Paul Tagliabue obit

Paul Tagliabue, longtime NFL commissioner, dead at 84

 

He was not on the list.

Paul Tagliabue, who was the NFL commissioner for 17 years and put his stamp on a league that was growing into a behemoth, died Sunday morning at his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, his family announced. He was 84.

The apparent cause of death was heart failure complicated by Parkinson’s Disease, his family said.

A Jersey City native who graduated from NYU Law School, Tagliabue had been an attorney for the league before becoming commissioner in 1989, taking over for Pete Rozelle, and did not step down until 2006, when Roger Goodell’s reign began.

“All of us in the NFL are deeply saddened by the passing of Paul Tagliabue, whose principled leadership and vision put the NFL on the path to unparalleled success,” Goodell said in a statement. “Throughout his decades-long leadership on behalf of the NFL, first as outside counsel and then during a powerful 17-year tenure as commissioner, Paul served with integrity, passion and an unwavering conviction to do what was best for the league.”

Tagliabue oversaw overwhelming prosperity and growth during a tenure in which the NFL expanded from 28 to 32 teams, many of which landed new stadiums; in which massive, billion-dollar TV contracts exploded the league and its popularity; in which there were no work stoppages; and in which his handling of head injuries clouded his tenure.

During a time little was known about concussions and little research was being conducted under Tagliabue, he called concussions “one of those pack-journalism issues” and said the problem is “relatively small,” comments for which he publicly apologized in 2017.

“My intention at the time was to make a point which could have been made fairly simply: that there was a need for better data,” he said on Talk of Fame Network. “There was a need for more reliable information about concussions and uniformity in terms of how they were being defined in terms of severity.”

His reputation on labor relations was stronger, both the salary cap and free agency born during his run. Under Tagliabue, the NFL Network was launched and what became NFL Europe began as the league grew all over the world.

“He helped modernize the structure of the league office and its business operations, providing the playbook for the NFL’s strategic embrace of his era’s emerging technologies including cable, satellite and the internet,” Goodell said. “Paul was a fierce advocate for diversity and inclusion and guided the league through the challenges of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.”

Tagliabue was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2020.

“Commissioner Tagliabue was a smart and considerate leader,” the Giants said in a statement. “He was a collaborator and united people, not an easy task. And he did so thoughtfully with grace and dignity. He will be remembered as one of the greatest commissioners in professional sports.”

His survivors include his wife, Chandler, son, Drew, and daughter, Emily.

Tagliabue postponed games following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and took a hardline stance against the state of Arizona for failing to recognize a state holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. by moving Super Bowl XXVII to California, and established the World League of American Football in 1989.

Tagliabue was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, the third of four sons of Charles and May Tagliabue. He was of Italian descent. Raised in The Heights neighborhood of Jersey City, he attended St. Michael's High School in Union City, New Jersey, where he starred in basketball. Tagliabue received an athletic scholarship to play basketball at Georgetown University and was captain of the 1961–62 team. He graduated in 1962 as president of his senior class, a Rhodes Scholar finalist and a Dean's List graduate. In a congressional hearing in 1992, Tagliabue later revealed he had inadvertently played in a game where an opposing team would fix the outcome of the game in favor of Georgetown, which would be one factor in mind for him taking a staunch stance against gambling later on in his life. Tagliabue graduated from New York University School of Law in 1965.

From 1969 to 1989, Tagliabue practiced law with the Washington, D.C., firm Covington & Burling.

After serving as a lawyer for the NFL, Tagliabue was selected by NFL owners to succeed Pete Rozelle as Commissioner of the NFL in 1989.

During his tenure as commissioner, the NFL expanded from 28 teams to 32. New franchises were announced in 1993 to begin play in 1995 in Charlotte and Jacksonville. Subsequent moves by other teams resulted in a 31st team being added in Cleveland in 1999; this team, though technically an expansion team, inherited the name, colors and history (including all team and individual records) from the Cleveland Browns, who had relocated to Baltimore in 1996 and been renamed the Baltimore Ravens. The 32nd franchise was the Houston Texans, added in 2002.

The NFL continued to play pre-season games in Europe with the American Bowl series. Paul Tagliabue started a spring developmental league, the World League of American Football (WLAF), with seven teams in North America, plus three in Europe. The European teams dominated in 1991, the first season. After the second season, 1992, in which U.S.-based teams played in the World Bowl, the World League was shut down as it was unsuccessful in the United States. In 1995, the spring league returned as the NFL Europe with six teams in Europe. When Tagliabue retired, five teams were based in Germany. Tagliabue's successor Roger Goodell shut down the NFL Europe after the 2007 season. but replaced it with the NFL International Series in October 2007 with regular season games in London. On November 13, 2022, the NFL played its first-ever regular-season game in mainland Europe, in Munich, Germany.

In 1995, Los Angeles lost both its franchises, as the Los Angeles Rams relocated to St. Louis, and the Raiders returned to Oakland. In 1996, the Browns moved to Baltimore, under a new name, as indicated above. In 1997, the Houston Oilers relocated to Tennessee, for one year in Memphis and another year using Vanderbilt Stadium as their home field. (The team changed its name from the Oilers to the Titans upon moving to their permanent stadium in Nashville.)

On August 28, 1965, Tagliabue married Chandler Minter in Washington, D.C. Minter was originally from Milledgeville, Georgia, and they were introduced at law school. She graduated from the Georgia State College for Women before moving to New York City. They had two children:

Andrew Paul Tagliabue, known as Drew (born 1969), who is openly gay, resides in New York City.

Emily Elizabeth Tagliabue (born 1972); who married John D. Rockefeller V, a son of Jay Rockefeller and Sharon Percy Rockefeller. They have two daughters; Laura Chandler Rockefeller (born c. 2000) and Sophia Percy Rockefeller (born c. 2002) and one son John Davison Rockefeller VI (born c. 2007).