Paul Tagliabue is retiring as commissioner of the NFL, a league that evolved during his 16-year tenure into America's richest and most powerful sports empire.
The 65-year-old Tagliabue will leave the NFL in July with labor peace, unprecedented revenue through television deals, and a place in the American consciousness where winter Sundays mean football.
Tagliabue has been in charge since 1989, and agreed last March to stay to complete the TV deal and a long-term contract with players. He began contemplating retirement in 2004 and said "that was when it was really decided."
He finally got the labor contract done 12 days ago, finishing the most arduous negotiations since the league and union agreed on a free agency-salary cap deal in 1992.
"I really want to emphasize how much of a privilege it is to spend most of your adult life with the NFL. This is not an easy decision for me," Tagliabue said on a conference call on Monday.
"As difficult as this decision is, I also know it's the right decision. Right for me. Right for the league."
Roger Goodell, the NFL's chief operating officer, and Atlanta general manager Rich McKay are the two leading candidates to succeed Tagliabue. Baltimore Ravens president Dick Cass also is considered to have an outside chance and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has said she would like the job.
"Ask her," Tagliabue said when asked about Rice's candidacy, adding that the process is wide open and that he will stay on beyond July to avoid the kind of seven-month deadlock that occurred between him and the late Jim Finks after Pete Rozelle stepped down as commissioner in March 1989.
Owners will begin the search for a new commissioner at their meetings next week in Orlando, Florida.
As for his own tenure, Tagliabue said, "Building a strong relationship with the NFL Players Association is the thing I'm most proud of."
"Everyone involved in the NFL in the '80s saw that as a negative," he said.
Tagliabue will stay on with the NFL as a senior executive and a consultant through 2008, part of the contract extension he signed last July.
His term will be remembered most for labor peace following strikes in 1982 and 1987. His close relationship with players' union executive director Gene Upshaw finally led to a long-term agreement after five years without a contract.
He also oversaw a massive stadium building program. More than two-thirds of the NFL's 32 teams are either playing in or building stadiums that didn't exist when he took over as commissioner in 1989.
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