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Goodell, Rice named as NFL Commish possibilities
By Tom Zulewski March 24, 2006 |
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After the announced retiring of NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue last Monday, the names of a replacement started to surface quickly and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was named as a possible candidate. That might not be possible unless she plans to walk away from her current job as Secretary of State. Then there is the number two man at the NFL chain of command, Roger Goodell who’s been at the side of Tagliabue and now that Tagliabue is retiring before the regular season starts Goodell is also a strong candidate. If the NFL hires Rice she would be a recognized name but can she do the job as Commissioner that's questionable. Tagliabue's great accomplishments just recently were that he got an agreement with the players union and averted any kind of labor stoppage for the upcoming season in July. The NFL has expanded to six different T.V. networks CBS, ABC, now NBC for the Sunday night game, Fox, TNT, ESPN, the NFL is left in very good financial shape by Tagliabue and the economy in the NFL is booming and the advertising revenue in the NFL is a no brainier they're making budget every time and that's because of the great work of Tagliabue the outgoing Commissioner. The salary cap is not a freaky thing like with some other leagues, the NFL has grown the revenue is insane and Tagliabue is going out on top and its a good thing. Looking back at the negotiations between Tagliabue and the Players Union President Gene Upshaw was not going well for a time but it got all unraveled and Tagliabue gets the credit for working the tangles out. Now its a special time in the NFL they actually compromised free agency is not going to be a Gazillion dollars spending and the haves and the have nots will be on equal footing and despite the money squabbling what we have is parody across the board different playoff teams every year and people in NFL cities have some hope. Much of the credit goes to former late NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle for making the league what it is there was acrimony late in his term Rozelle was the way he was and there was nobody around that was going to change that. Now the way with Tagliabue we had a stuffy lawyer type sure but that stuffy lawyer type brought his negotiation skill into the board room and kept labor peace in line and the NFL players and owners applaud that. It’s about time we had a sports league that didn't have to worry about a work stoppage every third, Fourth, fifth year. The way T.V. works in the NFL you got to be happy you don't have any issues the NFL Sunday ticket allows you to see every achievable game known to man and now that we have labor peace for the next six years its going to get even better. Among the replacements for Tagliabue's spot is Rice and Roger Goodell who sits on the number two spot right now. The situation right now is that its all rumor and conjecture right now and its going to take a little bit of time if we get somebody like Goodell whose a first hand man and has seen the growth of the league inside first hand then he could continue with a little more visibility and continue on a nice level. Tagliabue on loosing the Los Angeles market: "if we had the benefit of hindsight the Rams and the Raiders would have stayed in L.A." Tagliabue got kudos for admitting he was at fault for leaving the number two T.V. market. Tagliabue gets tons of respect from everyone for admitting a mistake like that. Because if Tagliabue distance himself that than you wonder, but for Tagliabue to come right out and say "okay I was wrong" you get respect of the players and the owners if you distance yourself from it than your wondering what was going on. There is no doubt now that Tagliabue admitted the mistake and than moving forward and just trying to get L.A. back again and we're going on year 13 without football in L.A. and that's a bad thing but with the gross everywhere else its not necessarily a terrible thing. Final note: Dave Lenihan, a radio talk show host on KTRS 550 AM radio in St. Louis was fired for a racial slur he made about Condoleezza Rice. Rice whose name was floated as football commissioner Lenihan was doing his talk show and said, "She's been Chancellor at Stanford. I mean she's just got the patent resume of somebody that's got serious skill." Lenihan's remarks were provided on audio tape to the media and added, "she loves football, she's African-American, which would be kind of a big ****”. Lenihan was immediately fired by KTRS station General Manager who later went on the air live and apologized to the listeners and said that Lenihan was shown the door immediately. Lenihan had worked at KTRS for two months only before the firing and said, "that was my dream job." Tom Zulewski does commentary on different sporting events and is a talk show host on 1690 KSFG Sacramento. |
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