''The city fathers should take down the statue of Robert E. Lee at Lee Circle in New Orleans and put up a statue of Paul Tagliabue." -- James Carville

HOUSTON -- Nobody seemed to think that Pete Rozelle would ever retire as commissioner of the NFL. After all, he was the golden child of all American athletic conferences -- amateur and professional. And when he won the war between the rebel AFL and the old-guard NFL, most pundits were sure it was the last battle pro football would ever need to fight.

Wrong.

So this is how the man, who logic says should be voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday, came to be chosen to succeed Rozelle.

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President Donald Trump, then a real estate mogul, an Atlantic City casino magnate and the newest and loudest owner in a summer football league called the USFL, prodded the fledgling league to sue the NFL. Trump's motivation came from his desperate desire to shoot his way into an NFL franchise.

In a closed-door meeting that included Rozelle, his owners and and a few inner-circle members, an owner asked the league's outside counsel, Robert Fiske, what to do.

"Stay out of court," Fiske advised. "Make a deal."

In that instant Tagliabue whispered in Rozelle's ear, "Never. Don't settle. You can beat him. You have to fight this."

They did. And won.

The decision ripped apart the USFL, and Rozlle, without telling Tagliabue, knew he had found his ultimate successor.

Today, Tagliabue is on the outside, looking in at the Hall of Fame, which until now has closed its doors to him.

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The Hall of Fame committee votes again Saturday and it's time the members understood that for more than 16 years, he was the man the NFL needed. He presided over billion-dollar television contracts, labor peace and the expansion to 32 teams from 28.

He kept the Saints in New Orleans after Katrina and stressed that Cleveland be granted a Browns expansion franchise after the old team moved to Baltimore.

Great commissioners are like great boxing referees. The best refs work without being noticed, and the best commissioners do best work behind closed doors.

Tagliabue saw a truth about race in the NFL and met it head on, but he knew he could not do it alone. He recruited owner Dan Rooney from the Steelers and together they instituted the Rooney Rule, which all but requires the legitimate interviewing of minority candidates for coaching jobs.

It was a policy of inclusion. Look around the league's sidelines today and -- even though there is more for the NFL to do -- you will see the end of justice denied.

It's a list of achievements that can't be rebutted, but it's also worth revisiting once more his role in saving the Saints and what it meant to the state, the city and the traumatized people who lived with Katrina. There were owners who were not thrilled with what he did.

But America was.

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The Superdome, and its rain-proof skin were useless. Eighty percent of the city had been under water in the wake of the largest residential disaster in American history. Seventy percent of all occupied housing units were wiped out. The city's population fell from 484,674 to 275,176. Who knew how many would return?

Saints owner Tom Benson wanted to move the team to San Antonio after Katrina. Benson shouted, "This is my team!"

In response, Tagliabue retorted: "Teams are not created for owners. They are created to represent cities. This is not about you or the Saints. It's about the integrity of the NFL. If we leave this town after the worst catastrophe in history, it will be on us for 50 years."

As the commissioner drove through the battered city with Doug Thornton, a former Shreveport oilman and ex-college quarterback who headed the Dome's management company, he realized Katrina had thrown a right cross at the city's economics. And when it hit the dome, it landed a left hook to the city's communal guts.

Today Thornton says:

"When he saw all that for the first time, he turned this from a league matter into a matter of humanity. And nobody knows that better than me because there was 7 feet of water in our house and we lost just about everything

"If Paul hadn't felt the devastation he saw so deeply, I don't think we could have made it the way it was back then. He told me that he wanted us back in a new dome by 2006. I told him that, obviously, it wasn't possible.

"But he said, 'It is possible ... nothing is obvious in life.' If he had not taken the leadership on so many levels, I don't think there would even be professional football at all in the state of Louisiana."

He convinced LSU to invite the Saints in. Then, he told Benson a majority of the home games would be played that year at LSU.

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"I'll play one," Benson said.

Tagliabue fixed him with the icy stare of a Talmudic scholar who had just explained the same Biblical passage six times to a confused student:"

"Tom, a majority of the number seven is four."

And so they played four.

"I knew he could do it after his first question before the first meeting," Thornton said. "He didn't ask how I thought it would go or who was on board. He knew there was 7 feet of water in a home I couldn't go back to. He immediately asked how my family was.

"He cared about all the right things."

Just like Hall of Famers are supposed to care.

The voters need to remember that.

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Jerry Izenberg is Columnist Emeritus of The Star-Ledger. He can be reached at jizenberg@starledger.com.

 

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