Pro Football HOF President DAVID BAKER is an "enormous man with even bigger ideas" and is "always looking to do things on a grander scale," according to a profile by Sam Farmer of the L.A. TIMES. But Baker "isn't about bluster and grandiose dreams that never come to fruition." He "draws up a blueprint and follows through." According to the HOF, the organization's net assets grew 161% "under the first three years of Baker's leadership." He has "breathed life into a museum that had turned a tad musty over the years." The football Disneyland he envisioned is "rapidly taking shape," complete with a $100M naming-rights deal. One of Baker's big dreams is, by the kickoff of the NFL's 100th season on Sept. 17, 2020, to have a "robust digital database with a full profile of each of the roughly 27,000 people paid to play, coach, officiate or administrate in the NFL." Baker said, "The goal for the 100th anniversary is to have something where every guy who ever played can come in and call it up, or call it up online" (L.A. TIMES, 8/2).
MAN WITH A PLAN: NFL.com's Nick Shook profiled Baker, noting he is a man that people "surely cannot forget." There is an "inherent irony in the fact that the man who leads the sacred home of football immortality never played the game." But Baker "oversaw massive growth" for the AFL, "including television deals with NBC, and, later, ESPN (which involved a Monday night slot)." He also aided in the sale of a team for nearly $20M and "production of a league-licensed video game." However, Baker "didn't go it alone, establishing a relationship with then-NFL Commissioner PAUL TAGLIABUE." In a meeting with Tagliabue, Baker was "introduced to 'a guy who had a long title' who turned out to be" current NFL Commissioner ROGER GOODELL. When Baker "took the reins" of the HOF in '14, it "didn't take long for him to start envisioning new heights for the institution." But while construction "remains far from complete," everything "seems to be turning up roses" for Canton and the HOF (NFL.com, 8/2).
