Pat Summerall: You had a pretty busy weekend?

PT: We sure did. We went out to Cleveland on Friday and visited the stadium and tried to get a little taste for the excitement among the Browns fans as we plan to bring them back on the field next August. Then I went over to Penn State and visited with Joe Paterno and watched his club play Northwestern and of course come back and win after having been embarrassed the week before by Michigan. Then I went over to Detroit and saw the Lions-Bears game and ended up last night in Kansas City at the Broncos-Chiefs game. I also went to a United Way event yesterday in Kansas City featuring Nick Lowery and a bunch of former Chiefs players. It was a good weekend.

Question: The one that shocks me a little bit is the college game, Penn State, Paterno, Northwestern…why?

PT: I try to get around to at least one college game a year and pay tribute to a coach or program that, in our view, has been a great program. As you know, Penn State and Joe Paterno have produced so many outstanding young men not only on the field, but also off the field. People like Franco Harris and Jack Ham. John Cappelletti was there on Saturday. We sat with John. He’s their only Heisman Trophy winner and interestingly enough this is the 25th anniversary of his winning the Heisman. When you produce a program like that we like to pay tribute to those people and keep the dialogue open with college football.

Question: Commissioner, what exactly is going on in Cleveland right now?

PT: The main thing is getting ready to select players. They’ve got a scouting staff in place and they’re working with Blesto Scouting. They’re out there every weekend scouting the college players and scouting NFL games because during the second week of February, they’ll be picking veteran players in the veteran player draft. Then in mid-April, they’ll be picking those college players in the college draft. So, the biggest thing they’re doing is scouting players and the other thing they’re doing is trying to size up who they might want to pursue as their head coach once the season is over.

Question: Where is the new facility in relation to the old stadium?

PT: The new stadium is right on the site of the old stadium. In fact, the field is laid out in the same direction. The Dog Pound is down there in the end zone and it’s getting ready to go. By the time we hit the first part of December they’ll be doing indoor work on the locker rooms. It’s beginning to look like a place where you can really play football. The one thing that’s missing right now is the howls and the screams and the cheers of the fans. But that will be there come August 21.

Question: I guess they’ll be piping the wind in there as well. That was always one of the toughest places to kick.

PT: The way they built the stadium, it’s open air. In the so-called luxury suites in Cleveland the seats are out front, so you can sit in luxury at 10 degrees if it’s a pretty cold day.

Question: When the franchise was sold (Cleveland) were you staggered at the tremendous, enormous amount that was paid?

PT: I was in one sense because it was so much higher than what people paid for Jacksonville and Carolina. On the other side of the coin, our fans continue to be so supportive and our game continues to be so popular. It’s just something about the National Football League today, people seem to want to be a part of it. Al Lerner and the others were willing to pay that price to become part of the tradition and to continue the tradition.

Question: When you graduated from college did you ever see yourself, Paul Tagliabue, Commissioner of the National Football League?

PT: Never. When I was in college I was like most young people. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I was so focused on playing basketball, but also taking advantage of the scholarship that I had at Georgetown, trying to hit the books. But when I came out I never dreamed I would have a career in sports. In those days we used to share our locker room at Georgetown with the Cleveland Browns when they came through to play the Redskins and the Colts. They would come over to Georgetown and practice, so I was able to stand on the perimeter and look at people like Jim Brown and others in 1960, ‘61, ‘62. But never dreamed I would be involved in pro football.

Question: What kind of basketball player were you? I bet you were a tough basketball player.

PT: I was tough. When you grow up in the schoolyards in Jersey City and Hoboken, New Jersey, you get to play tough. For years I had the rebounding record at Georgetown, but there have been quite a few better players like Patrick Ewing. So now I’m a footnote to history.

Question: Is there going to be more expansion? Is the league obligated to expand?

PT: No, we’re not obligated to expand but we should get to that 32nd team. Cleveland will be the 31st and we’re looking real hard at Los Angeles and also at Houston. Obviously, both the Rams and the Raiders left LA and the Oilers have now become the Tennessee Titans. We want to get back in those markets and one of them will get a 32nd team. We’ll probably make a decision on that sometime next spring.

Question: It seems almost unfair that either Houston or Los Angeles might wind up without a team.

PT: It is tough. You hate to see an either/or situation but that’s where we are for the moment. We need to take it a step at a time and see which one of those areas is ready. The fans in both areas are ready. It’s mainly a question of getting the right kind of stadium that the fans will flock to.

Question: The NFL remains the strongest sport on television. What’s happening in the television industry relative to pro football? Are there any drastic changes that you see?

PT: I don’t see drastic changes. I see an explosion of coverage. Obviously, all the networks have been a big part of that and they continue to do so many great things. As you look ahead with some of these new types of TV technologies, it’s going to be even better and better for the fan -- high definition television and things like that. We want as many fans as possible to see our games just by clicking on their TV set. That has been the backbone of our television and we’re certainly planning on continuing that. We have specialized programming for the real avid fan. That’s all great, but we want our big games out there for everyone to watch.

Question: There were a lot of big games last weekend.

PT: What you see this year is the rise of the AFC. Denver is at the top of that pinnacle right now. We have real strong races -- Miami, the Jets, Buffalo, New England all competing in the East. Jacksonville, Pittsburgh, now Tennessee coming up, and Oakland. In the NFC a few surprises, Minnesota, Atlanta, Dallas coming back, Mike Ditka has New Orleans playing well. We’re looking forward to every weekend from here to the end of the season.

Question: Sellout crowds in places like Atlanta, Arizona... that has to be healthy for the sport.

PT: It is. If you look at college football and you look at the interest in football in the Southwest, Arizona, look at in the Southeast, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, you know the fans are there, they have just been frustrated. Dan Reeves and Atlanta, and the Cardinals led by Jake Plummer, are creating a lot of excitement and that is great for the game, good for the league, and good for those fans.

Question: What about the new stadium situation now? There are two that opened this year. That looks like a pretty healthy picture too.

PT: The stadiums in Baltimore and Tampa have generated a lot of excitement. Of course in Tampa there’s that pirate ship in the end zone and I’m sure Tony Dungy wished the cannons on the pirate ship were blasting off a little more with some touchdowns, but they’ll be back. Next year we’re looking forward to a new stadium in Cleveland and also in Nashville with the Tennessee Titans. Bud Adams made that decision this past weekend to really pick up on what he heard from a lot of the people in Tennessee. They view themselves as leaders, as trailblazers, as larger than life individuals. So the name Titans fits them real well.

Question: How about the success of New Orleans and the great job Mike Ditka is doing?

PT: Mike does a great job wherever he goes. He brings his energy and his intensity and he has brought that club back to the point where they can compete with almost anybody. They’ve been a little unsettled at quarterback because of injuries and some young players, but Kerry Collins certainly looked good on Sunday. He’s one of the players that I was talking with Joe Paterno about this weekend. Joe feels that Kerry was one of the best, if not the best, at that position at Penn State. He still feels that New Orleans has a jewel there if they can keep him focused.

Question: What is the overall image of the NFL athlete? Is it blown out of proportion? What is the image of the athlete?

PT: If you put it in context, many of our players today are doing great things and some of those young players, Warrick Dunn and others, are really showing leadership in their community and taking a strong interest in kids. They understand how important sports were to them as kids so they’re creating the same opportunities in sports and education. Unfortunately, we have to be candid and realistic and realize that some players get into trouble. I think it’s overblown frequently. The bad news is the headline and the good news is on the back page. And with our United Way partnership, giving players opportunities to work in the community, I think our professional athletes are going to be just as much leaders as people like Roger Staubach and Frank Gifford and others from past decades and past generations.

Question: How did that alliance between the United Way and the NFL come about? It’s been going on for a long, long time?

PT: It was another one of Pete Rozelle’s great visions. Pete was the one who had a vision about a lot of things and that included the United Way. He felt there should be an opportunity to take the helmets off the players and let the fans see them in their communities and their towns and their charities. He started it. If history is written correctly, Pat Summerall was one of the first players ever to appear in the United Way spot.

As I mentioned yesterday in Kansas City, there were 1,200 volunteers there to celebrate the partnership between the United Way, Heart of America and the Kansas City Chiefs. Nick Lowery, Lamar Hunt and Carl Peterson were all there and it’s still working for a lot of communities around America.

Question: People have the perception that Commissioner Tagliabue and his staff just sit in New York and fine players and are not really involved very much with the game of football itself. Actively involved certainly applies to you and your staff, doesn’t it?

PT: It has to be that way. I grew up as a kid playing all sports, whether it was tackle football on the blacktop in a schoolyard, basketball or baseball. I get as much fun from getting out there and being a fan and seeing the games as anything we do. There are people like George Young, the former General Manager of the New York Giants, on our staff and a number of other people that have worked with clubs. Of course Jerry Seeman, our Director of Officiating, was on the field for many, many years. We have a lot of people who’s first love and first instinct is to be in the stadium and out there understanding what’s going on with the game and not just sitting back here in New York and staying in touch by long distance.

Question: Will you tell us about the officiating process. Also, what is your personal opinion on what’s happening to the men in stripe shirts now?

PT: Our program gets broader and broader every year and better and better. The first thing of course is to recruit the best people to be NFL officials. We have a team of people out there every weekend at college football games scouting officials, just like the teams have the people out there scouting the players. When we identify a short list of good top college officials, we give them an opportunity to officiate in our league in Europe, that’s the first step. They go over and officiate in NFL Europe where we play a spring schedule of 10 games. A lot of NFL players are over there in the spring. Then we bring them into the NFL and we have a very rigorous training program. We have our own training camp; we do it every year in Dallas and sometimes borrow the Cowboys facility. After that, we send all the officiating crews out to individual team training camps and they talk with the coaches, talk with the players and explain the rules.

The action in an NFL game is sometimes faster then the eye can see and sometimes you’re shielded. Sometimes there’s an interception or reversal of the players on the field and people get knocked out of position, just like the players get knocked out of position. Overall, I think the officials do a heck of a good job.

Question: The first time this recruiting process begins, are the officials from high school?

PT: They’re mostly from college. A number of our NFL officials are involved in managing college conference officiating programs. We have people who are on the field in our games on Sunday, and during the week they’re spending their time managing college officiating programs. So they get to know many of the top college officials. As I said before, we scout them as well, file scouting reports, and take it from there.

Question: I assume there’s an ongoing effort to get better officials and better officiating?

PT: Absolutely. It even includes more and more joint training programs between our people and the college conferences so that they adopt some of our techniques and we make the techniques the same. So when someone graduates from college officiating to the NFL, just like a player from college football to the NFL, there’s consistency and we get the benefit of that consistency and that training at both levels.

Question: Regarding the Bill Parcells, Drew Bledsoe and Jimmy Johnson tampering issue. What’s wrong with three friends talking to each other?

PT: What happened was, Bill Parcells called Drew Bledsoe after the Patriots-Jets game and there was some speculation about whether Drew Bledsoe may have given Bill Parcells some information about Terry Glenn’s chances to play. That’s not part of our investigation. The basic problem is that we don’t want coaches on one team talking to players on a competing team during the season. Going back to my high school coaches, if you were talking to the coach of an opposing high school, your coach would be irate, and rightly so. A lot of sports is planning, strategy, it’s surprise, deception, and so on. You saw last night in the Denver-Kansas City game that early touchdown by Bubby Brister. Obviously, surprise was a big part of that play. We want to maintain that element of surprise. We don’t want the fans to think that all of a sudden, instead of competing, we’re cooperating, or worse yet just being convivial. That’s not what competition is about. There needs to be a bright line during the season between people in one organization and people in another organization, and no perception that there’s information leaking across that bright line.

Question: Can you possibly police that?

PT: That’s the thing, you cannot monitor every phone call. You can’t start authorizing taps on phone conversations. So what you have to do is prohibit the conversations and when you hear about them you need to impose discipline. To me it’s common sense. If you’re running your football team, that’s who you should be talking to. You shouldn’t be talking to people on someone else’s football team.

Question: Coming up will be Paul Tagliabue’s 10th Super Bowl. Didn’t you just get a contract extension?

PT: I did. It’s hard to imagine it has been 10 Super Bowls. It has been a fast track, but it has been very, very enjoyable. I’ve got a contract extension that takes me out into the middle of the next decade. I’ll be there for a number of additional Super Bowls, both as a fan and as Commissioner.

Question: Looking back over the 10 years, what would you say that your biggest accomplishment is so far?

PT: A lot of people feel that the biggest thing is that we’ve got a game on the field. We’ve got labor peace, if you want to use that term. We’re the only sport in this decade that has had the game on the field without interruption from a lockout or strike. Some of that credit goes to our owners and the leadership of our Players Association. Gene Upshaw, he’s the head of our Players Association, represents his players real solid, but he also understands that the fans want the game on the field. He also knows that if there are problems, we can work them out while the game goes on. That has been the biggest accomplishment. Going back to the ‘70s and ‘80s we had a few too many confrontations. Now we’ve worked it out so that we deal with confrontation behind the scenes and have the game on the field. I would like to continue that and I’m sure everyone would for another two decades if not forever.

Question: Would that be something you would hope to maintain with your contract extension?

PT: Absolutely. If we can keep our eye on the fan and an eye on the quality of the game, and put all the contract disputes and all of the salary cap stuff in the background, the NFL will continue to be in good shape.

Question: What is the situation in San Francisco?

PT: Ed DeBartolo has been on the sideline because of the allegations made against him down in Louisiana. Then he removed himself from any involvement with the 49ers while he dealt with the federal authorities. His sister has really been in charge of the team, along with some senior executives from the DeBartolo family company. I’ll be talking with Ed DeBartolo after the season and making a decision as to whether he can reinvolve himself with the 49ers or whether he needs to continue to sit on the sidelines and deal with the problems he had in Louisiana. In the meantime, the 49ers are working with the Mayor and trying to move ahead on their new stadium. And of course, Steve Mariucci, Steve Young and Jerry Rice are trying to work on winning that division. And that’s where most of the focus in the organization is right now.

PT: I want to thank you for being so great for football. Someone said to me recently, ‘If John Glenn can fly the space shuttle then Pat Summerall can navigate cyber space,’ and I guess that’s what we’ve been doing together this morning. Thank you.