Commissioner Tagliabue Press Conference
Annual Meeting

Monday, March 18, 2002

 PT:  We spent a good part of this morning talking about the accomplishments of the past year and the challenges going forward.  We feel there are a lot of very positive things happening in the league.  There is a lot new in 2002.  We had tremendous excitement last year.  We, like the rest of the nation, had to deal with the events of September 11^th and the aftermath, but as everyone knows, some of the worst fears of everyone around the country didn’t materialize.  The President has done a great job leading and our military has done a phenomenal job.  So the whole nation has returned to normalcy in some ways and we too in the NFL were able to do that.  The Super Bowl was certainly a tremendous capstone to a season that early in the year looked like it might be terribly disrupted.  

 For 2002 we have new divisional alignments, we have a new team in Houston; we have a schedule that will be based on our new scheduling formula and lots of great young players.  There is a lot of optimism and that was the emphasis on most of the things we discussed this morning.  We are going to continue to try to make things even better.  We are continuing with our league program to help teams build stadiums.  We approved financing today for the great new Ford Field that is coming on-line for the Lions this year.  We have three new other stadiums opening this year.  We talked about the extension of the Collective Bargaining Agreement with a performance-based pay system, which is part of that.  It’s a significant new innovation and over the next five years about 250 million dollars for the first time will be paid to players based upon play time. 

 There are lots of things that we are looking at, trying to take the best of the past and mix it with new ideas and evolve and change for the better going forward.  This afternoon, the competition committee will give an over-view of their report to the owners and we are going to have some discussion of player health and safety issues that we have been talking about with the Players Association. 

 Paul Fireman, the Chairman and CEO of Reebok, will be here to talk about our Reebok venture.  Then we will talk about a concept we have for taking some of our youth football fund, which is now a joint NFL and NFL Players Association Fund of $150 million in endow and using some of that money to endow an amateur umbrella organization that will help promote participation in youth football.  We will also talk about the Arena Football League this afternoon.

 ON FREE AGENCY

 PT:  You have to look at why teams can’t retain their players and in some cases it’s individual decisions.  Any system is as good as the people operating the system.  Any good car is as good as the person who is driving it. 

 The system is an excellent system.  Teams like the Rams, the Raiders, the Broncos, there are a number of teams that are operating well within the system and show that it is a very good system.  You can have great competition around the league with a lot of competitive teams, and you’ll have teams coming back and repeating like the Rams have done.  They are well positioned for the future.  The Raiders have been in that situation.  It’s like anything else in life.  You have to look at it in two levels.  Number one is the system and number two is how people are operating within the system.  

 A lot of what I have seen this spring, sometimes we tend to over-look the player’s age -- careers have been extended by medical science, but they don’t go on indefinitely.  When you look at who is being released sometimes you have to remember, without getting into ages, that some of the players that have been released are old players.  Careers do come to an end.  It happened to Joe Namath, it happened to Billy Kilmer, which comes to mind because we saw a short film about the George Allen years.  It’s even happening to Michael Jordan.

ON EXPANSION AFFECTING THE TALENT POOL

PT:  Houston is the fourth expansion team in seven years and we’ve had four in 25 years.  You can look at it two ways.  The NFL expanded from 12 to 26 in a decade and we had great football.  I don’t think you can look at a short period of time and make a judgment about the talent pool.  The talent pool grows as the population grows and as high school football gets better and better.  Our expansion over the course of 20 years has been modest frankly.  From 1976 to 2001 there have been four expansion teams in 25 years.  I think that is built on a very sound talent base and some of the things we are doing to give players to opportunity to develop, such as the NFL Europe League, are positive.  The judgment has been made that the talent is there.

ON NEW YORK OR WASHINGTON SUPER BOWL

PT:  We have been discussing it internally in our office and evaluating many of the issues.  We had a recent conference call meeting of our Super Bowl Advisory Committee and at this particular meeting we are going to have a report probably tomorrow or Wednesday morning on the status of our planning for the Super Bowls.  I think there is still a lot of interest in the idea of playing Super Bowls in New York and Washington.  There is still a lot interest in playing Super Bowls in Miami, New Orleans and a lot of other cities.  We are going to continue to work on it, continue to discuss it with the business communities in both cities, New York and Washington, where there is a lot of interest.  Decisions probably won’t come up until the fall meeting or a year from now.

MORE ON NEW YORK OR WASHINGTON SUPER BOWL

PT:  No I don’t think you can say it’s probable.  It’s one or the other and my guess would be that if people satisfy themselves that we can play the ultimate game in open-air stadiums the likelihood would be that we would eventually do it in both New York and Washington – that would be my guess.  New York is the greatest city in the nation in many, many ways – without being provincial – and Washington is the nation’s capital.  I think the hope would be that if we can work through all these issues and do it in the right way we can do it in both cities over time.

MORE ON NEW YORK OR WASHINGTON SUPER BOWL

PT:  I don’t have a preference yet on that.  We have to consider cities where we have made best-effort commitments to play the Super Bowl.  Arizona is one such place.  We had a membership resolution several years ago that the league would make its best efforts to play a Super Bowl in Arizona if they had a new stadium.  I have emphasized on the New York and Washington Super Bowl concept that it’s not just a short-term reaction to the terrorist attacks in those cities.  It’s not just an emotional reaction and it’s not just a short-term economic infusion.  It’s a feeling that playing a Super Bowl in those cities could be very positive for cities, for the nation, for the league and for the fans of the NFL. 

Just by reason of how our population is distributed – the largest metropolitan centers, to some extent, are Northern climate cities.  We have an interest in serving our fans in bringing our ultimate game to those markets.  There are a lot of things that can come together to make this a win-win and it’s not just a short-term reaction or a quick fix.

ON HOW THE OWNERS FEEL ABOUT A COLD-WEATHER SUPER BOWL

PT:  I have no way of knowing what the vote is.  The President has to run in 2004, not in 2002, so you don’t worry about getting votes until you have to get the votes.  The important issue now is to analyze it in a balanced way and to make sure that people understand why we are looking at this. 

I identified for the Super Bowl Advisory Committee, and for a number of owners, seven or eight or nine things that we would focus on.  Number one: How does it serve our fans?  Number two:  How does it serve the participating teams in the game?  Number three:  How does it serve the networks and the over-all impact of the Super Bowl on the public’s perception of the NFL?  How do we handle the media, because you are all an important part of the event and your readership is extraordinary.  We are looking at a wide-range of things and eventually, if we do our job right, people will see that it has merit.

ON CHANGING THE WARM-WEATHER RULE FOR SUPER BOWLS

PT:  I think we would take up the idea.  Whether we amend it or supplement it.  I think we need to deal with the weather as an issue.  We have been through a winter in the Northeast that has been the warmest since 1931 coupled with a drought.  We still need to realize that there can be cold weather and snow in the Northeast where New York and Washington are located, but you have to be prepared to deal with those contingencies.  We are going to have cold weather and snow in Detroit, so that cold weather and snow in terms of logistics in travel and team practices we already deal with.  In some extent you have to focus on the game itself.

ON SECURITY 

PT:  Everyone in America has to take their lead from the President and from the federal government in this area.  The President continues to emphasize that the nation has to be prepared to deal with security and to anticipate that adversaries have their designs on attacking the nation.  We are going to deal with security very seriously on an ongoing basis both for the regular season and the post season.

ON SECURITY 

PT:  I’m not going to tell you what we are going to do next January because we don’t have to figure that out for the next couple of months.  We are going to take security very seriously next year as we did last year.

ON THE FUTURE OF TELEVISION

PT:  The future that I see is that we are going to continue to have the mass of our games on broadcast television, and that we will be developing a number of different television offerings, including enhanced game telecasts - basically enhancements of the network telecasts through digital cable. 

Most viewers receive their network broadcast through cable television, roughly 80% of the country.  There are plenty of opportunities to stay heavily on broadcast television, enhance what we do, deliver new services to the fans and have a blended stream of revenue.  We are unique in that respect because we have our games on one day, Sunday, and Sunday in the fall is “NFL day” for so much of America’s sports fans and such much of the public. 

It gives us the ability to serve a mass audience with broadcast television supplemented by other forms of television.  To the extent that people play every day of the week - they have their own challenges to some extent it marginalizes the importance of any individual game, which is an issue that we have in prime time, where that one game in the time slot can be marginalized if it’s not a rock ‘em-sock ‘em game.  We have some different issues on Sunday afternoons than we do on prime time, which we are trying to address with the flexible scheduling concept.

ON FLEXIBLE SCHEDULING

PT:  Yes.  We have had a lot of discussions with the networks and we are continuing to have discussion and we will be visiting with them again in the next week or two to talk specifically about the schedule for the 2002 season.

ON HEAT AND SUPPLEMENTS

PT:  I would say nothing fundamentally new.  As a result of the discussions we’ve had since last summer, which culminated with the positions meeting in Indianapolis a couple of weeks ago, there is a greater understanding around the league of the issues of playing in extreme weather conditions – whether it’s hot or cold.  Most important of all, the relationship of supplements to those heat and safety issues. 

We put out the policy last September banning Ephedrine and other supplements that can have a uniquely negative impact on an athlete playing a sport such as football.  There is greater understanding and it will be a greater point of emphasis.  That is what we are trying to punctuate for the owners this afternoon with this presentation.  In terms of dramatic new measures it doesn’t seem to be called for because most teams seem to be doing a lot of things right in this area.

ON SUPPLEMENT AND HEAT PRESENTATION

PT:  This afternoon?  It’s going to be a recap of the discussions with the Players Association, with the team physicians, and with our Health and Safety Medical Committee on what teams should be doing to deal with the issues of heat and supplements.

ON STADIUM SECURITY

PT:  We had a very lengthy policy memorandum that went out during the season about game management.  There were quite a few additional measures.  It included additional communication between the officials on the field and security officers in the stadium.  We have already done a lot new in that area and it’s something that we are continuing to visit and we’ll have some additional direction to the clubs before the 2002 season.

ON LOS ANGELES

PT:  It is and it’s been the issue there.  One of the issues has been the ability to get a new stadium and one that would be extremely well received by the fans.  That is a positive development and we have had some discussions of the Anshultz group and we will continue those.  It certainly is positive.

ON PLAYOFF START TIMES

PT:  You really would have to talk to Dennis Lewin.  We have talked about where we are and we think it’s the best place to be.  Talk to Dennis Lewin.  It gets into, what is the negative of an over-lap, between what is the negative of a big gap between the two games.  Then you have post-game shows and pre-game shows.  Why have a big gap between the two games when it happens every two years?

Q:  INAUDIBLE

PT:  That is really for the NBA to decide.  It’s not up to me.  It has to do with how late you want to start and how late you want to end.  Talk to Dennis Lewin.

ON OWNERSHIP

PT:  I don’t see that, obviously the prices have gone up rather dramatically.  To me the critical thing is the great quality of the people we have coming in and purchasing teams and why they are motivated to do it.  Just to take a point in time with Jerry Richardson and Wayne Weaver.  They came in, Jerry is a former player, and Wayne was highly motivated by what he felt he could do in the Jacksonville community.  Other owners who have come in have come in for the right reasons - Al Lerner, Red McCombs and others.  They have to be aware of the investment they made and the size of it, but they wouldn’t have made it if they couldn’t afford it. 

We have really been blessed in that the owners who have come in really have the best interests of the league and the game as their motivation and they haven’t had their decisions be driven by economics.  That is reflected in many of the decisions we have made in recent years.  The pooling of visiting team shares as part of realignment.  The realignment decision itself and the fact that the focus was on the fans and the potential rivalries down the road.  The willingness of the clubs to support what we call the G3 program of the league investing as a league almost 700 million dollars now in stadiums for other teams. 

These kinds of structural programs of sharing costs and sharing economic burdens in the best interest of the league are very much a part of the history of the league and the current philosophy of the ownership and it hasn’t been affected by franchise prices in any negative way.  That is very positive for the future. 

ON LEAGUE PHILOSOPHY

PT:  Historically the NFL has been structured uniquely in the equal sharing of television revenue and many other ways.  A number of major decisions have been made by the membership in recent years to strengthen that partnership.  As I mentioned, the league investment in stadiums is unique in sports and is a selfless thing for owners to invest in other owners stadiums to invest in the game.  The internet network is a very powerful pooling of the strength of the league to serve the fans, which is very analogous to the pooling of the television rights 40 years ago.  There are many, many examples of this league philosophy being continued by current owners and I think it’s very positive. 

ON THE TUCK RULE

PT:  I don’t have any personal preference.  I know that all three of the leaders of our officiating department that I have worked with very closely since I’ve been Commissioner, Art McNally, Jerry Seeman, Mike Periera and Larry Upson as Mike’s deputy.  They all feel very strongly that where the line has been drawn for many years is the best place for the line to be drawn in order to insure consistency of officiating. 

On issues like this, consistency is the most important thing and the ability of the official – in this case the referee – to have a decent view of what he has to see and to make the call.  Ultimately on an issue like this what’s most important of all is that the line be clear and that it be consistently officiated.  So that every team gets the same standing and you don’t have a situation where one crew appears to be calling it this way and another crew appears to be calling it another way.  You can draw an analogy to the speed limit.  In some cases it’s less important that the limit be 45, 55 or 60, what’s more important is that it be enforced equally.  This is that kind of a situation. 

There is a very strong consensus in support of the current rule and no particular grounds to change it, although the Competition Committee has had some good discussions on that subject.

ON INSTANT REPLAY

PT:  I think it’s set it stone.  The Competition Committee report doesn’t recommend any meaningful changes and the feeling is that it’s been working well and I know there have been some discussions whether any particular types of plays are using up too many of the replay reviews.  I think generally people are satisfied this it’s giving us the ability, which was the goal, to review the game-breaking call or the season-breaking call without unreasonably interrupting the flow of the game or the pace of the game.

MORE ON HEAT AND SUPPLEMENTS

PT:  My reaction was reflected in what I said to Chris’ question.  The clubs, including the Vikings, have been planning well to practice in the heat and that is reflected in the Viking’s report to me.  It’s also consistent with what we have found around the league.  It seems to be supported well by the players in the league. 

Everyone in the league, from the Commissioner and everyone in the Commissioner’s office, to the owner, to the head coach, to the team physician, to the Players Association, to the players have a responsibility to be well educated on these matters and to work together to ensure that we don’t have any unnecessary risks to players from heat to supplements to anything else.  Everyone has a role and we all have to know what our role is.  That’s the reason why we are having the doctors talking to the owners and club presidents this afternoon.  They will also be speaking to the head coaches.

Thank you.