The quickest way to get a rise out of a National Football League executive is to suggest that NFL stands for No Fun League. It's an old joke, but one that stills irks the league.
Last week, commissioner Paul Tagliabue discussed a wide range of issues with editors and reporters for the New York Times. When someone asked him to comment on the perception that the NFL -- for all its success -- was still the No Fun League, Tagliabue was short. "I don't think we would have the popularity we have had if it wasn't fun," he said.
The truth is that football is overcoached and the commissioner wants head coaches to loosen the reins. Last month, for the first time, he issued a directive aimed generally at the NFL's 32 head coaches. Tagliabue formally outlined head-coach behavior toward the news media. He effectively commanded teams to loosen the head coach's control over who speaks and who does not. In his directive, Tagliabue said that head coaches "are strongly encouraged to make assistant coaches, especially veteran assistant coaches, available."
By NFL standards, this was a remarkable document -- a concession, for one, that some of the head coaches in the league need to loosen their ties. The directive was also stunning because the NFL acknowledged it was being driven to compete by other leagues. Tagliabue wrote: "We must recognize that we are competing against sports leagues whose players and coaches are available to the media on almost a daily basis during their seasons because they play so many more games than we do."
He added, "Access to the players and the head coach is the No. 1 priority for producing media coverage that is in our best interest."
Let's be clear -- Tagliabue's action was not aimed at making the news media's job easier but at getting head coaches, who often take themselves too seriously, to understand that the pens, cameras and tape recorders are a bridge to the NFL's greatest treasure -- thefans.
He wrote, "In today's competitive media environment, gaining the public's trust and strengthening the connection between our fans and teams requires us to be accessible and open in our policies."
New York offers a sharp contrast of how two coaches deal with openness: Tom Coughlin, head coach of the Giants, and Herman Edwards, head coach of the Jets. Coughlin is not news-media friendly. He takes the grin-and-bear-it approach. But in the spirit of a new season of NFL openness, Coughlin, the Giants' second-year head coach, inaugurated evening practices during summer camp partly so fans could watch the team after work.
Tagliabue's insistence on an open NFL is tied to a larger idea of giving the game back to the players. You rarely hear that in football, because the player is overcoached. Tagliabue said he could see a day when wireless technology would allow a quarterback to have 50 plays programmed into the wristband for one series of downs: One huddle for every series rather than one huddle for every play.
Tagliabue wants a more open NFL, and that's great. The only problem is that some head coaches who insist on control and silence have enjoyed enormous success: the Cowboys' Bill Parcells, the Patriots' Bill Belichick and the Dolphins' Nick Saban, formerly of Louisiana State, have five Super Bowl rings and a college national title among them as head coaches.
The commissioner wants coaches to loosen up; the owners want them to win. This is the ultimate no-win situation.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite