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COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE WITH JIM GRAY- CBS RADIO Jim Gray: I am now joined by the Commissioner of the National Football League, Paul John Tagliabue, who will be celebrating his 15th year as NFL Commissioner coming up and his 35th year of involvement in the National Football League. Paul, thank you for joining us. Great to see you. Paul Tagliabue: Great to be with you. JG: Carolina came in under your tenure. What goes through you when you see a franchise with only nine years of existence performing in the Super Bowl? PT: It feels good because we spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to start it up. But, more importantly, we spent a lot of time selecting an owner. And here we have an owner who was a player himself in a NFL championship game. So that’s thrilling for him and for me. And Bob Kraft came in about the same time, and he was a fan sitting in the end zone up there in Foxboro stadium. So this is a good matchup. JG: Of course Jerry Richardson caught that pass when the Colts won in 1959. Paul, The New York times said in its September 7 edition that you would seriously consider authorizing a study of the feasability of the regular season adding two games to the 16-game schedule. 2005 would be your target. A, is that accurate, and b, if it is where does it stand? PT: We’ve looked at that and really decided to stay where we are. Most people felt that for the preseason you needed four games. So we’re looking at another idea now, which is to have a one-week break between the fourth preseason game and the first regular-season game. That would enable the clubs to play more players in the preseason and then have a little time for players to heal from some of those nicks and scrapes when they come out of the preseason into the regular season. So that’s what we’re looking at now. JG: You floated an idea with Bob Costas on his show on HBO that you might be willing to put a second game on Monday night so that there was an opportunity for the nation to have two games and they could pick. Where does that stand? PT: We’ve discussed it already with all the networks. As you might expect we got several different opinions just in terms of trying to get television experts to react to it. It is still under serious consideration. It still might make sense. In the current universe of television, where you have 400 channels, we have 16 games -- on Sunday afternoons sometimes 13 or 14 games. When we just have that one Monday night game in today’s television environment, it’s sometimes tough to tee up the big game. JG: I want to ask you about these fantasy football leagues and the younger generations that follow them and participate in them. Are you concerned that they are following individuals and not teams? And also, the NFL helps promote these leagues through their partners. So, to a certain extent, are you condoning wagering? PT: No, not at all. We’ve paid very strict attention to the wagering/gambling issue. We were one of the last to get into fantasy football. So we’re not concerned about that. It’s like the hot stove league. It’s another way for people to really participate in the game. It’s a form of skill at this point. We’ve looked at the gambling issues and it’s not something that we feel we’re coming close to. JG: You talked about sportsmanship at the state of your league on Friday here in Houston. You said you were going to crack down hard on the Joe Horns of the world, the Terrell Owenses and the behavior that is going on. Warren Sapp made some comments this year about NFL owners being slave masters. You immediately rebuked that. PT: I didn’t say a word about it. Gene Upshaw rebuked it for me. JG: In light of those comments and Warren now working for the NFL Network, it looks as though he’s been rewarded. What are your thoughts on that? PT: My thought is that sometimes Warren lets his mouth get ahead of the serious thoughts and the serious person he can be. We have a lot of independence with our network in terms of the talent. We’re not linking what players do necessarily in one area with what they are doing in terms of appearing on the network. JG: Steroids. The President brought it up in his State of the Union address. Will you be more vigilant? Will you have more testing? He called upon owners, players, unions and management. PT: We can’t be any more vigilant than we are. We were surprised that we were even mentioned. We have the most aggressive program of anyone in sports. We funded research that we had to fund because the federal government wouldn’t. So, we’re doing as much as we can. We’ll continue to do that. And we’ll work very closely with the government and the White House to set a good example for kids when it comes to staying away from performance-enhancing drugs. JG: And you’re sitting with his father over there, President Bush, 41. What’s it like to sit with a president during a football game? PT: I was just there for the kickoff. Now I’m up here in my small booth where I can concentrate on the game. I don’t have to talk to anybody. JG: Quite proud of Houston? They’ve done a magnificent job this year of hosting a Super Bowl. PT: Fantastic job from beginning to end the entire week. And they have got a good football team themselves. So they’re really pleased to host a Super Bowl, but their next goal is to get in one. |