The impact of Tagliabue’s early years at the helm continued in 1993. Beneath the Tagliabue umbrella, the league and NFL Players Association reached a collective bargaining agreement in 1993. It was extended in 1998 and again in 2002 through the 2006 season. As Tagliabue took over in 1989, he took the reins of a league that had weathered two labor strikes (1982, 1987) during the 80s, but his tenure was one marked by labor harmony.
During Tagliabue’s stewardship, the league also supported the construction of 20 new stadiums.
While two new franchises were welcomed into the NFL during Tagliabue’s time, two others left their longtime host cities and further altered the league landscape. The Cleveland Browns, owned by Modell, left The Land and became the Baltimore Ravens in 1996. A year later, the Houston Oilers became the Tennessee Oilers and eventually, in 1999, the Tennessee Titans.
In 1999, the Browns returned to Cleveland as an expansion team. In 2002, another expansion squad debuted in the form of the Houston Texans.
It was in 2001 that Tagliabue was called on to shepherd the league through harrowing times felt all over the nation. In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — four coordinated suicide plane hijackings that resulted in the destruction of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, a crash into the Pentagon and another into a Pennsylvania field following a passenger rebellion — Tagliabue announced the postponement of the full slate of Week 2 games.
The attacks were on a Tuesday and the games were postponed by Thursday.
In between, Tagliabue agonized over the decision, speaking with owners and considering the history of how the NFL and other sports leagues had handled the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941 and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
“The substance of the discussion was, are we caving into terrorists in a way that reflects weakness and gives them a victory, or are we doing the right thing and taking time to heal?” Tagliabue told NFL senior national columnist Judy Battista in 2021.
It didn’t take long for Tagliabue to come to a decision he called a “no-brainer.”
“Once I was able to think that clearly, I said, ‘We ain’t playing,'” Tagliabue said.
It was the first time the NFL had cancelled a full week of games since the 1987 strike. The games would be played, though, as they were moved to the end of the season. Thereby, Super Bowl XXXVI — a 20-17 win for the New England Patriots over the St. Louis Rams — became the first championship game played in February.
It was at the dawn of a new century in which Tagliabue’s importance to the league and the sports world at large drew perhaps its largest recognition.
He was named 2000 Sports Industrialist of the Year by The Sports Business Daily, 2001 Sports Executive of the Year and the 2001 Most Powerful Person in Sports by The Sporting News.
Unfortunately, four years after 9/11, Tagliabue was again called on to shepherd the league through a catastrophic tragedy.
Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and surrounding areas in late August 2005, causing nearly 1,400 deaths, damage estimated at more than $120 billion and the flooding of roughly 80% of the city.
In the aftermath, Tagliabue played a pivotal role in ensuring that the Saints would remain in New Orleans and worked with Gov. Kathleen Blanco and the Superdome to make certain the team’s home stadium would be repaired in time for the 2006 campaign.
“In terms of community and something that has an enormous impact on the fans, I think [keeping the Saints in New Orleans has] gotta be ranked No. 1,” Tagliabue told ESPN in 2015.
Following Hurricane Katrina, the 2005 season opened for the Saints with a “home game” against the New York Giants at Giants Stadium. Thereafter, the Saints’ home games were hosted at LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, where the team’s offices were headquartered.
Though denied by Saints ownership, reports and rumors swirled that the franchise would make its way to San Antonio permanently. Tagliabue wanted the Saints to stay put, though, and on Jan. 11, 2006, he announced the team would play all eight of its home games at the Superdome, which would reopen on Sept. 24, with New Orleans hosting the archival Atlanta Falcons. In dominant fashion, the Saints prevailed to start the season 3-0, turning in an uplifting 10-6 campaign and advancing to the NFC Championship Game. It was the first season in New Orleans for head coach Sean Payton and quarterback Drew Brees and the first time the franchise had made it to an NFC title game. Three seasons later, the Saints won the Super Bowl.
“If you wrote the story for a movie, people would say it’s hyperbole and exaggeration,” Tagliabue told ESPN.
Though no longer the commissioner, Tagliabue played a major role in another chapter of Saints history in 2012. Goodell called up Tagliabue to hear the appeals of Saints players suspended in “Bountygate,” a program in which New Orleans players allegedly collected bounties for injuring opposing players. It resulted in suspensions for Payton and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. Tagliabue affirmed Goodell’s findings in the investigation, but overturned every suspension handed out to Saints players.
Roughly six years prior to Goodell calling on him, Tagliabue ended his time as commissioner.
Tagliabue worked out a league TV deal and a long-term pact with NFL players in the spring of 2005 and promptly announced he would be retiring a year later.
“As difficult as this decision is, I also know it’s the right decision. Right for me. Right for the league,” he said.
Akin to a player leaving after a Super Bowl win, Tagliabue left the NFL on a high, having worked out deals to set the league up for future prosperity and having set up the future commissioner — Goodell — to hit the ground running.
Tagliabue was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2020, following previous commissioners Bert Bell and Pete Rozelle, and former league presidents Jim Thorpe and Joe Carr, to enshrinement.
Though recognized as part of the Centennial Class of 2020, Tagliabue didn’t take his spot in Canton until the summer of 2021.
“It’s like a dream come true, I’ll tell you that,” he said in his enshrinement speech. “Thank you all very, very much. I’m honored to enter the Hall of Fame in this Centennial Class. It spans pro football history, from Duke Slater’s achievements in the difficult days of the NFL’s first generation, to players, coaches and others who have excelled in recent decades.”
For nearly two decades, Tagliabue piloted the NFL ship.
He steered the league, its owners and players into labor peace and television prosperity; he drove expansion and global growth; and perhaps most memorably captained the NFL through the heartbreak of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.
Studious in his spectacled presence, ever offering the most professional demeanor, Tagliabue will forever remain one of the gridiron’s greatest gamechangers.
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