Tagliabue's Finest Hour

In the wake of another supposedly-controversial Supreme Court case (the Solomon Amendment case) resulting in a unanimous outcome, some commentators are speculating that Chief Justice Roberts' may have a knack for leading and gaining a consensus. (Volokh, Bench Memos) Even if true, the Chief's leadership skills don't hold a candle to those of NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who did the impossible this week -- getting 30 out of 32 owners to agree to the proposed labor agreement, thereby avoiding a labor disaster in the NFL.

I fully expect that more stories will emerge about the wheeling and dealing done by Tagliabue to convince owners to vote for the deal, even if it was not in their own personal interest to do so (e.g., Daniel Snyder of the Redskins, who will share far more locally-generated revenue than he would like). Tagliabue (and his team) got the players to agree to a deal that they believed could be sold to the owners, and they then did the necessary selling -- highlighting the overall positives of the deal, holding individual meetings with owners and who knows what else.

Is Tagliabue the best commissioner in professional sports? It certainly seems that way right now, as the NFL can maintain its image as the standard by which all leagues are judged.

More on the NFL Labor Deal: John Clayton, ESPN, Washington Post, New York Times

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