to find the right type of talent to lead thee organization.
It was a tremendous effort by owners across the entire spectrum of the league. Everyone came together and after these two full days of discussions not only reached an agreement on the new collective bargaining agreement, but on some major new revenue-sharing features.
I told our owners (while planning the event) that this would be a true celebration of the New Orleans Saints, and, before you know it, they'll be America's team.
We've talked about no fewer than six and no more than eight (members). But that's not set in concrete. We had some discussion with the owners about whether the committee should be one owner for each division, or whether there was any one factor that could determine how the committee would be composed.
That's going to be our focus. We started some conversation with the owners about what kind of structure, what kind of commitments it would take from all the teams to institutionalize that so the obligation of playing a game every now and then, a regular-season game, outside of the United States would become a part of the normal team participation in the National Football League.
Under our league policies, owners are not supposed to be talking about re-locating their team during a season. We've got a specific set of guidelines on that. It's a policy that was negotiated with the U.S. conference of mayors, and my assumption is that every owner is complying with the policy.
I didn't know what to anticipate. We don't have a discussion with the owners until (today), so it's really hard to say.
The union fails to recognize the very real costs associated to building new stadiums and generating revenues. They don't assume the cost for that. The owners do.
When all was said and done, we reached a consensus. The consensus first was that the priority in this city, in this part of the state, in this part of the country, in this region, had to continue to be recovery and rebuilding from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
We felt the connection between this tragedy and what the people of New York went through on 9/11 (was significant).
These field improvements in Cincinnati and Covington are tangible signs of our Youth Football Fund in action.
The state of Texas, and San Antonio, are helping shelter hurricane victims. That is the most important mission right now.
The situation is about as dire as dire can be.
The sense I have is if we ever get around to considering expansion in the NFL, San Antonio would be on anyone's short list.