PAUL TAGLIABUE INTERVIEW

ON CBS NFL TODAY, 10/24/99

• Jim Nantz: The NFL is celebrating an anniversary this week. It was 10 years ago, Tuesday, that Paul Tagliabue became just the seventh man to the lead the NFL.

• PT: "I think you have to look back at the Collective Bargaining Agreement in the early ‘90's, which got us back onto the field and kept the game as great as it is. That to me was a big point, working with Gene Upshaw and his people, bringing the teams and the players together. "

• Randy Cross: Give us your reaction so far to replay and how you feel it's been handled both on the field, up in the booth, and generally overall?

• PT: "Replay I think is a positive. We came into the decade with replay but it was a little too complicated and too slow. Now, I think we have a good compromise plan. It's being implemented. Well, and I think you can see almost every game that there are plays where having that insurance policy upstairs is a positive thing."

• Craig James: Have you ever considered playing for pay, incentivizing the players so that they don't get big money and sit on the sidelines but they earn it on the field?

• PT: "We have talked about that with the Players Association. Mike Brown, Dan Rooney, Wellington Mara and other owners have felt strong about that. Gene Upshaw feels very strongly about that, as a Hall of Fame player and the leader of the Players Association. He knows that performance is what counts. We have a lot of performance bonuses and individual contracts. I think we will be talking more with the Players Association about some element of the cap that would be geared more toward performance than it is right now."

• Jerry Glanville: What's the new policy of fining coaches?

• PT: "It's not a new policy. I think what we're trying to do this year on the officiating is to come in early and re-emphasize to people that there is no point to criticizing officiating. That's yesterday's news. It just becomes corrosive. It's an emotional thing. Obviously, a lot of it grows out of the emotion of winning or losing a game. We want the coaches, the owners, everybody in the game, to focus on what's coming up, what's happening on the field with the players and not be crabbing about last week's call."

• Jerry Glanville: I want to thank you for all those years never fining me, but you did scold me twice. We appreciate that.

• PT: We looked real hard at you a couple of times, trying to come up with a reason to fine you but you were always a little too clever.

• JN: Is there any intent at all for this league to one day go to 33 teams to get LA in?

• PT: "I don't believe there is. No, I think the owners are committed to 32. Our goal right now is not to worry about cities that we're not currently in. It's to have great football, good stadiums and good ownership in cities where we do have teams."

• JN: Does that mean, though, with LA, it's a given that someone will have to move in there, you guys will accept that now?

• PT: "Well, LA either doesn't have a team or at some point, the conditions relative to expansion can change. There are a lot of speculative ways to look at LA. Right now, it's not something that we are focused, on frankly."

• JN: Commissioner, again congratulations – 10 years this week.

• PT: Thank you and its great to be back on