APFA president

The Commissioner of the NFL is the chief executive of the National Football League.

Jim Thorpe (1920-1921)

In 1920, the Canton Bulldogs were one of 14 teams to form the American Professional Football Association (APFA), which would become the National Football League (NFL) two years later. Bulldogs owner Ralph Hay was named the first head of the league (the title was officially "Temporary Secretary") until a permanent president could be chosen. Hay chose Jim Thorpe for the role, believing his status as a player would bring instant credibility to the league. Thorpe was nominally the APFA's first president; however, he spent most of the year playing for Canton and a year later was replaced by Joseph Carr.

Joseph Carr (1921-1939)

Carr moved the Association's headquarters to Columbus, drafted a league constitution and by-laws, gave teams territorial rights, developed membership criteria for the franchises, and issued standings for the first time, so that the APFA would have a clear champion. The Association's membership increased to 22 teams. Carr first set a deadline for the season to be completed and a minimum number of league games to be played in order to win the league championship. This led to standardized schedules and prevented teams from scheduling non-league teams to pad their win columns.

Contracts

After taking office as President of the NFL, Carr began cleaning up the problems surrounding professional football. By 1925, he introduced a standard player’s contract, fashioned after the ones being used in pro baseball, so players couldn’t jump from one team to another. Carr also declared that players under contract from the previous season could not be approached by another team unless first declared a free agent.

Amateur issues

In the early days of professional football, the game was shunned upon by many in the college area. Fearing that the pro game tainted the college game, many college administrators barred players from having anything to do with the pros. Carr would try to attack this problem and bring a peace between the pros and amateur ranks.

Green Bay Packers

The first major challenge to Carr's authority came at the end of the 1921 season. The Green Bay Packers, admitted to having used college players under assumed names. Carr proclaimed the act not only a violation of association rules but a breach of the public's trust. The Packers were forced to resign from the league. However a few months later, a group headed by future Hall of Famer Curly Lambeau applied for and was granted the Green Bay franchise.

Grange rule

When Red Grange, a star player at the University of Illinois turned pro by joining the Chicago Bears immediately after his final college football game the league critisizm from college officials everywhere. Ernie Nevers another All-American player did the same thing a few days later. To help ease tensions and promote the professional game in the college circles, Carr established a rule prohibiting college players to sign with professional teams until after their class had graduated. These decisions gave the NFL credibility and much needed support from the colleges and universities from across the country.

Milwaukee Badgers

For more details on this topic, see 1925 Chicago Cardinals-Milwaukee Badgers scandal.

In 1925 it was revealed that the Milwaukee Badgers used four high school boys in a hastily arranged game with the Chicago Cardinals. As a result, the Badgers were fined $500 and given 90 days to dispose of its assets and retire from the league. Though finding no evidence to suggest the Cardinals management was aware of the status of the four youths before the game, Carr nonetheless fined the club $1000 for participating in the game. Art Foltz, the Cardinals player who confessed to having made the “introductions", was banned from play in the NFL for life.

Pottsville Maroons

For more details on this topic, see 1925 NFL Championship controversy.

As in 1925, the Pottsville Maroons, a first year NFL team, played an exhibition game against a team of former Notre Dame stars including the famous "Four Horsemen”. The game was played at Philadelphia's Shibe Park which was within the protected territory of the Frankford Yellow Jackets, who were playing a league game just a few miles away at Legion Field. On three occasions prior to the game, Carr reportedly warned the Pottsville management not to play the game, "under all penalties that the league could inflict”. Ignoring Carr's warnings, the game was played as scheduled. However the Maroons stated that Carr knew of the game had allowed it to take place. For this act, the Pottsville Maroons were fined $500 and had their franchise forfeited, as a result the team was stripped of their NFL title and it was given to the Chicago Cardinals. However Carr's decision and handling of the situation is still being protested by many sports historians, as well as by the people of Pottsville, Pennsylvania and controversy still surrounds who actually won the 1925 NFL Championship, since the Maroons had earlier beaten Chicago and were actually awarded the league championship before they were suspended.

Franchise stability

Carr also knew that for the league to survive, franchises needed to have a sense of stability. In his early years as president, NFL franchises constantly were setting up and then folding. From 1920 through 1932 more than 40 NFL franchises went through the league. The only two charter members to stay with the league by 1932 were the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Cardinals. In those first years, 19 teams lasted one year (one, the Tonawanda Kardex, lasted only one game) and 11 teams lasted two years. Carr envisioned the day the NFL could compete with Major League Baseball as America’s favorite spectator sport. While few really took him seriously (Leo Lyons, the owner of the Rochester Jeffersons, was one of the few who had the same belief), he thought in time it could happen and devised a plan to make it happen.

Carr knew that the NFL’s success rested on franchise stability and second, those franchises had to be located in the biggest cities, just like those in major league baseball. This led Carr to move his league to the big city. He went out of his way to recruit financially-capable owners to run those teams. Beginning with New York City, the largest city in the country and a market the NFL had tried to enter since the first season (see, for instance, the ill-fated first incarnation of the New York Giants), Carr convinced Tim Mara, a successful bookie, to start a club. The club became known as the New York Giants and it is still partly owned by Mara's family.

He continued to recruit stable owners and eventually placed teams in larger cities by moving the Dayton Triangles to become the Brooklyn Tigers in 1930, establishing the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles in 1933, moving the Portsmouth Spartans to become the Detroit Lions, establishing the Cleveland Rams in 1937, and the Washington Redskins in 1937 after that franchise moved franchise from Boston. By 1937 the National Football League and Major League Baseball were almost identical, with 9 out of 10 NFL franchises in MLB cities. Only Green Bay, Wisconsin did not have a major league baseball team. By placing teams in big cities the NFL gained the stability it needed and established a game plan for a bright future.

Carl Storck (1939-1941)

Upon the death of Joe Carr, he served as president of the National Football League. Citing ill health, Storck only held the title of president until 1941. His most notable act was the refusal to allow the creation of the Pennsylvania Keystoners, a proposed merger of the Philadelphia Eagles and what would become the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Elmer Layden (1941-1946)

Elmer Layden, one of the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame, left his alma mater in February 1941 to become Commissioner of the NFL, a post that was renamed upon his taking the job - previous heads of the league were called "presidents". In five years as Commissioner, Layden saw the NFL through the World War II years, in which teams had to use many men of inferior abilities as replacements while most of the regulars were fighting in the war (as did Major League Baseball). During this period a few teams temporarily merged due to lack of manpower, most notably the Pittsburgh Steelers with the Philadelphia Eagles (who were nicknamed the Phil-Pitt Steagles). Unlike the Keystoners idea, which was intended to be permanent, the Steagles lasted only one year. The Cleveland Rams ceased operations for the 1943 season.

Layden's tenure as NFL commissioner came to an end in January 1946. After Brooklyn owner Dan Topping withdrew his team from the league to join the new All-America Football Conference, the remaining owners agreed not to renew Layden's contract, feeling that he was too much of a gentleman and not forceful enough. Layden was succeeded by Bert Bell.

Bert Bell (1946-1959)

On January 11, 1946, Bell was selected to replace Elmer Layden as NFL commissioner and subsequently sold his ownership in the Steelers after being given a three-year contract at $25,000 per year. A year later, the contract was changed to a five-year pact at the same salary, a move that was followed in 1949 by a ten-year agreement that boosted his annual pay to $30,000.

Among his accomplishments as commissioner, Bell merged the league with the All-America Football Conference, and did battle with the Canadian Football League over scheduling and player rights. He also coined the phrase, "On any given Sunday, any team can beat any other team."

One of his first major acts dealt with a gambling scandal that marred the 1946 NFL Championship game. In response, he was able to create laws in virtually every state that made it a crime for an athlete not to report a bribe attempt.

In addition to all these duties, he also single-handedly plotted out league schedules each season on his dining-room table by using a giant checkerboard. He created the revenue-sharing system that enables the small-market teams to make larger profits and remain competitive.

He also embraced the idea of television blackouts for home teams, especially after watching the Los Angeles Rams lose money after they televised all of their 1950 season games. However, he was seen as being a little too strict when he refused to lift a blackout for Detroit viewers to watch the sold out 1957 NFL Championship between the Lions and the Cleveland Browns, claiming it would be considered "dishonest" to the paying customers.

Bell died of a heart attack on October 11, 1959 at Philadelphia's Franklin Field, while watching a game between the team he co-founded, the Eagles, and the Steelers, which he had co-owned from 1941 to 1946. The Eagles actually scored the game-winning touchdown the moment Bell died, as fans were paying more attention to Bell than the game. He had been under a doctor's care for two years and had recovered from a heart attack the previous February. Few knew that at the time, Bell was planning to retire as commissioner in order to regain ownership of the Eagles before the next season.

Austin Gunsel (1959-1960)

In 1952, Gunsel was hired by the NFL to head the league's investigative department, a move made in response to commissioner Bert Bell's fear of a scandal damaging the league's image. Gunsel became league treasurer in 1956, holding the post until his retirement ten years later.

In January 1960 at a meeting of NFL owners, he was the early frontrunner to retain the commissioner's job, but Los Angeles Rams general manager Pete Rozelle was ultimately elected to the post on January 26 after 23 ballots.

Pete Rozelle (1960-1989)

1960s

After Bert Bell's death in 1959, Rozelle was the surprise choice for his replacement as NFL commissioner. According to Howard Cosell in his book I Never Played the Game, the owners took 23 ballots before settling on Rozelle as NFL Commissioner at a January 26, 1960 meeting. When he took office there were twelve teams in the NFL playing a twelve game schedule to frequently half-empty stadiums, and only a few teams had television contracts. The NFL in 1960 was following a business model that had evolved from the 1930s. NFL sources credit Rozelle with originating gate and television profit-sharing. However, it was the rival American Football League which initiated both concepts at its formation in 1959. The revenue-sharing was a major factor in stabilizing the AFL and guaranteeing the success of its small-market teams. Rozelle recognized the value of such an arrangement, and following the lead of the rival AFL, Rozelle negotiated large television contracts to broadcast every NFL game played each season. In doing so, he not only deftly played one television network against the other, but also persuaded NFL team owners — most notably Carroll Rosenbloom of the Baltimore Colts and George Preston Marshall of the Washington Redskins — to agree to share revenues between teams, as the American Football League (AFL) had done since its inception. His business model, which emulated that of the AFL, was essentially a cartel that benefited all teams equally, from revenue sharing to the player draft.

JFK assassination

See also: 1963 NFL season

On November 24, 1963 the NFL played its full schedule of games (untelevised due to uninterrupted coverage of the assassination), only two days after President Kennedy's assassination, while the rival American Football League (AFL) postponed its games out of respect for the fallen president. Rozelle soon came to regret his decision to have the NFL play, and frequently stated publicly that it had been his worst mistake. However, Rozelle and then-White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger had been classmates at the University of San Francisco years before, and Rozelle had consulted with him. Salinger urged Rozelle to play the games. Rozelle felt that way, saying that "it has been traditional in sports for athletes to perform in times of great personal tragedy." He also said that football was Kennedy's game and the late president thrived on competition. Rozelle's "aptitude for conciliation" with the league's owners and his work in expanding the NFL however, led to his receiving Sports Illustrated magazine's 1963 "Sportsman of the Year" award. The award was ironic, since it was the existence of the AFL that expanded the sport, and forced the NFL to grant franchises to Dallas and Minnesota^{[citation needed]}.

The AFL

By 1965, the rival American Football League was firmly established, with a new NBC-TV contract, and a new superstar in Joe Namath. After an NFL team (the Giants) had signed an AFL player (the Buffalo Bills' Pete Gogolak) in early 1966, American Football League commissioner Al Davis had shaken the NFL. Davis had immediately started signing NFL stars such as Roman Gabriel, John Brodie and Mike Ditka to contracts with AFL teams. Fearful of their league's collapse, NFL owners, without the knowledge of Rozelle, approached AFL owners (without the knowledge of Davis) and requested merger talks. AFL and NFL executives including Lamar Hunt, founder of the AFL and owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, completed a plan. Rozelle is erroneously credited with forging the merger. In October 1966, he did testify to Congress to convince them to allow the merger, promising that if they permitted it, "Professional football operations will be preserved in the 23 cities and 25 stadiums where such operations are presently being conducted."; and "Every franchise of both leagues will remain in its present location." The merger was allowed, but despite Rozelle's promises, numerous NFL teams have since moved, or used the threat of moving to have cities build or improve stadiums. Following the urging of American Football League commissioner Al Davis^{[citation needed]}, Rozelle also agreed to the creation of the Super Bowl and later supported the concept of Monday Night Football. NFL sources have since aggrandized Rozelle's part in both the merger and Monday Night Football^{[citation needed]}. Rozelle is also often erroneously credited with introducing the concept of shared television revenues to Professional Football. He did advocate it for the merged NFL; however he was simply embracing the concept which had been implemented by the AFL ten years before the merger.

1970s

The 1970s saw Rozelle at the peak of his powers as a sports league commissioner. He presided over a decade of league expansion. Monday Night Football became a staple of American television viewing, and the Super Bowl became the single most watched televised event of the year. During this decade, the upstart World Football League organized, pushing player salaries higher even as it ended up in bankruptcy. Towards the end of the decade, labor unrest and litigation over issues such as the NFL Players Association and team movement to new markets foreshadowed Rozelle's decline as commissioner.

1980s

The 1980s saw drug scandals and further struggle with powerful owners over team movement. Rozelle, again according to Monday Night Football commentator Howard Cosell, pushed the NFL into an internecine struggle with Al Davis concerning the movement of the Oakland Raiders franchise to Los Angeles. Other owners, such as Leonard Tose of the Philadelphia Eagles, sought to move their franchises elsewhere. Ultimately, the NFL lost its court case with Davis, and the Oakland franchise moved to Los Angeles. The sports world was very aware of the men's dislike for one another. In 1981, the Oakland Raiders won the Super Bowl. As commissioner, Rozelle handed the Super Bowl Trophy over to Al Davis. It was said by some that he used both hands to give Davis the trophy so that he wouldn't have to shake his enemy's hand. Additionally, the United States Football League formed, pushing player salaries higher, and ultimately embroiled the league in further legal troubles.

Under Rozelle the NFL thrived and had become an American icon, despite two players' strikes and two different upstart leagues. He retired as commissioner on November 5, 1989. By the time of his resignation, the number of teams in the league had grown to 28, and team owners presided over sizable revenues from U.S. broadcasting networks.

Paul Tagliabue (1989-2006)

After serving as a lawyer for the NFL, Tagliabue was selected by NFL owners to succeed Pete Rozelle as Commissioner of the NFL in 1989.

Expansion of the league

During his tenure as league's commissioner, six new franchises were introduced to the six different cities in the US. The Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Houston Texans all joined the league as expansion teams while the Baltimore Ravens, Tennessee Titans, and St.Louis Rams were relocated from Cleveland, Houston and Los Angeles respectively. Subsequently, the Cleveland Browns was reintroduced as a continuation of the previous version of the franchise in 1999. The Ravens were actually considered an expansion team. The records, name, and colors of the Browns remained in Cleveland, to be assumed by the new team. The Oakland Raiders were moved back to Oakland from Los Angeles in 1995.

Response to September 11 attacks

Two days after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Tagliabue announced that the games scheduled for the upcoming weekend were canceled. Tagliabue said the NFL was acutely aware of Commissioner Pete Rozelle's well-publicized regret not to cancel the games on the weekend following the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963.

It was the first time the league canceled an entire week's slate of games since the 1987 NFL strike.

A week later, it was announced that the postponed games would be added to the end of the regular season, pushing the Super Bowl into February for the first time.

Praise

Tagliabue is widely regarded to have done an outstanding job as commissioner, with some sports writers going so far as to call him the greatest commissioner in the history of North American professional sport. This is an incredible achievement in and of itself, magnified by the fact of the person he replaced: Pete Rozelle, the man that orchestrated the NFL-AFL merger and arguably brought the NFL to prominence. Tagliabue is generally regarded with respect by the sports media, which has given him the nickname Tags (first affixed by the New York Daily News).

Proponents of the claim of Tagliabue's greatness point to such accomplishments as:

• No players' strikes or lockouts during Tagliabue's term, an accomplishment unmatched by any of the other current commissioners. He made it a priority to develop a strong relationship with the players' union and its head, Gene Upshaw, from the start of his tenure. Furthermore, in 2006, Tagliabue ended his tenure as commissioner by negotiating a new agreement with the NFL players' union that averted an uncapped year and potential labor stoppage. The agreement ensures labor peace for a few years but it remains for his successor to flesh out and build upon it in order to ensure labor peace in the long term. NFL owners have since voted to terminate the agreement after the 2010 season.
• He took a stand against the State of Arizona for refusing to establish a state holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr., like other states had done. In 1993, the Super Bowl was to be held for the first time in Arizona, but after an election, Arizona rejected establishment of a Martin Luther King state holiday. Subsequently, Tagliabue moved the Super Bowl to Pasadena.
• The strengthening of revenue sharing, which is far more extensive than any other major league, and the institution of a salary cap system that is the strictest of any of the major leagues. Both revenue sharing and the salary cap were successfully introduced without recourse to work stoppages. They help contribute to competitive balance. There has been a growing imbalance between high-revenue and low-revenue teams for many years. In 2006, as part of the CBA agreement, Tagliabue worked with the owners on an enhanced revenue-sharing system. Under the agreement, the top 15 franchises (in terms of revenue) will contribute nearly $500 million over the first four years of the agreement into a pool for use by lower-revenue teams. Franchises which have expenses in excess of a predetermined percentage or level of their revenues will be able to draw from the fund. Lower-revenue teams will as a result have a stronger financial foundation and be better positioned to pay the increased player salaries that come with a growing salary cap. Still, details remain to be worked out and it is not yet known how effective this system will be. The owners can also opt out of the agreement in four years. This agreement comes in addition to the supplemental revenue-sharing pool (which distributes revenue unequally based on need) that was established in the 1990s.
• Many promotional rights and all regular-season television rights continue to reside at the league-level, rather than at the team level. By collectively negotiating, the league is able to extract a premium from sponsors and media companies and provide revenue to smaller-market teams that they on their own could not garner.
• Supporting the football institutional base: Tagliabue emphasized the need for there to be strong youth, high school, and college football programs around the country in order for the NFL to thrive. The NFL runs a youth football program to promote its sport. Tagliabue also focused on reaching out to women and Hispanics in order to tap into two key demographics.
• Seventeen new stadiums built during Tagliabue's tenure: More than half of the league is playing in stadiums that did not exist when Tagliabue took office. In some cases Tagliabue was able to help secure government financing to cover the cost of these expensive structures. Since government financing is controversial and not sufficient, he also launched a major effort to raise private capital for new stadiums, including offering NFL teams grants from the league office derived from assessments made against television revenue. By providing grants to teams under the G-3 program, the league facilitated with the creation of many new stadiums. Larger-market teams receive larger grants since the NFL wants to keep teams in the major media markets. The improved atmosphere of the new stadiums led to increased attendances, especially by women and children, and the greater number and higher quality of the luxury suites in the stadiums led to substantial source of revenue growth for clubs.
• The strictest substance abuse policy of any professional league. Tagliabue's hard line against drug abuse has led to increased respect for NFL players and even been complimented by members of the U.S. Congress. He also has stressed presenting a professional and clean image of the NFL and its players to the public. Strict rules are in place and enforced as to players' sock length, uniform appearance, and sideline attire. Protecting the NFL brand from tarnishment was a key priority.
• TV rights contracts and the NFL Network: 55% of the NFL's revenues are from its television contracts and under Tagliabue the revenue from these contracts grew substantially each time the NFL negotiated them with the major media companies. Also, the NFL Network, a NFL-owned cable station, was launched. It provides the NFL direct access to its fans, leverage with the media companies when it comes to broadcast rights fees (since some games can be shown on the NFL Network), and the opportunity to experiment with a small slate of games and test new ways of broadcasting games. Tagliabue also emphasized the important role digital media rights would play in the 21st century both as a source of revenue and as a means of providing fans with content.
• A separation in the popularity between the NFL compared to the other North American major sports leagues which took place over his 16-year tenure. Although the NFL was undoubtedly already a major league when Tagliabue took office, he will leave the NFL as the world's most lucrative sports league with annual revenues that tower over its three main North American rivals and its one major financial rival in Europe—despite the fact that the NFL plays a much shorter schedule and only a fraction of the games played by Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, or the Premier League in English soccer.
• International expansion: Tagliabue encouraged the growth of the game internationally, supporting NFL Europe despite financial losses and holding the first regular-season game outside of the U.S. in the 2005 season when two teams played in Mexico. Tagliabue set in motion plans to try to expand the game in Asia, although his successor will have to follow through on that strategy.
• A very high level of competition from a great number of teams, including those in small media markets. The Packers, for instance have found a great amount of success despite their small location in Wisconsin.
• The effective shutout of any further competitors to the league. Unlike his predecessors, all of whom saw at least one legitimate competing league form during their tenure, under Tagliabue only one supposed competitor ever took the field, the widely-ridiculed XFL, which lasted only one year. Though the Canadian Football League continued to push into the American market and sign American stars, Tagliabue was able to negotiate deals with the CFL to effectively end the competition between the two, permanently establishing the CFL as a lesser league.

Criticism

However, Tagliabue's time in office has not come and gone without its share of critics, who point to:

• The expansion debacle that saw the NFL place new franchises in Charlotte, NC and Jacksonville, FL. The early struggles of the Panthers to sell out their home games, on top of the on-going struggles of Jacksonville to even come close to selling out their home games (large sections of the stadium are routinely blocked off and covered up to avoid local TV blackout restrictions), have called in to question the wisdom of the leagues decisions in that "expansion derby." Cities such as St. Louis and Baltimore, who both had far more lucrative financial / stadium packages in place, and a history with the league, were passed over in favor of "newer markets." Tagliabue demonstrated his apparent disdain for Baltimore during this expansion, most notably with the televised statement "some towns are football towns and some towns are museum towns. I guess Baltimore is a museum town." In the end, both cities would acquire franchises from other cities, thus continuing a difficult and disappointing trend of franchise relocation.
• The re-location of both Los Angeles franchises and the subsequent failure to replace at least one of them in the second largest U.S. city. Tagliabue instead chose to replace teams in Cleveland and Houston. However, Tagliabue's supporters point out that Cleveland and Houston both agreed to replace their dilapidated stadiums with government financing, something that California politicians have generally been unwilling to do. They also point out that Tagliabue subtly used the threat of re-locating a team back to Los Angeles as a powerful hammer to convince other NFL cities to replace or at least upgrade their stadiums.
• The increasing revenue disparity between high and low revenue teams. The owners have yet to come to a firm and detailed solution as to how to address the increasing disparities.
• The delayed impasse with the players' association over key issues: Tagliabue was able to end his tenure with a CBA extension in 2006 but his last CBA extension as Commissioner did not resolve many key issues. Revenue-sharing among the owners remains an area of disagreement. The details of the terms the NFL and players' association agreed have not been resolved by the parties. Some feel the players' union received too much from the league in the latest round. Finally, the labor pact is a short-term solution that is now set to be terminated in 2011. It defers many key issues down the road for Tagliabue's successor to deal with.
• The pursuit of what some see as excessively strict rules against taunting, "show-boating", dress code violations, etc. It is believed Tagliabue's efforts to protect the NFL brand went too far and caused many fans to describe the NFL as the No Fun League.
• Lack of charisma and football background: Tagliabue made limited public appearances and was never considered a charismatic speaker. However, behind closed doors he was more at ease and helped broker many deals with his wit and humor. At the same time, Tagliabue faced the stigma among some owners of being the league's lawyer, rather than a man from a football background, when he was selected for the post in 1989. Eventually, he won over many of his critics, although he is still not regarded as a "football guy".
• The ultimate failure of NFL Europa, which was disbanded the year after Tagliabue's departure.

Tagliabue's legacy of labor peace was the center of controversy when veteran sportscaster Bryant Gumbel suggested the commissioner had manipulated NFLPA leader Gene Upshaw and questioned Upshaw's competence as a union leader. Gumbel closed the August 15, 2006 episode of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel with the following remarks, directed at Tagliabue's successor: "Before he cleans out his office, have Paul Tagliabue show you where he keeps Gene Upshaw's leash. By making the docile head of the players' union his personal pet, your predecessor has kept the peace without giving players the kind of guarantees other pros take for granted. Try to make sure no one competent ever replaces Upshaw on your watch." Tagliabue strongly criticized Gumbel for his comments.

Some of Tagliabue's supporters have countered that more responsibility for worsening labor relations should rest with current commissioner Roger Goodell. They argue that Tagliabue's successor has failed to maintain the close relationships that Tagliabue is said to have had with both the owners and the union leadership, and that this failure is not Tagliabue's fault.

Roger Goodell (2006-present)

In 1987, Goodell was appointed assistant to the president of the American Football Conference (Lamar Hunt), and under the tutelage of Commissioner Paul Tagliabue filled a variety of football and business operations roles, culminating with his appointment as the NFL's Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer in December 2001.

As the NFL's COO, Goodell took responsibility for the league's football operations and officiating, as well as supervised league business functions. He headed NFL Ventures, which oversees the league's business units, including media properties, marketing and sales, stadium development and strategic planning.

Goodell was heavily involved in the negotiation of the league's current collective bargaining agreement. He had worked extensively with Tagliabue since the latter became commissioner in 1989. He has played an extensive role in league expansion, realignment, and stadium development, including the launch of the NFL Network and securing new television agreements as well as the latest collective bargaining agreement with the National Football League Players Association.

Goodell was chosen on August 8, 2006, to succeed Paul Tagliabue and assumed office on September 1—the date Tagliabue set to leave office.

In November 2006, amid rumors that the NFL may expand outside of the United States, Goodell stated "I don't know if it will become a reality, but it is certainly a possibility."

In April 2007, following a year of significant scandal surrounding some NFL players' actions off-the-field, Goodell announced a new NFL Personal Conduct Policy. Tennessee Titans cornerback Pacman Jones and Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry were the first two players to be suspended under the new policy, and Chicago Bears defensive lineman Tank Johnson was suspended months later due to his conduct involving weapon ownership and drunk driving. On August 31, 2007, Goodell suspended Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson for five games and fined him US$100,000, and suspended New England Patriots safety Rodney Harrison four games without pay, after they admitted the use of banned substances for medical purposes and to accelerate healing, respectively. The league indicated to Wilson that his more severe penalty was because they held "people in authority in higher regard than people on the field."

On September 13, 2007, Goodell disciplined the New England Patriots and head coach Bill Belichick after New England attempted to videotape the defensive signals of the New York Jets on September 9. Belichick was fined the league maximum of US$500,000 and the team itself was fined US$250,000 and the loss of their first round 2008 draft pick. Goodell said he considered suspending Belichick, but decided against it because he felt the penalties were "more effective" than a suspension. He never considered forfeiture of the affected games.