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Paul Tagliabues 17 Years At The Helm

Tagliabue's tenure: The NFL during Paul Tagliabue's reign as commissioner

1989

  • March 22 — Commissioner Pete Rozelle announces his retirement at the NFL’s annual meeting. Top candidates for the position include Saints general manager Jim Finks and former pro football quarterback and present Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Jack Kemp.
  • Oct. 26 — After 12 ballots, Paul Tagliabue is chosen as the seventh chief executive of the NFL, effective Nov. 5.
A 48-year-old Tagliabue is
introduced as the successor
to outgoing Commissioner
Pete Rozelle (right).
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1990

  • March 1 — The NFL’s playoff format is revised to include two additional wild-card teams, bringing the total to six wild-card teams.
  • March 12 — New four-year TV
    agreements are ratified for ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN and TNT. The contracts total $3.6 billion, an average of $900 million a year, the largest sports rights deal in
    TV history.
  • March 14 — Tagliabue announces the formation of a committee on expansion and realignment. He also names a player advisory council, comprising 12 former NFL players.
 
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1991

  • Feb. 2 — New York businessman Robert Tisch purchases a 50 percent interest in the Giants from the Mara family for $75 million.
  • March 23 — The World League of American Football is launched with 10 teams — six in the U.S. and others based in Frankfurt, Barcelona, Montreal and London. The league has U.S. television contracts with ABC and USA Network, and also has contracts in Canada and Europe.
Tisch
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1992

  • Sept. 11 — In the McNeil v. NFL antitrust trial, the U.S. District Court finds that league compensation rules are “more restrictive than reasonably necessary to achieve the objective of establishing or maintaining competitive balance in the NFL, and that the rules caused economic harm to the players.” The decision leads to the establishment of unrestricted free agency in the NFL.
  • Sept. 17 — The World League of American Football is suspended for one year.
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1993

  • Jan. 6 — The NFL and lawyers for the players announce a settlement of various lawsuits and their labor dispute that ultimately results in the first CBA since 1987 as well as broad-based, unrestricted free agency for the first time in league history.
  • June 29 — The NFL and the NFL Players Association sign a seven-year collective-bargaining agreement, the first CBA since 1987, which includes the league’s first salary cap.
  • Aug. 19 — NFL Enterprises, a newly formed division of the league responsible for NFL Films, home video and special domestic and international television programming, is announced.
  • Oct. 23 — Former New England Patriots owner William Sullivan is awarded $114 million by a jury that agrees with his contention that the NFL forced him to sell the team.
  • Oct. 26 — NFL owners unanimously award the league’s 29th franchise to the Carolina Panthers.
  • Oct. 27 — NFL clubs approve a plan to form a European league with joint venture partners.
  • Nov. 30 — NFL owners award the league’s 30th franchise to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
  • Dec. 18 — Four-year television agreements are signed with ABC, ESPN, TNT and Fox worth an average of $1.1 billion a year.
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1994

  • Feb. 22 — Robert Kraft buys the Patriots from James Busch Orthwein for $158 million.
  • March 23 — The NFL and Fox announce the formation of a joint venture to create a six-team World League to begin play in Europe in April 1995.
  • March 23 — Wayne Huizenga’s purchase of the Dolphins from the Robbie family for $138 million is approved on an interim basis while the league reviews its overall policy concerning ownership of pro sports teams in other leagues.
  • May 6 — Jeffrey Lurie buys the Eagles from Norman Braman for $185 million.
  • June 1 — The NFL launches “NFL Sunday Ticket,” a new season subscription service for satellite television dish owners.
  • Oct. 7 — DirecTV agrees to a deal to air all regular-season games on its digital broadcast service. As part of the deal, the “NFL Sunday Ticket” will offer the last five weeks of the ’94 regular season for $50.
  • Oct. 28 — The NFL Management Council and the NFL Players Association announce an agreement on the formulation and implementation of the most comprehensive drug and alcohol policy in sports.
Robert Kraft's successful reign in New England begins in 1994.
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1995

  • Feb. 22 — CBS Radio/Westwood One agrees to a new four-year contract with the league for an annual 53-game package.
  • March 13 — South Florida businessman Malcolm Glazer buys the Buccaneers from the estate of the late Hugh Culverhouse for $192 million.
  • April 8 — The WLAF returns to action with six teams in Europe.
  • April 10 — The NFL becomes the first major sports league to establish an Internet site.
  • April 12 — The Rams’ relocation from Los Angeles to St. Louis is approved.
  • July 22 — Four months after the Rams left Los Angeles, the Raiders’ relocation from Los Angeles to Oakland is approved, leaving the nation’s second-largest market without an NFL team for the first time since 1945.
  • Nov. 15 — Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen and Houston Oilers owner Bud Adams sign a nonbinding agreement to move the team to Tennessee. The relocation is approved on April 30, 1996.
Raiders fans take a jab
at L.A. after the franchise
came back north.
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1996

  • Feb. 9 — With news of a potential move originally leaking out in November 1995, the Cleveland Browns’ relocation to Baltimore is approved. The city of Cleveland retains the Browns’ heritage and records, including the name, logo, colors, history, playing records, trophies and memorabilia, and commits to building a new 72,000-seat stadium for a reactivated Browns franchise to begin play there no later than 1999.
  • Dec. 6 — Pete Rozelle dies at his home in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.
  • Dec. 13 — The NFL and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones agree to drop lawsuits filed against each other. NFL Properties filed a $300 million lawsuit in September 1995 that challenged licensing and sponsorship agreements involving Jones and Texas Stadium that included private contracts with Nike, AT&T, Dr Pepper, American Express and Pepsi. In response, the Cowboys filed a $700 million lawsuit in November 1995, charging that NFL Properties’ centralized role violated antitrust laws. The suit also claimed that the Texas Stadium sponsorships don’t involve Cowboys trademarks and are consistent with NFL Properties’ rules.
Rozelle
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1997

  • March 11 — The rules governing cross-ownership are modified, permitting NFL team owners to also own franchises in other sports in their home market or markets without NFL teams on pleas from Dolphins President Eddie Jones and 49ers President Carmen
    Policy.
  • April 9 — The NFL and the Canadian Football League agree to a deal that sees the NFL give the CFL a $3 million loan for the right to sign CFL option-year players.
  • Aug. 19 — Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen buys the Seahawks from Ken Behring for $200 million.
Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen buys the Seahawks.
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1998

  • Jan. 13 — The league signs TV agreements with four networks for 1998-2005 at an average of $2.25 billion a year. ABC (“Monday Night Football”) and Fox (NFC) retain their previous rights, while CBS takes over the AFC package from NBC and ESPN wins the right to broadcast the entire Sunday night cable package.
  • Jan. 22 — The WLAF is renamed the NFL Europe League.
  • March 22 — A six-year extension of the CBA is approved through 2003.
  • March 23 — An expansion team for Cleveland is unanimously approved, fulfilling the commitment to return the Browns to the city in 1999. Paying a $530 million expansion fee, Al Lerner is announced as the franchise’s owner later in the year and the transfer of ownership is completed on Oct. 23.
  • July 28 — Red McCombs buys the Vikings from a local ownership group for $246 million.
Browns owner Al Lerner (right) and team president Carmen Policy
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1999

  • Feb. 25 — Eddie DeBartolo Jr. involuntarily transfers controlling interest in the 49ers to his sister Denise DeBartolo York because of his involvement in a corruption investigation regarding Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards and one of DeBartolo’s Mississippi riverboat casinos. DeBartolo later pleads guilty to a failure to report a felony charge.
  • Feb. 8 — Tagliabue announces that the NFL has agreed to an option to buy 49.9 percent of the AFL, subject to the approval of NFL owners. In 2002, the owners vote to let the option expire.
  • March 11 — CBS Radio/Westwood One agrees to a three-year extension of its exclusive national radio rights deal.
  • March 15 — The G-3 loan program, which can lend a team league money for up to half of its private funding for a new stadium, is approved. To qualify for a loan, a team’s stadium must be part of a public-private partnership, meaning that some level of public financing must help pay for the new facility.
  • Oct. 6 — The league’s 32nd franchise is awarded to the Houston Texans to begin play in 2002. Robert McNair pays $700 million for the expansion team.
Houston fans celebrate the city's new team.
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2000

  • Jan. 18 — Johnson & Johnson heir Robert Wood Johnson IV buys the Jets for $635 million.
  • March 27 — For the first time in league history, paid attendance tops 16 million for the regular season and more than 65,000 a game, an increase of 1,300 a game over 1998.
  • Dec. 18 — Reebok agrees to a licensing deal totaling about $250 million through 2010. Reebok will outfit 21 teams in 2001 and become the exclusive supplier for every team in 2002.
Johnson
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2001

  • Jan. 17 — An additional leaguewide revenue-sharing plan is approved. The teams agree to pool the visiting team share of gate receipts for all preseason and regular-season games and divide the pool equally starting in 2002.
  • May 22 — A realignment plan for the league, involving eight four-team divisions, is approved to start in 2002. A new scheduling format ensures that every team meets every other team at least once every four years.
  • July 11 — A five-year Internet-rights deal, estimated at $350 million, is announced with CBS SportsLine.com and AOL, under which SportsLine.com will operate and promote NFL.com.
  • Sept. 13 — Tagliabue postpones games scheduled for Sept. 16-17 in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The games are made up at the end of the regular season, pushing the date of the Super Bowl back one week.
Taking a week off, the league
- and its fans - rally around
the events of 9/11.
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2002

  • Jan. 7 — The fourth extension of the 1993 CBA is signed through 2007.
  • Jan. 31 — The FC Barcelona soccer team signs a three-year partnership to promote the NFL and NFL Europe in Spain. In return, the NFL will promote the soccer club in the United States.
  • Feb. 2 — NFL owners unanimously vote to approve the purchase of the Falcons to Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank for $545 million.
  • March 27 — Coors signs a four-year, $300 million deal under which the brand replaces longtime partners Anheuser-Busch and Miller as the official beer sponsor of the league.
  • March 28 — PepsiCo signs a five-year, $200 million deal making Pepsi the league’s official soft drink sponsor. The deal also includes other PepsiCo beverage and snack products.
  • April 9 — Westwood One/CBS Radio Sports renews its exclusive national radio rights deal for an additional three years in a deal valued at $60 million.
  • May 13 — Tagliabue appoints a group to study the relocation of a team to Los Angeles.
  • Oct. 31 — The creation of a committee of owners to address racial diversity in coaching and in the front offices of NFL teams is announced. The committee creates the “Rooney Rule,” named after Steelers owner Dan Rooney, which requires any team engaged in hiring a head coach to assemble a diverse candidate slate for interviews.
  • Dec. 5 — The NFL and NFLPA announce the creation of USA Football, the first national advocacy organization to galvanize, support and promote the sport at all levels of amateur football.
  • Dec. 11 — DirecTV signs a new five-year, $2 billion deal that extends its agreement through 2006, primarily for the rights to carry the Sunday Ticket out-of-market package.
Blank
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2003

  • Jan. 16 — Steve Bornstein is announced as executive vice president/media and president and chief executive officer of the NFL Network, to be launched in 2003.
  • Sept. 17 — NFL owners vote to continue NFL Europe for two more seasons.
  • Sept. 23 — Former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett files a lawsuit against the NFL to allow him to enter the draft despite not meeting the league’s requirement of being three years removed from high school.
  • Nov. 4 — The NFL Network launches to DirecTV’s 11.8 million subscribers. The network will grow to 35 million subscribers by March 2006.
  • Dec. 16 — Sirius Satellite Radio signs a seven-year, $220 million deal to become the league’s official satellite radio partner. Beginning with the 2004 season, Sirius will air live broadcasts of the entire regular season, as well as select preseason and playoff games, and create “The NFL Radio Network.”
Bornstein
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2004

  • Jan. 26 — Visa renews its sponsorship for six years at a total commitment of $300 million.
  • Feb. 1 — Janet Jackson’s breast is exposed in a performance during the halftime show of the Super Bowl, prompting a change in policies regarding future halftime shows. The FCC fines CBS $550,000 for the incident.
  • Feb. 4 — ESPN announces that production of its original series “Playmakers” will not resume. The fictional series, which delved into darker sides of professional football, had drawn much criticism from the NFL.
  • Feb. 5 — A U.S. District Court rules that the NFL’s rule requiring players to be three years out of high school before entering the NFL draft violates federal antitrust laws. However, the NFL later wins an appeal of the ruling and re-establishes the rule.
  • March 29 — Owners agree to keep the NFL Trust in place and to extend Tagliabue’s contract through 2007.
  • April 8 — Steve Bisciotti takes over as the controlling owner of the Baltimore Ravens, succeeding Art Modell, who operated the franchise for 43 years.
  • June 30 — The NFL and CFL extend their alliance through the 2006 season, maintaining current player transfer guidelines.
  • Nov. 8 — Six-year extensions are signed through 2011 of the league’s Sunday afternoon TV packages with CBS and Fox, for a combined $8 billion; and a five-year, $3.5 billion deal to extend DirecTV’s exclusive rights to “NFL Sunday Ticket” is signed through 2010.
  • Dec. 14 — EA Sports signs an exclusive five-year licensing deal with the NFL and NFLPA’s Players Inc. to develop, publish and distribute interactive football games.
Janet Jackson's Super Bowl XXXVIII performance creates controversy.
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2005

  • April 18 — New TV rights packages are established, with the league signing an eight-year, $1.1 billion annual deal with ESPN for “Monday Night Football” and a six-year, $600 million annual deal with NBC for the Sunday night package.
  • May 25 — Zygmunt Wilf buys the Vikings for $600 million.
  • Aug. 29 — Hurricane Katrina rips holes in the roof of the Superdome, forcing the Saints to play “home” games in East Rutherford, N.J., Baton Rouge, La., and San Antonio.
  • Oct. 2 — The Cardinals and 49ers play at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, the NFL’s first regular-season game outside the United States. The game sets an all-time attendance record of 103,467.
The NFL holds its first regular-season game outside the United States.
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2006

  • March 8 — A six-year extension of the CBA is approved, retaining a salary cap system through 2011. The agreement also prevents an uncapped year in 2007.
  • March 20 — Paul Tagliabue announces his retirement, effective before the 2006-07 season.
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