Paul Tagliabue, NFL commissioner of 17 years who led an era of riches and expansion, dies at 84

NEW YORK Paul Tagliabue who helped bring labor peace and riches to the NFL during his years as commissioner but was criticized for not taking stronger action on concussions died Sunday from heart failure He was NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy disclosed Tagliabue s family informed the league of his death in Chevy Chase Maryland Tagliabue who had developed Parkinson s complaint was commissioner after Pete Rozelle from to He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of a special centennial class in Current Commissioner Roger Goodell succeeded Tagliabue Paul was the ultimate steward of the contest tall in stature humble in presence and decisive in his loyalty to the NFL Goodell noted in a message I am forever grateful and proud to have Paul as my friend and mentor I cherished the innumerable hours we spent together where he helped shape me as an executive but also as a man husband and father News of Tagliabue s death came shortly before seven games kicked off Sunday The Miami Dolphins and Minnesota Vikings held a moment of silence for Tagliabue and Marshawn Kneeland the Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle who died on Thursday Tagliabue oversaw a myriad of new stadiums and negotiated television contracts that added billions of dollars to the league s bank account Under him there were no labor stoppages During his time Los Angeles lost two teams and Cleveland another migrating to Baltimore before being replaced by an expansion franchise Los Angeles eventually regained two teams Tagliabue implemented a procedures on substance abuse that was considered the strongest in all major sports He also established the Rooney Rule in which all teams with coaching vacancies must interview minority candidates It has since been expanded to include front-office and league executive positions When he took office in the NFL had just hired its first Black head coach of the modern era By the time Tagliabue stepped down in there were seven minority head coaches in the league In one of his pivotal moments Tagliabue called off NFL games the weekend after the terrorist attacks of Sept It was one of the inadequate times the inhabitants compared him favorably to Rozelle who proceeded with the games the Sunday after President John Kennedy was assassinated in A key presidential aide had advised Rozelle that the NFL should play a decision that was one of the commissioner s great regrets Tagliabue certainly had his detractors notably over concussions The issue has plagued the NFL for decades though unit owners had a major role in the lack of progress in dealing with head trauma In Tagliabue apologized for remarks he made decades ago about concussions in football acknowledging he didn t have the proper evidence at the time in He called concussions one of those pack-journalism issues and contended the number of concussions is relatively small the concern is the journalist issue Obviously he explained on Talk of Fame System I do regret those remarks Looking back it was not sensible language to use to express my thoughts at the time My language was intemperate and it led to a serious misunderstanding My intention at the time was to make a point which could have been made fairly entirely that there was a need for better statistics There was a need for more reliable information about concussions and uniformity in terms of how they were being defined in terms of severity While concussion recognition research and cure lagged for much of Tagliabue s tenure his work on the labor front was exemplary As one of his first decisions Tagliabue reached out to the players union then run by Gene Upshaw a Hall of Fame sportsman and former star for Al Davis Raiders Tagliabue had insisted he be directly involved in all labor negotiations basically rendering useless the Management Council of club executives that had handled such duties for nearly two decades It was a wise decision When Paul was named commissioner after that seven-month search in that s when the league got back on track declared Joe Browne who spent years as an NFL executive and was a confidant of Rozelle and Tagliabue Paul had insisted during his negotiations for the position that final control over matters such as labor and all commercial business dealings had to rest in the commissioner s office The owners agreed and that was a large step forward toward the tremendous rebound we had as a league an expanded league in the s and beyond Tagliabue forged a solid relationship with Upshaw In current with the contentious dealings between the league and the NFL Players Association Tagliabue and Upshaw kept negotiations respectful and centered on what would benefit both sides Compromise was key Upshaw unfailingly disclosed although the union often was criticized for being too accommodating Tagliabue had been the NFL s Washington lawyer a partner in the prestigious firm of Covington and Burling He was chosen as commissioner in October over New Orleans general manager Jim Finks after a bitter fight highlighting the differences between the NFL s old guard and newer owners Yet during his reign as commissioner which ended in the spring of after pushing through a highly contested labor agreement he managed to unite those divided owners and in fact relied more on the old-timers who supported him than on Jerry Jones and plenty of of the younger owners Tagliabue was born on Nov in Jersey City New Jersey He was the -foot- captain of the basketball squad at Georgetown and graduated in as one of the school s leading rebounders at the time his career average later listed just below that of Patrick Ewing He was president of his class and a Rhodes scholar finalist Three years later he graduated from NYU Law School and subsequently worked as a lawyer in the Defense Department before joining Covington Burling He eventually took over the NFL account establishing a close relationship with Rozelle and other NFL administrators during a series of legal actions in the s and s Tagliabue was reserved by nature and it sometimes led to coolness with the media which had embraced Rozelle an affable former populace relations man Even after he left office Tagliabue did not measure up in that regard with Goodell who began his NFL career in the inhabitants relations department But after Tagliabue presented a different side particularly toward league employees who had lost loved ones in the attacks He accompanied Ed Tighe an NFL Management Council lawyer whose wife died that day to Mass at St Patrick s Cathedral a scant blocks from the NFL office Art Shell a Hall of Fame performer became the NFL s first modern-day Black head coach with the Raiders He got to see Tagliabue up close and thought him utterly suited for his job After my coaching career was over I had the privilege of working directly with Paul in the league office Shell explained His philosophy on almost every issue was If it s broke fix it And if it s not broke fix it anyway He invariably challenged us to find better avenues of doing things Paul never lost sight of his responsibility to do what was right for the championship He was the perfect choice as NFL commissioner Tagliabue is survived by his wife Chandler son Drew and daughter Emily Want more Broncos news Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis