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NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue: The State of The NFL - Page Four
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At 11:30 AM EST on Friday, February 4th, 2005, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue gave his annual "State of The NFL" speech from the NFL press conference ballroom at Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, Fla. This is page four of the complete speech and press conference.
(con't).heroes in combat today. So I think it's going to be
a great show, without a lot of involvement from me,
other than getting the right people and the right
policies and the right processes to make the right
decisions, which we didn't do last year.
On the advertising, I think the credit goes
to the companies who are the advertisers. They
make the decisions along with the network. We've
had conversations with the networks, including
folks going back to last February about advertising.
But what you see, I think, is the leading companies
in America, great brands listening to their
customers and making some judgments that
they're going to change some of their advertising.
And I think the media has already covered a lot of
the efforts that those companies have made to be
responsive to their customers and to be consistent
with their own brands. We don't have to run those
companies. They do a good job of it themselves.
Q. The Rooney Rule seems to have an
obvious effect. You'll have a record number of
black head coaches next year. The Rooney
Rule has no enforcement penalty in hiring of
front office personnel. Why is that? For
example, the Green Bay Packers hired a
general manager without it being a minority
candidate. Is that something you want
changed?
COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: Not at
this time, no. I think the Rooney Rule has been
important, but -- I know Dan would be the first one
to say it's not the Rooney Rule. I don't think it's the
most important thing. I think the most important
thing is the outstanding coaches are demonstrating
that they have the talent and the vision and the
understanding of what it takes to win to be head
coaches.
I'm referring to people like Lovie Smith,
Denny Green coming back, the people who have
been getting the jobs. They are there because
they are outstanding coaches. And one of the
reasons we made the interviewing mandatory is
that we knew that the coaches were there. That
was the judgment of our ownership committee,
which Dan chaired and Arthur Blank and Jeff
Lurie and others, some general managers, Ozzie
Newsome and others, that was the judgment.
So I think what you're seeing is more of a
natural process of development than one that's
driven by threats of penalties. It didn't take a
Rooney Rule to get Donovan McNabb into this
game. He's a great quarterback, following earlier
decades. We don't have penalty or mandatory
interview requirement because we haven't satisfied
ourselves that we've done enough to recruit people
and to really have a deep pool of talent within our
league.
And I've said before some of the talent in
the front office comes from outside the league. It
comes from corporate America. But the clubs are
doing a better and better job of doing that on a
voluntary basis. And it's about talent and not about
penalties, primarily. We will have penalties where
we think they make sense, but mostly about talent.
Q. How aware is the league, if at all,
about the concern over gene doping, a process
that reverses muscular degeneration? A lot of
athletes in other sports have used it illegally to
enhance their bodies and is virtually
undetectable. Is this something the league is
aware of or concerned about at this point?
COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: There's
been a lot written about it, whether it's really
available on a widespread basis to athletes,
different people have different opinions going back
ten years or more. We were involved in
Congressional hearings on human growth
hormone, and this is all evolving. We have
specialists and medical teams and committees
who are working not only internally in the league
but with other organizations on those issues. And I
guess that's all I need to say right now. We're
aware of it and we're working on it, just as we are
in the designer steroids and everything else.
Q. Is the awarding of the Super Bowl at
Jacksonville this year and Detroit next year a
sign that you are embracing cool and cold
weather sites, or is it a sense that you're
financially rewarding teams with new
stadiums?
COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: It's a
combination of factors. As I said earlier, the game
in Jacksonville is driven by what I've already
referred to. The community demonstrated when
we put the expansion team here in the early to
mid-'90s that it was The Little Engine That Could; it
out-competed the markets. There's been
tremendous support here for the team.
There's great history in football here at all
levels. I've alluded to those things. Those were
factors to bringing the game here. The weather
here is going to be fine. In today's environment if
the biggest problem is a little rain, you should
count yourself a lucky person. We're not
concerned about whether it will be cloudy today or
sunny tomorrow.
I met a lot of fans in the hotel and one of
them probably had the most apt comment of all, "I
don't care about rain, you don't have to shovel it."
(Laughter.) So that's what I would say about the
weather. Some of us become a little too high
fallutin. The fans are having a great time here.
The fans are here for football. They're here for fun.
In other years, we get lambasted by some
people because we're into high-end hotels and
luxury in excess and hedonism. And this year
we're not into any of those things and we're getting
lambasted. It's one of those things -- you're
dammed if you do, you're dammed if you don't until
it's time for the game. It's got a great history in
football. It's a fabulous stadium. The community is
excited about having the Super Bowl.
On Detroit, I met with some of their people,
Roger Penske is doing a great job. I think it's
going to be fun. Each of those communities built
stadiums and that's important. We want to make
this a two-way street. When people invest public
money in the NFL they get a return, and the Super
Bowl is part of the return where we can do it.
Q. Being from Toronto this is a
summer day for us. So thank you very much.
NFL interest is great in Canada, a franchise
north of the border in our lifetime, starter or
non-starter?
COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: Depends
on how long you expect to live. (Laughter.)
I said before and I still feel this way that I think it
could be very likely that the next franchises in the
NFL beyond 32 are outside the United States.
Toronto certainly would be a candidate. We're
giving consideration right now to see whether we
can in the next year or two play a regular season
game outside of the United States to continue to
develop the interest and be responsive to fans.
I'm going to China in early May to have
firsthand discussions with their government about
playing two preseason games over there leading
into the 2008 Olympics. So my guess is it will
happen. And I'm expecting to live a good many
years, so hopefully I can be there to kick it off in
Toronto. But it's impossible right now to have a
timeline. I've said that before, too.
Q. Over the last decade the number of
female fans has grown considerably, 31
percent of your fan base.
COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: 43
percent.
Q. What are you doing to develop that
and what do you attribute that to? What unique
security issues post 9-11 security issues does
Jacksonville and Detroit offer?
COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: I think on
the women the understanding is we've always had
a tremendous fan base among women. I think
that's partly because youth football is so popular.
There's so many mothers and grandparents like
Warrick Dunn's grandmother being here today.
They are in the sport with their kids and grandkids;
they become fans of the game.
But the game is part of community. And
we know that to many women, youth football is a
way of connecting with brothers and fathers and
sons. And that comes to a head in some ways
around Thanksgiving, around the Thanksgiving
Day tradition of football games. Pete Rozelle
responded to it with Phyllis George on the
pregame show. We do a lot of things, but we do a
lot of things for all of our fans, young fans, women;
apparel is part of it.
I think the biggest factor is more and more
women participating in athletics, and that's been
one of the megatrends of the last 20-25 years in...more..
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