January 19, 1999

INTERVIEW WITH COMMISSIONER PAUL TAGLIABUE (FOX SPORTS NET)

Q. You were at the AFC Championship Game. The game was delayed 10 minutes so fans from around the country could watch overtime in the NFC Title Game. Might the League look into further separating the start times of the AFC/NFC Title Games?

COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: I think we have a good start time. We could always slip it like we did on Sunday and, if necessary, we could push the start time to 4:20, 4:25, but I think it works pretty well the way it is when you consider the different time zones of the country.

Q. Commissioner, this is Ronnie Lott. I would like to ask you about the rules with hitting. One of the things that has been happening this year is the rules with hitting and hitting with the head. What can you guys do to possibly create better equipment or also to enforce those type of rules that don't allow players to get hurt?

COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: I think in some ways the equipment is part of the problem that we see. We've discussed this with the Players Association. The bigger the facemasks get, the more protection you give to the player. At some point, the player is going to be tempted to maybe use that as a way of hitting or as a way of protecting himself and then hitting.

We've got a pretty good balance in the game right now. We've talked about limiting the size of facemasks, which become a weapon in certain situations. But the main thing is for the coaches to teach the game correctly, play it the way Ronnie Lott played it and we don't have too many fouls.

Q. Mr. Tagliabue, Ron Pitts. One of the big topics this year has been, as you know, instant replay, and I know coming up in your Winter League meetings you guys will discuss whether or not that will be enforced for next year. One, what is your take on it, what is your viewpoint on it, should it be enforced, and two, what should be the proper format? In the past we've had the coaches' challenge format, where they could challenge and get an instant replay using time-outs. What do you feel about that?

COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: On the first point, I think what we've seen this year and what we've started to see in the last few years is that TV technology gets better and better, the zoom lenses and the digital recall capabilities. What you have is officiating which is done in full motion being scrutinized in slow motion with a clearer and clearer microscope. To call it on the field we need to take advantage of that technology and have a replay system that makes sense.

Now, that's the big question; what makes sense? You don't want to slow up the pace of the game, you don't want to introduce too many interruptions in the game, so you have to limit it in some way. The coaches' challenge system is kind of falling into the background. The coaches want to coach and they feel, everyone feels officials should do the officiating, so what we'll probably end up with is a system where you'll have a replay official who says basically to the referee we've got a good picture of this play, or good pictures, you come to the monitor and look at the monitor and treat the monitor as the eighth official on the field. Those are the electronic eyes that you add to the crew. A system along those lines I think would have a lot of support.

Q. Would this system be in place for the start of next year?

COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: I would expect so, yes, I would think we would want to get it in place for the pre-season, certainly, and with the best technology and then do it throughout the regular season. We've even talked a little bit about experimenting with a system of replay in NFL Europe this spring on a selected basis on some of the telecasts over there.

Q. Now, of course, with all of this talk of instant replay and the coaches being upset and fans being upset, the brunt of this is all falling on the officials. Where are the officiating crews, in your opinion, where is Jerry Seeman, the head of officiating?

COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: Well, I think the officiating is extremely good. Obviously, in any season you're going to have some calls that are missed. We had one in the Jets/Seattle game, when Testaverde lunged to the goal line, the official was screened off by receivers and couldn't see whether the ball broke the plane or not.

On the other side of the coin, we've had some great calls. The Andre Reed play in the Buffalo/Miami playoff game. His elbow hit the ground before he went in. It got a lot of criticism but it was the right call. Just a couple of weeks ago, the Terry Kirby play in the Atlanta/San Francisco game was criticized but it was the right call, down by contact.

It's a tough thing when you're officiating in real time, and you all know how fast the action is on the field, and then reviewing it in super slow motion. You're going to see some things that you can't see in real time. That's why we need to take advantage of that technology, to help the officials and the teams.

Q. Well, when you talk about real time, should you add another referee, possibly creating an eighth, position, or how about a full-time staff?

COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: Well, we've talked about another official on the field and I'm sure that will be discussed with the Competition Committee and the coaches beginning at the combine in Indianapolis in February. At a certain point, you've got to strike a balance between the number of people on the field and replay, and I think that will be a big part of our discussion this year.

On the full-time officials, our officials are full time during the season. If someone could figure out what would enable you to get better people on the field, then we might look at full-time referees or a full-time crew member, but basically what you have is a feeder system here as college football, your best people coming out are people that do this on a seasonal basis. I think we're likely to continue with that type of a structure at least for the next few years.

Q. Mr. Tagliabue, I want to switch subjects here and talk about coaching. You know, one of the hot topics also this year is the subject of black head coaches, and with the exception of Ray Rhodes and Green Bay, it seems there's not a lot of hiring going on right now and it seems to be at a standstill. I know there still are some vacancies left. I know the league has instituted their video resume library in which most of the owners will have access to not only minority coaches, but other coaches that they view as candidates for head coaching around the NFL. Do you feel this system will be effective?

COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: Well, I think the main thing that's becoming effective right now is the upward mobility of the good young coaches. I think you're seeing more and more younger coaches moving into coordinator positions, that includes a number of top African American coaches. I think you're seeing visibility with people like Willie Shaw coming in with the Raiders, turning around their defense. Other coaches who two or three years ago were not really that well known in the National Football League, are now on the rise. I think Ray Rhodes being rehired is a real positive thing for the league because obviously we've had a history where head coaches get rehired and give Ray that second shot at Green Bay. The bottom line is this is a very, very competitive thing and there are only a limited number of spots and 500 or more people competing for them. I do think we've made a lot of progress in the last several years in terms of clubs approaching hiring in an inclusive way that focuses on diversity.

Q. Commissioner, I'm going to put you on the spot here. This is Hardcore Football, you know we love to do that. You were at the AFC Championship Game this past weekend, you got a close look at the Denver Broncos that are going to be matched up with the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl. What's your take on this game, who do you like?

COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: Well, I think we're going to have a heck of a football game. My wish is that we get another overtime game like we had in the Metrodome. That's what a Commissioner always hopes for, a great football game that is decided in overtime. I think with the match up Sunday there are a lot of plots and sub plots. Obviously, you've got the Super Bowl defenders, the Broncos in there. You have the upstarts from Atlanta, but of course they have the best record in the National Football League for the last season and-a-half, I think 21-4, and you have great match-ups on both sides of the ball and then Dan Reeves and Mike Shanahan, two outstanding coaches. Dan, of course, is a special story this year because of his miraculous comeback from bypass surgery and he's going up against his old team, so this is going to be one exciting football game.

Q. Commissioner, talking about the League, next year Cleveland Browns start playing. That's 31 teams. I think everyone should know how this is going to pan out in that division and also the byes around the rest of the League.

COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: Well, the byes will be easy to handle in some ways. We'll end up with a schedule that's better than the current bye schedule because you'll bye one team each of the 17 weeks and then 14 teams will get byed in bunches like we do now, so that will work out fine. I think the big question is when do we go to 32 and is it Los Angeles or Houston. We're going to be discussing that this spring in our League meetings, trying to make a decision.

The other big story, as you suggest, is the Browns coming back. This is the first time, certainly in NFL history, where a team has had a hiatus like this. The old organization moved, became the Baltimore Ravens, but the Browns are going to be brought back in Cleveland and Carmen Policy and whoever he hires are going to have a challenge there to see if they can match what Jacksonville and Carolina did in their first couple of seasons.

Q. I really think that that's exciting. We're sitting here in Los Angeles and I'm telling you, fans out here would love to have football back out here, so I guess I am lobbying for the Los Angeles situation, but I also want to ask you a question about Eddie DeBartolo and his situation up there in San Francisco. It's likely that he will get the team back?

COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: You can't say that yet. There will be some changes up there. I've been talking to Eddie, I've been talking to his sister and they have some ideas about the structure of the organization going forward.

From my point of view, the biggest thing that's been accomplished recently is extending Steve Mariucci's contract because you have to keep the team together. Steve is the focal point right now. To me, it's a little bit like where Minnesota was a year ago, when there was ownership change on the horizon. Denny Green was talking about whether he would stay, not stay. He ended up staying, kept the team together and they had an outstanding season and so with Steve there, I think the 49ers have a great future.

The other piece I have to review with Eddie and his sister is the stadium. I've also discussed that with Mayor Brown, because we have to keep progress on that new 49ers stadium.

Q. Mr. Tagliabue, in the last few years we've noticed a real heavy push, I would say maybe five years or so, by the NBA to really promote the sport on an urban level. It seems to really be targeting and going after getting the kids involved, and I know in the last couple of years the NFL has tried to come out and do that. How is that going and is there a real need for that to improve much more than it is right now?

COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: I think all sports have that responsibility. We all know that in the big cities and in some rural areas as well there's less of an emphasis on sport. There's unwillingness to fund sports at the same level that was traditional and our Players Association agreed with us to take a hundred million dollars in the next five years, put it into a youth football foundation, promote the sport, particularly tackle football, in the big cities where it's under some pressure and stress. If we can help turn that around, I think we'll have done a lot for kids, a lot for sport, a lot for coaching. That will be good not just for those kids, it will be good for everybody in America.

Q. I don't think everybody knows exactly what your job entails. Now, you work hand-in-hand with all the owners, and we know the owners; we talked about there are some old school owners that were there from the beginning of the merger and there's the new owners that come in. What's your job like dealing with these guys on a day-to-day basis?

COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: Well, my job is really twofold, maybe threefold. Number one is working on ownership issues internal to the league and keeping everybody on the same page. Then, of course, the second part of it is with the Players Association, focusing on the game, trying to keep the game as great as it is, and that's not an easy thing in this day and age with 31 teams, free agency, player movement and you can see that the pressures on the coaches, it's a tough game to manage right now. The third part of the job is really focused on external relations; fans, cities, stadiums, television, that type of thing. So it's not a civil service position.

Q. It doesn't sound like that at all. But, you know, the great thing about this sport -- tell me what you love about it. We hear a lot of things about what makes football so great, but talk to us about your passion, your feelings for the game of football.

COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: Well, I think the greatest thing about the game is the intensity, the teamwork. I was visiting it with Bud Grant a couple of weeks ago up in Minnesota and we talked about some of those great Viking teams that he had with Carl Eller, Jim Marshall and Alan Page. Look at the current Vikings team, you see those same qualities, you see the same intensity, the same competition on the field, and you see what succeeds at the coaching level. What succeeded for Bud Grant is the same type of discipline, teamwork, commitment, hard work, and intensity that succeeded this year for those four teams that played in the Conference Championships; Bill Parcells, Mike Shanahan, Denny Green and so forth. These are the kinds of coaches, same traits that Bud Grant brought to the table, and that's a great part of what football is about.

END

 
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