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NFL
Press Conference
Commissioner Tagliabue:
I’ll just make a couple of points.
First, we’re in the
midst of a tremendous season—very, very competitive. We had the great
fortune to have the President kick off our season in early September,
tossing the coin on the White House lawn to start all of our games. Little
did we know, just one week later, we would be canceling a week of games.
But on the field, it’s been tremendous excitement, competition with our
players displaying what it takes to be great in football, which is not just
teamwork but tremendous determination and a willingness to fight against the
odds and to play with tremendous emotional and physical stress and to win.
Last time we were here, we had Brett Favre and the Packers win the game.
This year we have the Saints competing with Brett Favre and the Packers and
Kurt Warner and the Rams and the other NFC. In the AFC, we have tremendous
competition. Brian Griese and the Broncos. Rich Gannon and the Raiders.
The Ravens, defending their Super Bowl championship. The game starts and
ends on the field, and we’re confident that the Super Bowl will be a
tremendous football game.
Beyond that, we’re
redefining Super Bowl weekend. As the Governor said, we’re not scaling
back. We’re not canceling events. We’re redefining to capture the spirit
of America, the spirit of the host city, New Orleans, and the spirit of
Louisiana. We’re going to recognize America’s heroes: the public safety
personnel, police, fire, other emergency personnel, the military service men
and women, the people who work in our postal service and who work in our
unions and are there at ground zero and all over our country doing heroic
things every day of the week as we deal with the current national
emergency. We’re going to bring music to the game in an unprecedented way:
a blend of the traditions of this area, the music which is probably the soul
of America’s music, and classical music, and combine it in a way that will
say a lot about the American spirit. The third thing I
would mention is that the facilities here get better and better. And we’re
taking advantage of this tremendous complex. Not just the Superdome, but
the Convention Center and the Sports Arena and we’re consolidating these
venues in a way that we’ve never done before. Some of that will make it the
best ever experience for the fans, the most fun. New Orleans is always a
place where you could walk to the game and regale your friends and taunt
your opponent in a good-natured way. But this year, we’re consolidating
these venues, opening them up early in the day, having entertainment in the
stadium and on the rotunda around the dome early in the day so it will be a
great fan experience but also a very safe and secure experience.
Which
leads me to my final point on security and safety. We have, first of all,
unprecedented resources at the table. I think our speakers here today
represent those major elements of resources: the federal level, the state
level, the local level as well as our sector, the private sector, the league
and our teams. We’ve got a task force in place on security. As a league,
together with the owners, I’ve made security our number one priority this
year—for our fans and our players, in our stadiums and in all of our
facilities and that would extend to the Super Bowl. Secondly, we have
unprecedented coordination. The Governor, the Mayor and myself have been
talking. As the governor emphasized, we expect to have a federal
designation, bring the resources of the federal government to the event. So
with the unprecedented level of resources and the unprecedented efficiency
and coordination and deploying, I’m confident that on February 3, the Super
Bowl will be the safest place to be in all of America. It will also be what
it’s been in the past, a great, unofficial national holiday. We recall
Whitney Houston from the Super Bowl during Desert Storm, but what I recall
most of all is the pictures of the troops and General Schwarzkopf
enjoying the game and cheering for the Giants and the Bills. I guess the
only open question this year is, who will be the two teams in the game?
Come enjoy it. It will be a great, great Super Bowl. Probably the best
ever. Thank you.
Q:
On federal event designation… PT:
The federal designation is a policy that President Clinton instituted I
believe in 1998 that represents a decision by the top level of the
government, formerly it was the Attorney General and the Secretary of the
Treasury and the National Security Council, and now as the Governor said,
the Director of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, Governor Ridge. The
designated event as being a special event, deserving federal resources,
would include not just the FBI and the Secret Service, but the health and
safety resources of our nation, including the military services. On top of
the National Guard, the state police and the local city and parish police,
we think that this taken altogether will be the ultimate guarantee of a
secure and fabulous weekend. Q:
On increased security since September 11… PT:
The question is about the broad strokes, in terms of what we’ve done to beef
up security. It’s an extension of what we’ve been doing since September
11. We are investing in more personnel, very highly trained personnel. We
are adding infrastructure in our stadiums. That includes everything from
good old concrete barriers to high technology, digital technology, camera
technology. Obviously we’re working with all of our stadiums including the
Superdome here on all of the threats that America thought it would never
see, including bio-threats. My commitment to our owners and our commitment
to our fans is that we will secure our stadiums 365 days a year, 24 hours a
day, with special emphasis during the season and it will include both added
personnel and added resources at a world-class standard. Some of that is
visible and some of that is invisible. Q:
On advice to fans… PT:
My advice for fans would be: cheer like hell for your team, hope they get
there, and if they get there, come to the game and enjoy it because as I
said, it’s going to be a great, great Super Bowl.
Q: On Super Bowl
events… We’re not cutting
back and we’re not scaling back. We’re reshaping, redefining to capture the
mood of our nation. And that will include some changes on Friday night.
For instance, we’re going to have a major event in the Sport Arena and it
will include a reception for fans and supporters and media. It will also
include a concert, music, in all likelihood to be nationally televised live
and as part of that, we’ll honor heroes, recent as well as distant heroes in
American life and also raise funds for disaster relief and contribute from
our NFL Charities disaster relief fund as part of that celebration on Friday
night. On Saturday night, in all likelihood, we’ll be having an event
centered on the D-Day Museum, another way of capturing the spirit of America
and continuing that spirit into the 21st Century. And then on
Sunday, as I said earlier, we’ll have entertainment in the dome and arena
complex, broadly defined, so that the fans can come in early, check through
security with their ticket, and then we’ll have, for instance, a pre-warm-up
segment of entertainment that we haven’t had before which will be tremendous
and focused on the spirit of America through music and other walks of life.
So we’re redefining and reshaping, and that’s frankly the most important
reason that we’re here today speaking with you is for you to understand how
we’re approaching the event, more so than just simply talking about how
we’re making it a safe venue.
Q:
On potential threats… PT:
Question is, in the wake of the attacks on New York and Washington, and then
threats towards the bridges in California, what do I think the threat is. I
think all of us who have been focusing on security are smart enough to know
that part of what we’re dealing with is beyond our nation’s experience and
we shouldn’t speculate. So I’m not going to speculate on what the threat
is. My commitment and our owners’ commitment is to invest now to ensure
that there are no incidents in NFL stadiums and not to delay that kind of
investment in security and infrastructure and personnel. We feel we are
anticipating every realistic contingency that a sports venue, such as an NFL
stadium, could possibly confront. Q:
On digital face recognition technology… PT:
The question was, what was our experience with the face recognition
technology in Tampa last year. It was experimental at the time. It was
undertaken with the Tampa law enforcement authorities as an experiment.
That technology is moving ahead. As to whether we’ll be using that here,
that’s something that is still under consideration by our security task
force and we will consider it with the federal, state and local authorities
here. It’s part of the on-going planning process. Q:
On the security challenges of New Orleans… PT:
The question is whether there is anything unique about New Orleans that
makes it a special challenge in terms of security. I don’t believe so. In
fact, I would say our security specialists, including our Vice-President of
Security Milt Ahlrich, who is a former top FBI official and members of our
task force, such as Cleveland Browns Director of Security, Lew Marletti, who
was formerly the director of the Secret Service for the White House: people
like Milt and Lew are telling me that the way these facilities have evolved,
and you can see it just by looking behind me, is so well-planned and
well-conceived and adjacent and contiguous that we can provide for very good
fan movement, a great fan entertainment experience leading into the game,
and still create a perimeter around this entire area that will provide for
world-class security. So the facilities I think are a positive, which is
one of the reasons we’re as confident as we are.
Q:
Commissioner, did you get much pressure to put this game in New York? PT:
The short answer is no. Senator Schumer was the one who raised the idea in
a letter to me and in that letter he recognized we had a contractual
commitment and also a track-record of commitment to New Orleans and
Louisiana. And he proposed the game in New York only on the contingency
that the game would not be able to be worked out here, and that contingency
never occurred. I spoke with both Mayor Guiliani and Governor Pataki about
it, and they both emphasized two things. One was that the challenge we face
is not New York’s challenge; it’s the nation’s challenge. And secondly, to
meet the challenge, a critical thing was for the whole nation to be together
and both Governor Pataki and Mayor Guiliani recognized and recalled for me
the great support they were getting from Governor Foster, Mayor Morial, from
the police department and the firefighters of the New Orleans area who had
been—just to take one example—up to the Saints-Giants game on September 30
and made a major financial contribution as well as a very symbolic, powerful
statement of support. So both Governor Pataki and Mayor Guiliani realized
that we were in this together, and what was New Orleans, Louisiana’s should
be respected there, just as they were respecting and supporting the people
of New York. So it was a national thing and unity was a top priority. Like
I said, it was a contingency plan but one where the New York officials
themselves recognized that the priorities were that it happens and that it
happens in a great way, right here in this city, in this state. Q:
On the NFL Experience… PT:
The Experience will be just what we were planning through the summer. In
our planning process, part of it is going to be indoors at the Convention
Center. Part of it will be outdoors on space that is being cleared and
extended at one end of the Convention Center. Some streets will be blocked
off to make sure it’s a fun space to be in. So it will be both indoors and
outdoors, and it’s going to be a great part of the weekend. We’ll be
emphasizing, as we’re doing more and more, youth football and participation
of families and young people, and I think the Experience will be top-notch.
Q:
Last night during the Jets-Saints game, there was incident involving
Saints player Kyle Turley. It was kind of a ruckus at the end of the game.
Can you talk about that a little bit? PT:
A ruckus it was. We have a few ruckuses every week and our game is, as I
said earlier, our game is great for many reasons, and one of those reasons
is that it tests the limits of human endurance, both physically and
emotionally. That’s particularly true at the end of a hard-fought game, and
that’s what happened with Kyle Turley. He’s an outstanding player. Like
most NFL players, he doesn’t give up until the fat lady has sung. He’s in
there to win. He’s just a little too exuberant. We don’t like to see that,
and I’m sure he doesn’t like to see that. I saw Aaron Brooks on TV this
morning saying that none of the Saints player like to see a player lose his
temper, but it’s part of the game of football and I’m sure he’ll be back
next week against the 49ers and Coach Haslett will have him calmed down a
little bit and we’ll see what we have to do about throwing the helmet.
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