Note: NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue was a guest Dec. 19 on NFL.com's live radio show and he tackled a variety of league issues. The following is a transcript of the interview with NFL.com's Gil Brandt and Steve Cohen:

NFL.com: Commissioner, one of the things I always look forward to at Super Bowl time is when you get to the podium and give us the "state of the game." Can you give us a little preview for our listeners today?

Commssioner Tagliabue: Certainly. Like everyone knows, the competitive balance has created a very exciting season and exciting matchups every week. Right now we still have 21 teams in the playoff hunt. The AFC has no playoff qualifiers yet -- the first time that's happened in a conference this late in the season since 1987. So I think that's just one measure of the state of the game. This weekend, as many as five of the AFC's playoff berths can be clinched -- or none can be clinched. Again, the game is very strong. We're on a pace for all-time records in total points scored, total touchdowns, passing yards. So we feel the game is healthy and will continue to be that until we get to the Super Bowl in San Diego.

NFL.com: With the record number of overtime games played this year, is there any thought to reviewing the present overtime rules as we know them?

Tagliabue: Yes, and it's been discussed in recent years within the competition committee. There's still a strong feeling, I think, that there's good balance to the current rule. That you can win as much when you're on defense, when you're forcing a team to receive the ball deep in its own territory. But I'm sure it's going to be reviewed. One possibility includes the idea that the winner has to get six points before there's a sudden-death conclusion to the overtime. So you couldn't conclude it in sudden death with a field goal. There will be other ideas, I'm sure, but to get a change it's going to take 24 votes. And that's not an easy thing to do when there's been a lot of discussion of this issue already and a pretty strong feeling that this is a balanced rule we have now.

NFL.com: With realignment, we have eight divisions now, and no team leading any of these divisions now has more than five losses. Are you pleased with the way realignment has worked out so far?

Tagliabue: Yes, I think everybody has to be pleased. There's been exciting competition, tough competition in every division. There was speculation that some divisions would be weaker than others. People talked about the new NFC South being maybe not as strong as some of the other divisions, and lo and behold, three of those four teams are competing for playoff spots. So I think the general feeling is that it worked well in Year 1, we've got to see how it works in coming years. As I've said earlier, with 21 teams in the playoff chase, increased television ratings, record levels of attendance, the fans seem to be voting with their … viewing patterns, so that's probably the best tribute to the success of realignment.

NFL.com: What are your thoughts about the new deal with DirecTV?

Tagliabue: It will be a positive for those fans who like to get the full slate of NFL games on Sunday. There are over a million of them now and this new agreement will bring cutting-edge technology to NFL television on DirecTV. That's sooner rather than later. We'll start including high-definition television. At least that's one of our key goals. The fans will have increasing services over the years, including the NFL Channel. That will be something we're developing right now, and it will be a clearinghouse for NFL fans 24 hours a day to connect with their teams and the issues in the league. So I think the DirecTV deal is an exciting one for everyone, particularly those fans that are passionate about their NFL.

NFL.com: I know last year you talked about the possibility of flexible scheduling. It's very difficult to do because all the networks want the best games. But will there be any talk in the offseason about trying to reschedule games as we move towards the end of the season so that we can get the best games for the whole country's sake?

Tagliabue: Well, there will be, but we're restricted to some degree because we're in the middle of eight-year television contracts with our four networks, and understandably they went into these agreements with certain expectations about the games they would have and the time slots they would be featured. We'll discuss it and we need to come up with something that's a win-win for everybody. But with the balance in the league and the difficulty of predicting who's going to be a repeater, we all felt we need to move some flexibility rather than the old concept of still activity, when you can have a team like the Dolphins in '72 go 17-0 and you can feel pretty certain, without free agency, that those players were going to be back and the Dolphins would be prime-time attraction no matter what happens. We don't have that kind of a league today and the trade-off between the competitiveness we have and some stability. But flexibility in the scheduling eventually has to come.

NFL.com: What are your thoughts about having a future Super Bowl in the Northeast?

Tagliabue: We're working on it. There was a positive reaction to that idea from the owners at our annual fall meetings here in late October. The next four Super Bowls are already committed in San Diego, Detroit, Jacksonville and Houston. We're looking at Florida for 2007, but eventually I think we can address all the issues people have raised and have a game in New York or the nation's capital that would be a very special event for NFL fans -- and for the world, really. Because with New York or Washington as a platform, the world would be focused on the Super Bowl to a greater degree than it normally is.

NFL.com: We've talked about parity in the league and so many teams are still alive for a playoff berth. Has the salary cap helped the game, and has it in turn been a factor in the parity we're seeing right now?

Tagliabue: Well, I think it has. The original idea of the cap was to ensure that everyone could compete whether you were in a big market or a small market. And it has the effect of taking people off the bench as backup players and putting them on the field. If you go back, there have been examples in the NFL where talent was stacked on teams behind strong talent, and players didn't get a chance to play maybe until they've been in the league six, seven, eight years. That doesn't happen now. The cap has the effect, as they say, of forcing people onto the field, giving them the opportunity. Free agency can work in that direction as well. So we feel right now that the competitiveness of the league and the fact that 21 teams are still in the playoff chase is a result of this collective bargaining agreement.