Tagliabue tackles challenges facing NFL

A black sedan with tinted windows and New York license plates slowed to a stop in front of the white pillars of Whig Hall yesterday, and the tall, thin frame of National Football League commissioner Paul Tagliabue emerged from the back seat.

A cadre of casually dressed welcomers — some sporting black Princeton Football jackets — formed a semi-circle, ready to greet the guardian of the nation's most popular sport.

Dressed in a dark business suit, Tagliabue warmly shook hands with the University's new head football coach Roger Hughes.

About 30 minutes later, Tagliabue, who has served as commissioner of the NFL for the past decade, delivered a speech — titled "The NFL: America's Sports Passion in Internet Time" — to a packed Whig Hall Senate Chamber.

In an interview prior to the speech, Tagliabue addressed the role of the Internet and other new communications technology in the NFL, as well as several other important issues facing the league.

"I think the biggest changes you'll see will come from the digital and Internet revolution," Tagliabue said. "It's coming to sports as it's coming to all other aspects of life." He added that this technology would soon lead to greater interaction between fans and players.

In the long run, the NFL could have expansion teams in foreign cities, according to Tagliabue. The NFL already manages a foreign league — NFL Europe — and NFL teams have played games in Tokyo and Mexico City.

"I don't think it's likely in the near future," Tagliabue said, noting, however, that though the NFL probably will not have international teams within the next decade, technological advances could "accelerate the pace of change."

While improved worldwide communication has strengthened the international appeal of the sport, Tagliabue emphasized professional football's reign as America's number-one sport in terms of public interest.

Tagliabue said he believes this level of fan support is a result of a combination of factors, including the country's passion for the game, the league's great athletes and the athletes' connections with their communities.

Following Tagliabue's remarks in Whig, some members of the audience questioned the recent rash of NFL players charged with crimes. In the past few months alone, two players — Rae Carruth and Ray Lewis — have been charged with murder.

Tagliabue said one of the major challenges the league now faces is maintaining a respect for the game, noting that players' legal problems have hurt this goal. "These kinds of things I think have a very negative effect," he said.

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Tagliabue said while he feels most NFL players are upstanding citizens, they "are facing pressures that few other people face." These pressures include a change of lifestyle — often from difficult economic circumstances to incredible wealth — and the subsequent demands of families and friends.

Tagliabue added that the NFL has taken steps to help players deal with these pressures. "I think we have a responsibility to find out which athletes have problems, why they have problems and then to address the problem in some way, and that's what we've done," he said. Tagliabue said the NFL's efforts have included intervention, counseling on money management and selection of friends and seminars for young players.

He also stressed that violent crime is a problem that exists not only in the NFL. "Our players have a better record than comparable groups in society," Tagliabue said. "Some of this is part of life, and that's not to excuse it and that's not to minimize it, but it's just to say we're part of society."