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 fortunes to the NFL during his 17 years as commissioner but was criticized for not taking stronger action on concussions, died Sunday of heart failure. He was 84 years old.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said Tagliabue’s family informed the league of his death in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Tagliabue, who had Parkinson’s disease, was commissioner after Pete Rozelle from 1989 to 2006. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of a special centennial class in 2020. He succeeds current commissioner Roger Goodell Tagliabue.

“Paul was the ultimate steward of the game — tall, humble in presence and resolute in his loyalty to the NFL,” Goodell said in a statement. “I am forever grateful and proud to have Paul as my friend and mentor. I have cherished the countless hours we spent together as he helped shape me as a CEO but also as a man, husband and father.”

Tagliabue oversaw countless new stadiums and negotiated television contracts that added billions of dollars to the league’s bank account. During his reign, there was no cessation of work.

During his tenure, Los Angeles lost two teams and Cleveland another, migrating to Baltimore before being replaced by an expansion franchise.

Tagliabue implemented a drug abuse policy that was considered the strongest in all major sports. He also created the “Rooney Rule,” whereby all teams with coaching vacancies must interview minority candidates. It has since been expanded to include executive positions in front offices and the league.

When he took office in 1989, the NFL had just gotten its first black head coach in the modern era. By the time Tagliabue resigned in 2006, there were seven minority coaches in the league.

In one of his pivotal moments, Tagliabue canceled NFL games on the weekend after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This was one of the few times that fans compared him favorably to Rozelle, who continued games on Sundays after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. A key presidential aide advised Roselle that he should play in the NFL, a decision that was one of the commissioner’s biggest regrets.

Tagliabue certainly had his critics, especially when it came to concussions. This problem has plagued the NFL for decades, although team owners have been a major contributor to the lack of progress in addressing head trauma.

In 2017, Tagliabue apologized for statements he made decades ago about concussions in football, admitting that he did not have the correct data at the time in 1994. He called concussions “one of those issues of the press pool” and asserted that the number of concussions is “relatively small; the problem is the journalists’ issue.”

“I obviously regret those statements,” he said on the Talk of Fame Network. “Looking back, it was not the sensible language used to express my thoughts at the time. My language was extreme, and led to serious misunderstandings.”

“My intention at the time was to make a point that could have been made very simply: that better data was needed. There was a need for more reliable information about concussions and standardization in terms of how they are defined in terms of their severity.”

Although concussion recognition, research, and treatment lagged behind for much of Tagliabue’s career, his work on the labor front was exemplary.

As one of his first decisions, Tagliabue reached out to the players union, which was then run by Gene Upshaw, the Hall of Fame player and former star of Al Davis’ Raiders. Tagliabue insisted that he be directly involved in all labor negotiations, rendering useless the club’s board of executives who have handled such duties for nearly two decades.

It was a wise decision.

“When Paul was named commissioner after the seven-month search in 1989, the league got back on track,” said Joe Brown, who spent 50 years as an NFL executive and was a confidant of Rozelle and Tagliabue.

“Paul insisted during his negotiations for the position that ultimate control over matters such as labor and all commercial business dealings should remain in the commissioner’s office. The owners agreed and that was a huge step forward toward the tremendous recovery we had as a league — an expanding league — in the 1990s and beyond.”

Tagliabue built a strong relationship with Upshaw. In deference to the controversial dealings between the league and the NFL Players Association, Tagliabue and Upshaw kept the negotiations respectful and focused on what would benefit both sides. Compromise was key, Upshaw always said — even though the union was often criticized for being too lenient.

Tagliabue was an NFL lawyer in Washington, D.C., and a partner at the prestigious firm of Covington and Burling. He was selected as commissioner in October 1989 over New Orleans general manager Jim Fenix ​​after a bitter battle that highlighted the differences between the NFL’s old guard and the new owners.

However, during his tenure as commissioner, which ended in the spring of 2006 after the passage of a highly controversial labor agreement, he managed to unite these divided owners and, in fact, relied more on the elders who supported him than on Jerry Jones and many of the younger owners.

Tagliabue was born on November 24, 1940, in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was the 6-foot-5 captain of Georgetown’s basketball team and graduated in 1962 as one of the school’s leading rushers at the time — his career average was later listed just below Patrick Ewing’s. He was president of his class and was a finalist for a Rhodes Scholar. Three years later, he graduated from New York University School of Law and later worked as a lawyer in the Department of Defense before joining Covington & Birling.

He eventually took over the NFL’s account, and established a close relationship with Rozelle and other NFL officials during a series of legal proceedings in the 1970s and 1980s.

Tagliabue was reserved by nature, and at times led to a cold shoulder with the media, which embraced Rozelle, the suave former PR man. Even after he left office, Tagliabue was not on a par in this regard with Goodell, who began his NFL career in the public relations department.

But after 9/11, Tagliabue showed a different side, especially toward league employees who lost loved ones in the attacks. He accompanied Ed Tighe, an attorney for the NFL’s board of directors whose wife died that day, to Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a few blocks from the NFL’s office.

Art Shell, a Hall of Fame player, became the first black NFL coach in the modern era with the Raiders. He got to see Tagliabue up close and thought he was a perfect fit for his job.

“After my coaching career ended, I had the honor of working directly with Paul in the league office,” Shell said. “His philosophy on almost every issue was: ‘If it’s broken, fix it.’ And if it ain’t broke, fix it anyway.”

“He was always challenging us to find better ways to do things. Paul never lost sight of his responsibility to do what was right for the game. He was the perfect choice as NFL Commissioner.”

Tagliabue is survived by his wife, Chandler, his son, Drew, and his daughter, Emily.