Former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue has passed away at the age of 84.
Tagliabue’s 17-year tenure saw enormous growth, labor peace, and the establishment of the Rooney Rule.
He chose Hall of Fame player and coach Art Shell to present him for his 2020 Hall of Fame induction.
Tagliabue’s legacy includes navigating the aftermath of 9/11 and keeping the Saints in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
When the call came in, Art Shell was as shocked as anyone.
After Paul Tagliabue was finally elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in early 2020 as part of its centennial class, the former NFL commissioner asked Shell for a favor.
Tagliabue wanted Shell to present him for his induction in Canton.
“Of course, when he asked me, it was easy to say yes. My goodness,” Shell told USA TODAY Sports on Nov. 9, after Tagliabue’s family announced that he passed away at his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland from congestive heart failure related to complications from Parkinson’s disease.
Survived by his wife, Chan, and children Drew and Emily, Tagliabue was 84.
“I hung up that phone and, like for days, a million things go through your mind,” Shell continued. “What am I going to say? Just be yourself. Just be who Paul knows you to be, and things will work out. As I sat down and thought about it, it was, what a great honor to do this.”
The choice of a presenter is one of the most symbolic and delicate decisions by a newly elected Hall of Famer. Typically, coaches, team owners, teammates, family members or close friends get the nod. Walter Payton chose his son, Jarrett. Jim Kelly chose his Bills coach, Marv Levy. Deion Sanders went with his classy agent, Eugene Parker. The late Al Davis presented nine Hall of Famers – more than anyone.
In opting for Shell, a Hall of Fame player and former coach who had worked as a senior executive at NFL headquarters, Tagliabue was so intentional in making a statement.
Tagliabue, who served as a lawyer for the NFL before becoming commissioner in 1989, told me during an extended interview in 2021 that he chose Shell as his presenter because he wanted to pay homage to Black coaches and to the impact that HBCU institutions had on the evolution of the NFL. Shell, who starred at Maryland Eastern Shore before embarking on his career as a Hall of Fame tackle with the Raiders, became the NFL’s first modern-era African American coach in 1989.
While Shell doesn’t question Tagliabue’s authenticity when it came to progressiveness on matters of race and equality – the NFL established the Rooney Rule during Tagliabue’s 17-year tenure as commissioner and he led the NFL’s decision to move a Super Bowl from Arizona until the state recognized the holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. – he suspects that in some respects he was the second choice to be the presenter.
“I guarantee you one thing: If the big guy was alive, that’s who he would have selected,” Shell maintained. “He loved Gene.”
The big guy, Gene Upshaw, teamed with Shell to anchor an offensive line that won three Super Bowls during the 1970s and early ‘80s. Then, as executive director of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA), Upshaw ultimately teamed with Tagliabue to ensure a then-unprecedented, extended era of labor peace (after the NFLPA won free agency in federal court in 1993). Upshaw passed in 2008.
“His friendship with Gene was big time,” Shell said. “He deferred to Gene most of the time because of the respect he had for him as a man. He enjoyed him as a player, but also as a man that he could sit down and talk to. And Gene thought he was great.”
In 2021, I asked Tagliabue how he might have handled the controversy with Colin Kaepernick, who was essentially banished from the NFL after igniting national anthem protests in 2016 to protest the killings of unarmed African Americans by police.
“It’s easy to say I would have done it differently, but I don’t know,” Tagliabue told USA TODAY Sports. “I guess the way I think about it is that if Gene were alone and we were dealing with it together, we would have figured out some way to solve the problem.”
That visit with Tagliabue, weeks before the induction ceremony (pushed into 2021 because the pandemic canceled ceremonies in 2020) was striking on several levels. While in the early stages of Parkinson’s, he was well enough to drive himself to the waterfront restaurant, Fiola Mare, that he selected for us to meet near Georgetown.
And he was so candid, even as he defended some of his actions in dealing with the issue – the NFL’s burgeoning concussion crisis – that undoubtedly delayed his induction into the Hall of Fame for more than 15 years after he left the commissioner’s post in 2006.
Regardless, his legacy is complete. Tagliabue, a consensus-builder who ultimately lost patience with that role in dealing with NFL owners, presided over enormous growth in the NFL (which is still growing), bolstered by the labor peace. He had a strong influence in the commitment to keep the Saints in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina (and a year of displacement), brokered an agreement to keep the Browns name and trademarks in Cleveland after Art Modell moved his franchise to Baltimore. He also collaborated with Upshaw in navigating the crisis of 9/11 and the aftermath.
Another significant moment came after he left the commissioner’s post, when his successor, Roger Goodell, selected him as the arbitrator in the appeal of player discipline from the Saints “Bountygate” scandal in 2012 – much to the chagrin of the NFLPA and attorneys for the players.
Then came the verdict. There was no rubber-stamp of Goodell’s ruling. Tagliabue vacated the suspensions.
It was another example of how principles and independent thinking often drove the big decisions for Tagliabue. That’s probably one reason the NFL didn’t have a franchise in Las Vegas – until long after it had a different commissioner, and maybe more substantially, after a Supreme Court ruling led to legalized sports betting in more than half of the states.
Tagliabue worried that, even with technology that aids in surveillance, the NFL would be vulnerable amid a more robust gambling environment. The NFL and its teams have embraced the gambling industry yet avoided a major scandal. At least so far.
“I still worry about some young guy … and somebody says to him, ‘Take the money,’ ” Tagliabue said in 2021.
His position against sports gambling was hardened decades ago. In 1961, Tagliabue, a center at Georgetown, played in a game that was fixed.
“We beat the hell out of NYU,” Tagliabue reflected. “It was the biggest victory in my three years of basketball at Georgetown. Turns out that guys at NYU were taking money to shave points.”
Shell doesn’t hesitate to vouch for Tagliabue’s heart. When he began working for the NFL in 2002, first as an appeals officer for player discipline, then as senior vice president of football operations, Upshaw described Tagliabue to Shell as “tough … but fair.”
Shell found that out for himself – and more.
“Paul would reach out to the group (of staff) and he’d come to me on some things,” Shell said. “And he’d listen. In the long run, he’d come up with what he thought was the right answer for everybody involved. But he’d try to make sure that he got the main people to understand this is the reason we need to go with a particular problem, and it’ll be good for us.”
Take it from his Hall of Fame presenter.
Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on X: @JarrettBell