NFL Commissioner Paul
Tagliabue and
NFLPA Executive Director Gene Upshaw
Thursday, September 13, 2001
Commissioner
Tagliabue: Good afternoon. As you know, we decided we would cancel
our games this weekend. We did so after two days of reviewing our
priorities and many considerations unique to our sport and our NFL family,
which means all of our teams, players, coaches, and fans. We concluded that
given the despicable acts of terrorism, the horrific loss of life here in
New York City and in Washington, the priorities of our league, our
commitment in our communities, and the impact all of this has had on our
players, coaches and others, that we should pause and make this a weekend to
support our friends, our family, our neighbors and even strangers. We will
grieve, gather our energies, become even more resolute in terms of what we
do and stronger both as a football league and as citizens of the United
States. We decided to cancel our games and will decide certainly by early
next week whether to reschedule these games on some basis or whether we
would go with a 15-game regular season schedule. I consulted at length with
many, many people and that includes at the top of the list, Gene Upshaw,
head of our Players Association, who will give you his thoughts in a
minute. We talked right after the second plane went into the World Trade
Center but before the attack on the Pentagon. Gene and I were on the phone
talking about what to do, what to consider, what the process should be, what
the timing should be. I outlined some initial thoughts right away as to
what I would expect the process to be on my side with the owners, the
governmental authorities and others. Gene had some similar thoughts on what
his process would be. From that point forward until this morning when we
made our decision with the unanimous support of our owners and our players,
and Gene is the Executive Director of our Players Association, it was a very
intensive period of consultation and trying to be certain to be sensible,
sensitive and right, and necessarily quick or superficial. Gene, do you
want a say a few words in terms of your perspective. Then we can take
questions?
Gene Upshaw:
I agree 110 percent with what Paul has just said and the position we took.
He’s also stated that we started these discussions almost immediately and
from the onset, we knew eventually we would be faced with this decision. We
didn’t know what the end result would be but I know we made the right
decision and the players support the Commissioner 100 percent on that
decision. Obviously, we did have a process to go through and I started that
process last night and I will continue it tonight as I have a call we must
complete tonight on the events of today and what the players can expect in
the next couple of days. We needed this time. Everyone needed this time.
It was clear in my discussions with the players all week and culminating
last night that they were not focused on the task at hand. We needed the
pause, we needed to stop and reflect and we needed to grieve. Part of that
was not playing this weekend and we expressed that to Paul and the owners
and I think it was a wise thing to do. We will continue next week. We will
play football and we think that will be part of the healing process. I
share everyone’s thoughts on this tragedy and we all need to get through it
together. We need support – the families, the victims -- we all got brought
into this because we are in this country and we are under attack.
Q: Gene and Paul.
If you play a 15-game schedule, what will be the pay situation? Will they
get a full season’s pay or 15 weeks?
GU: At this
point, no one is even thinking about that. We’re trying to get our country
through all of this – our players, our owners, our fans. At the right time,
we will talk about this. It’s the farthest thing from our minds at this
point.
PT: I would
agree with that. We have focused on the principals and the enormous
magnitude of the loss of life of innocent citizen and the despicable
character of the attacks and that was the sole thing. We will decide as we
go forward and work together. We’ve been very successful in solving most of
our issues across the table as a partnership between the Players Association
and the league and I’m confident we can continue to do that.
Q: How much did
the events in 1963 and the decision that Commissioner Rozelle made then
factor into your decision?
PT: I would
say marginally. Certainly I was aware of what Pete Rozelle had decided
after President Kennedy’s assassination. I knew from conversations with him
that he had discussions with Pierre Salinger and had very little time to
make a decision. I was aware of what happened in the NFL after Pearl Harbor
was attacked. And we had to deal with the earthquake in San Francisco.
There were other situations. But I emphasized in my first conversation with
our owners that this was unprecedented. We had to take the time to
understand why it was it unprecedented -- the magnitude of the loss of life
of innocent citizens in New York, in Washington, on four airliners and so
forth. Most important of all was to try to understand what our own
priorities and values were and are and how we can bring those into an
adjustment to our playing schedule.
From the very beginning it
was clear we could not have games in New York or Washington or games
involving the Jets, Giants and Redskins – certainly not in those cities. It
was unique. I think other decisions were at the margin of what we
eventually concluded. You learn from history.
Q: Two parts –
Commissioner, the governmental people, who had the biggest influence on
you. For Gene, is there a ratio in this decision? How much was emotional
grieving and how much was logistics of getting teams where they had to go
versus the safety factor for large crowds and stadiums, etc.?
PT: On the
first point, we spoke to authorities at the federal, state, municipal and
city level. I would say the conversation we had with Governor Pataki, who
was with Mayor Guiliani in the command center here in New York City, was
very important. It confirmed our own judgment. I have a lot of respect for
both the governor and the mayor and that conversation was very important.
Certainly we had conversations between our staff and the staff at the White
House and they were very important, too. In this situation, the national
interest is the most important thing. We wanted to make certain what the
President’s priorities were, what his directions were as the Commander in
Chief and the leader of the free world, but we also knew ultimately we would
have to make our own decision on our little piece of the world of pro
football in the United States. I think that leads to the next question of
safety of aircraft and public facilities. Those, again, were factors that
we were thinking about. They were at the margin. It was not our
responsibility to make judgments about air travel. That is the judgment of
the FAA and others in the federal government. We are responsible for team
charters, but not air travel generally. It’s not our responsibility for
public facilities, generally. We considered those things but it really came
down to the loss of life. As Gene emphasized, we need for the players to
absorb what we have all been through. For them to play football in the
right way. That was the core of the decision.
GU: I will
agree with that. The one thing I can say with the one discussion I had with
the White House yesterday, they made it clear that it was the NFL’s decision
to do what was in the best interest of the NFL, and that the NFL was capable
of making that decision because we knew what had to be done and they would
support it. Security is always an issue and it was an issue with any of
us. More so now than it’s ever been. We’re taking a look to examining all
aspects of that. We’re affected by this. Our players are affected. The
fans, the owners, and everyone around the game. I think we’ll all do what
is necessary. If movements need to be made, we’ll make them. But Paul is
right, we’re not the government agencies that determine if it’s safe to fly
or if the stadiums are manned the proper way.
PT: One
further point about what Governor Pataki told me. He emphasized that we as
a people are not going to be intimidated. At least we’re not going to fear
fear itself, as FDR said. He emphasized that as a people we are going to go
forward resolutely and more strongly than ever. That does not mean we had
to go to a sporting event at the first opportunity. It meant that we had to
tend to and care for our citizens, for each other, for family and friends,
neighbors and strangers. And then get back to sporting events after a
decent interval. I thought that was a powerful way of putting it.
Q: Paul, two parts.
At any time, did you or any member of your staff actually speak to the
President? Did he ever make it known which way he thought it should go.
And what are your options with regard to the season itself. Fifteen games,
16 games, push the season back?
PT: First question:
neither I nor anyone on my staff spoke to the President and didn’t expect
to. We spoke to his staff. Secondly, on the options for the season –
whether we play a 15-game regular-season schedule or a 16-game? Do we
reschedule this week’s games at the end of this season? We do not have an
open week between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl. The
alternative, if we want to play a 16-game schedule with each team having
eight games at home and eight on the road, which many people feel is
important to competitive fairness, would be to modify our Wild Card Weekend
format and have the six divisional winners, plus two Wild Card teams – one
from each conference – qualify for the playoffs rather than the current
system, which is six divisional winners and six wild card teams – three from
each conference. We can eliminate the Ward Card weekend, play this week’s
games in that first week in January and proceed with what would ordinarily
be the second weekend of the playoffs, the Divisional Playoff weekend, and
go from there. We are looking at both options. Owners have urged us to
look at both alternatives carefully and we’re doing that. Both from a
competitive standpoint and each of the teams having a fair opportunity to
present its games to its fans. About bye weeks – the only alternative that
we could have looked at there, which we did at one stage and rejected early
on in the process, was that we might have considered playing some games this
week at a team option, to reflect the sentiment in a given community and
cancel some of the games – certainly in New York, Jets on the West Coast,
and the Redskins games, and in Pittsburgh, where the plane crash occurred
south of the stadium. If we had done that, there is a way you can adjust
all the byes and bring them in sync and make up the games we don’t play this
weekend. To do that, you have to start arbitrarily assigning opponents to
teams not on their current schedule. That seemed to be a fairly radical
departure from our competitive scheduling formula. We considered it, and
then dismissed it as not being practicable.
Q: You mentioned FDR
earlier. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he decided that baseball should
play and there was a three-to-four month gap between that event and the
baseball season. Brian Billick, for one, expressed sentiment about letting
the nation heal. I wondered if in the decision-making process, was there
ever a point to play this weekend to help people through this, to help them
heal, as a distraction, and can you talk about who was on the conference
calls. Was it the entire ownership?
PT: FDR –
what I was referring to, without looking at my history books was his
statement about fear at the beginning of the Depression. We have confidence
and strength in people. To me that is very similar to where we are today.
We cannot succumb to fear. Bill Bidwill was here in New York this week --
was there in 1941 when the Cardinals played on the day that Pearl Harbor was
attacked. Of course, Wellington Mara and others said it was a historical
backdrop and didn’t have an effect on our decision. I think there is a good
deal of sense to what Brian Billick is suggesting. Gene spoke to it
earlier. At a certain point, playing our games will contribute to the
healing process. Our players recognize that. I saw what Brian Mitchell and
other Eagles, they’d like to be helping to work with the victims and the
people who have been so severely injured in New York and Washington and by
next week, they can contribute to the healing process by playing. But not
this week. I think that was a pretty wide sentiment.
GU: I’ve
heard from a lot of teams and I’ll hear from more tonight. Brian believes
that we should play through this to heal. He’s right. It also explains why
I’ve already heard from his players and they’ve been told to report to work
and practice tomorrow. It goes hand-in-hand. What we have suggested to our
players is to take time this weekend to have prayer and remembrance and to
do something to show how supportive we are in what the nation is going
through. A lot of players are planning things. A number have already
called the NFL office about how can they donate and who can they donate to
to help the victims. That’s what people don’t write about. That’s what
makes us proud.
Q: There is a report
about players donating their game checks. Have you heard that?
GU: I
haven’t heard that. We don’t know if there are any game checks to donate.
I don’t know where we are and I’ll have a better understanding of that after
tonight and lay out what the league has talked about.
Q: Art Modell said
there was a select core group of owners on the conference call this
morning. Could you tell us whom you talked to?
PT: In the
last 48 hours, I’ve heard directly or indirectly from every owner in the
league and then we had a series of small conference calls, larger conference
calls, impromptu conference calls, scheduled calls. Those have occurred
over the last 48 hours – Pat Bowlen, Wellington Mara, Bill Bidwill was here
in New York, Lamar Hunt, Art Modell, Dan Snyder, Dan Rooney, Woody Johnson
here in New York, Bob Kraft, Jerry Richardson, Al Lerner. I had also spoken
directly with many others, including Red McCombs, Jerry Jones. and Ralph
Wilson spoke to my assistant when I was tied up. The list could go on and
on. Essentially every owner registered an opinion. Most thoughts ended
with one simple observation: It’s your decision and whatever you do, we’ll
support.
GU: In this
situation, they will call you. I’ve gone through the same process with the
player reps and the executive committee. Clearly we understood it was
Paul's decision to make. We all wanted to make sure we had our opinions
heard – the players as well as the owners. He made his decision. He made
it quickly and he made it the right way and through the right process. It’s
over. There are no games.
Q: There were
reports that Gene’s player reps were 31-0. Was the ownership quite that
decisive?
GU: My
players were not 31-0. We all supported the decision and it was 100
percent.
PT: The
owners were 32-0 at this point because everyone I spoke to said it was our
decision and it was supported with great enthusiasm. Along the way we had
many different points of view and as I said before, we had considered a
number of alternatives and very quickly reduced them to two alternatives.
One was to cancel all the games, which we did. The other was to cancel the
games involving the Giants, Jets, and Redskins. We concluded the most
appropriate thing was to take a pause and do what all citizens do in this
situation -- to focus on this loss of life and what we can do for others.
Q: Did you go back
and forth on this much? There was a report that you told Bud Selig last
night that you were leaning toward playing.
PT: I had
conversations with a number of sports leaders, including Bud Selig, Bill
France, and Tim Finchem, and some in college sports. People called us and
we returned calls. I did tell Bud that we had two alternatives. If the
national day of mourning were Friday, we’d consider whether we’d play some
of the games on Sunday. I also emphasized some difficult points of
principle for us. When we finished that process, the cancellation of all
the games seemed the wise and appropriate course. Bud was listing a variety
of alternatives himself and we brainstormed. His thoughts and his
perspective were very valuable and similar to my own.
Q: Are there any
thoughts to moving the Super Bowl back and is that logistically possible and
have you talked to organizers in New Orleans about it?
PT: We
didn’t really have time to do that other than to note that theoretically
it’s possible but we didn’t spend much time on it. We had to make a
decision on what to do this weekend and what to do about the future of the
schedule – regular and postseason – it is still in front of us.
Q: Has any thought
been given to how to open major stadiums are in terms of letting people in
and out of stadiums? Mostly into stadiums. In the future, has anything
been discussed in terms of changes that could be made?
PT: We feel
that those are subjects we’ve reviewed extensively in the last decade.
Certainly we had the experience of the first attack on the World Trade
Center in the early ‘90s. Then the nation had the experience of the
Oklahoma City bombing. Those matters have been reviewed rather intensively
by our security department, and club and stadium security people and we
continue that on an ongoing process.
Q: As the events
began to unfold on Tuesday, how close did you come on Tuesday to canceling
the games?
PT: I didn’t
come close to canceling at all on Tuesday.
GU: We’re
all just trying to take in what is going on around us.
PT: The
first conversation that Gene and I was before the Pentagon, but after the
two planes went into the World Trade Center. We focused more on the safety
of his employees and the safety of the league employees here in New York.
What arrangements were we making to help employees who had family members or
neighbors or friends working in the World Trade Center area or the
Pentagon? Gene had some employees in that situation. We had some
employees. We had employees who by the middle of the day knew that their
spouses were missing. They are still missing. A lot of Tuesday was focused
on those very intensely personal experiences of employees and family members
and it was late in the day when we felt that we could start to spend the
dominance of our time on the issue of canceling games or playing games.
When I spoke on an organized basis to a group of owners late on Tuesday,
around 5:00 or 6:00 on a conference call, the first thing I told them was
that we are not going to make a decision today. I want to identify for you
what I see as an unprecedented set of questions, challenges and decisions,
where I am in my conversations with Gene Upshaw, what I think are the
alternatives. When we finish this call, we’ll sleep on this and work on it
the next morning. I knew from the first moment that we were not going to
make any decisions, unless of course, there had been an escalation of the
attacks and as horrific as it was, theoretically it could have been more
horrific and more extensive. Then it might have been a foregone conclusion
on Tuesday. A lot of it was focused on the grief of individual employees on
my side and I assume the same for Gene.
GU: It was a
strange conversation when we open a conversation with “are you OK and is
everyone accounted for?” and watch the news and gather information. You
make sure everyone is OK. We did what everyone else was doing. We weren’t
thinking about the games this weekend.
Q: How did the
vote come down? Were you afraid of a wildcat walkout with the Jets and
Giants seemingly so adamant that they would not play?
GU: I was
not worried. Last night on the call, the players were diplomatic about what
they had to say. They let every player express his thoughts. At the end of
the day, we knew it was clear the players supported not playing the game. I
told Paul that is how strongly they felt. We have another call scheduled
for tonight. Let’s see if we can do something. We clearly understood that
the Commissioner has the authority to make the decision and we wanted to be
on board with that decision.
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