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NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue: The State of The NFL - Page Three
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At 11:30 AM EST on Friday, February 4th, 2005, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue gave his annual "State of The NFL" speech from the NFL press conference ballroom at Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, Fla. This is page three of the complete speech and press conference.
(con't)..react to what might be happening to the NHL
and also to talk about the importance of a
salary cap?
COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: I have no
reaction that I will talk about to what's going on in
the NHL other than to wish them well and hope
they could get it resolved because I think it would
be great for their sport and all sports.
In terms of the salary cap, I think it works.
It's sometimes complicated. There are varying
degrees of flexibility and softness and hardness in
the salary cap. Our salary cap has proved to work
very well to keep teams together. There's some
things that we and the Players Association would
both like to improve, but I think that the proof is in
the outcome. As the record shows, we've got a
tremendously competitive league with everyone
having a shot at winning.
And yet a few years ago everyone said
that the one weakness of our system was that you
wouldn't have dynasties, but I think we see at least
one and maybe two teams in this game that will be
rightful claimants to the concept of being a
dynasty. We could commend it to anyone else
that's interested in having a good league. It takes
more than a salary cap to make a sport great, and
hopefully we can keep our eye on those other
things as well.
Q. Along that line, sir, with this era of
the salary cap and perceived quality on the
field, are you surprised that a team could be in
the position to win three Super Bowls in four
years and is a dominant team good for the
league?
COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: I really
can't say that I am, because we thought when we
did this system, and a lot of it was speculative, but
when we did this system in the early '90s, we
thought there was enough flexibility in it so you
could keep teams together and have repeat
success. New England's done it, Philadelphia's
done it, the Rams did it, the Broncos did it. Other
teams have done it. Green Bay has had a
phenomenal era and a phenomenal quarterback
through the salary cap years. And I think that's
one of the lessons.
We had the departure of the great
quarterbacks, like Steve Young and Dan Marino
and Troy Aikman. Now we have other great
quarterbacks with great teams under the system.
You have two of them in Sunday's game. You
have many others in the league maturing, Peyton
Manning, Daunte Culpepper, Steve McNair and
others. I really can't say that I am surprised.
We thought the system would allow for
great competition and repeat winners, and that's
what's turning out to be the case. Maybe there's a
little bit of luck there, but I'm not really surprised.
Q. I was wondering what was your role
in planning the halftime show this year. Also,
there have been some questionable ads on
your games during the season, and I was
wondering what was your position on those
questionable ads.
COMMISSIONER TAGLIABUE: First of
all, there's no truth to the rumor that Paul
McCartney is the halftime entertainment because
his name is Paul (laughter.) The McCartney part
of it is the big part.
Basically, I said the day after the Super
Bowl last February that we had learned a lesson
right on the spot, and that we were going to
change people, policies and processes with
respect to Super Bowl entertainment. And we did
that. And Paul McCartney referred yesterday, I
think, and other entertainers referred yesterday to
Don Mischer Productions, which is managing the
entertainment for us. The company has a great
record.
Don is a person with tremendous respect
in the business. He's produced the Olympics
Opening and Closing Ceremonies, produced
events at the Kennedy Center, Presidential events.
So we made those changes. And I'm happy to say
when you get the right people and the right policies
and the right processes -- I've left most of this to
other people. I think it's going to be a great show.
We have the four service academy choirs,
the National Anthem, paying tribute to the Greatest
Generation, the war heroes, being the 60th
anniversary of the end of World War II and also the..more..
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