In July, Paul Tagliabue will end his 16-year tenure as commissioner of the NFL.
The 65-year-old Tagliabue will leave the NFL in July with labor peace, unprecedented revenue through television deals and a place in the American consciousness where Sundays mean football.
His term will be remembered most for labor peace following strikes in 1982 and 1987. His close relationship with Upshaw finally led to a long-term agreement after five years without a contract.
But the bargaining was hard this time, with three straight deadline extensions needed. The agreement avoided the prospect of entering free agency this year with the possibility of an uncapped year in 2007.
It came at the expense of revenue sharing among the owners, an issue that had divided high-revenue and small-revenue teams and contributed to the deadlock. He did it with what has been considered his greatest skill as commissioner, patching together a coalition of nine teams with differing viewpoints to reach a compromise considered satisfactory by all but two teams.
He also oversaw a massive stadium building program. More than two-thirds of the NFL’s 32 teams are either playing in or building stadiums that didn’t exist when he took over as commissioner in 1989.
Tagliabue had a large hand in making the NFL the best run professional league in the country. With all due respect to MLB, the NFL is America’s game, and no other sport can match its popularity or widespread appeal. The salary cap has brought parity to the league, and this allows franchises to perform quick turnarounds from losers to Super Bowl contenders. While some argue it has lessened the quality of play in the playoffs, the parity does generate interest in every NFL city every September.
