Commissioner Paul Tagliabue

In the bitter aftermath of Baltimore's expansion defeat, former Gov. William Donald Schaefer issued a warning to NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue.Schaefer said that if Tagliabue ever attended another baseball game at Camden Yards, "I'm going to have it announced on the loudspeaker that we have the commissioner of football in Seat 10, Row 14."Five years later, with Baltimore's NFL odyssey having come full circle, Tagliabue's insult can not, will not, be forgotten.If only Schaefer could be governor again for a day.We have the commissioner of football attending the Ravens' opener against Pittsburgh, but the sellout crowd at the new stadium won't even get to see him.Won't get the chance to stand up and boo the arrogant suit who told us to build a museum.

Orlando, Fla. -- NFL owners, attending their annual meeting, continue to study placing a franchise in the Los Angeles area and yesterday doubled the size of their L.A. stadium working group to 11 members, plus commissioner Paul Tagliabue. Los Angeles, which has not had an NFL team since the Rams left for St. Louis after the 1994 season, first needs to come up with a suitable stadium. Efforts center on renovating the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum or new construction in Anaheim, Calif. In both cases, costs reportedly are projected in the $700 million to $800 million range.

By a resounding 4-to-1 margin, Evening Sun readers and other callers to SUNDIAL disagree with NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue's recommendation that Phoenix not be allowed to host the 1993 Super Bowl.Tagliabue made his recommendation after Arizona voters turned down a referendum that would have made Martin Luther King's birthday a state holiday. Arizona, New Hampshire and Montana are the only states without a holiday honoring King.Of the 1,210 responses, 969 (80 percent) disagreed with Tagliabue's action.

DETROIT -- Against a backdrop of impending labor strife, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue yesterday called the Super Bowl an "unofficial midwinter national holiday." Better he should call it the calm before the storm. One day after Gene Upshaw, executive director for the NFL Players Association, said the two sides are farther apart than when negotiations began on an extension of the collective bargaining agreement, Tagliabue acknowledged those positions are becoming entrenched. "I don't think negotiations are going very well," Tagliabue said in his state-of-the-league address.

A federal magistrate in Providence, R.I., recommended yesterday that former New England Patriots owner William Sullivan Jr.'s $348 million lawsuit against the NFL and 21 of its teams be thrown out on technical grounds.Sullivan charged in the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Providence in May, that the league and the teams conspired against his plans to sell part of the franchise.The NFL said in 1987 that Sullivan could not sell 49 percent of the club to investment bankers, as he proposed, because it violated a league rule against ownership by corporations outside football.

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- Baseball commissioner Fay Vincent presided over a meeting of major-league owners yesterday, briefing them on a list of issues facing the sport.Among them:* The AIDS epidemic and how it can be addressed by professional sports leagues. Vincent said he would be meeting soon with NBA commissioner David Stern and NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue.* The Mariners crisis. Vincent told the media that Mariners owner Jeff Smulyan has not asked for permission to relocate the team.* New playoffs.

Did anyone see Bengals receiver Chad Johnson uproot a pylon and putt the football after his touchdown against the Ravens? If you were watching the game on television, you couldn't miss it. And that's exactly what the NFL wants. Don't believe for a second that commissioner Paul Tagliabue is upset over the excessive celebrating that takes place each weekend throughout the league. As Bill Wentworth, the former North County High School principal, pointed out while we watched the Ravens-Steelers game the previous weekend, the networks would have been instructed to steer their cameras away from such theatrics a long time ago if Tagliabue didn't want them broadcast over the airwaves for all to see. A fan runs on the field and interrupts a game, and you don't see it unless you're there in person, because the NFL and Major League Baseball don't want to encourage this kind of behavior.

FOXBORO, Mass. -- NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said yesterday that several Los Angeles city and county officials initiated the discussions about building a new football stadium in Los Angeles.Tagliabue blasted those who have publicly opposed the project."There are city fathers in Los Angeles who are quite positive about it," he said before the Raiders-New England Patriots game. "We've had discussions going back three or four months with officials in Los Angeles who were very open to this kind of idea.

At the October meeting of National Football League owners, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who has replaced Bob Irsay as the man Baltimoreans love to hate, reportedly gave a lesson in geography. He lowered the lights and flashed a slide of the United States, showing where existing teams and the then-wannabes are located. There, of course, was poor Baltimore scrunched in between Washington and Philadelphia, the Little Orphan Annie of the pro football world.The Sun published a similar map Sunday, and anyone familiar with Mr. Tagliabue's expansion philosophy knew immediately where the next team will be located:Billings, Mont.

Make Terps a priorityFor many years I have been an avid reader of your paper and have enjoyed it very much. As a proud University of Maryland alumnus, I have always enjoyed The Sun's coverage, perspective and editorials on Terps athletics.Most recently, however, I have become disturbed with the small emphasis you are giving to Maryland football.I have noticed you send only Bill Free to cover the Terps' football games. He is an excellent reporter and is very thorough. The problem is having only one reporter cover the games.

The NFL hopes the New Orleans Saints can play at least some of their 2006 schedule at the Superdome. The stadium, damaged by Hurricane Katrina, will not be ready to host a Saints game until late in the season, however. So the team will probably split the remaining games between San Antonio and Tiger Stadium at LSU in Baton Rouge, La., as they have this year. NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue emphasized, as he did earlier this season, that the Saints will remain a New Orleans-based franchise next year.

Did anyone see Bengals receiver Chad Johnson uproot a pylon and putt the football after his touchdown against the Ravens? If you were watching the game on television, you couldn't miss it. And that's exactly what the NFL wants. Don't believe for a second that commissioner Paul Tagliabue is upset over the excessive celebrating that takes place each weekend throughout the league. As Bill Wentworth, the former North County High School principal, pointed out while we watched the Ravens-Steelers game the previous weekend, the networks would have been instructed to steer their cameras away from such theatrics a long time ago if Tagliabue didn't want them broadcast over the airwaves for all to see. A fan runs on the field and interrupts a game, and you don't see it unless you're there in person, because the NFL and Major League Baseball don't want to encourage this kind of behavior.

WHETHER OR NOT Thomas Herrion's death after an NFL preseason game a week ago proves to be weight-related, the league now has an obligation to answer the most basic of health concerns. What is the price of success in the offensive line? In the tradeoff for money and fame, what is the cost to players who weigh upward of 300 pounds so they can better protect their quarterback? Herrion, a third-string guard, died shortly after he completed a 14-play drive for the San Francisco 49ers. After reportedly complaining about playing in Denver's mile-high altitude, Herrion, 23, collapsed in the locker room and died despite the best medical treatment he could have received in those circumstances.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - With his league soaring in popularity and having few problems, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue breezed through his annual pre-Super Bowl address to the media yesterday, offering up a regular-season game played abroad as the only new issue of substance. Tagliabue said the NFL is checking into the possibility of playing one regular-season game in another country, with the probable destination Mexico. The league has hosted a number of exhibition games in Mexico and Europe but has never held a meaningful game outside the United States.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - When reporters left commissioner Paul Tagliabue's annual State of the NFL news conference early yesterday afternoon, the sun was shining through the windows of the downtown convention center serving as the media center. Good break for Tagliabue, who had spent much of his hour on stage adding his voice to the effort to depict the Super Bowl host city as Florida's answer to the Riviera. The day before, Wayne Weaver, owner of the Jaguars and head honcho of the host committee, had offered his plug, jokingly saying that among other amenities, "The sun came out two minutes ago."

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue indicated yesterday that he will take no action against Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis if he's acquitted on murder charges in Atlanta. When Tagliabue was asked at the end of the annual two-day May NFL owners meeting here yesterday if Lewis could be suspended even if he's acquitted, Tagliabue said it wasn't the right time for him to comment because the matter was before a jury. He was later asked if he could envision a scenario in which any player not convicted of a crime could be suspended for off-the-field behavior.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - With his league soaring in popularity and having few problems, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue breezed through his annual pre-Super Bowl address to the media yesterday, offering up a regular-season game played abroad as the only new issue of substance. Tagliabue said the NFL is checking into the possibility of playing one regular-season game in another country, with the probable destination Mexico. The league has hosted a number of exhibition games in Mexico and Europe but has never held a meaningful game outside the United States.

Five days before the start of the NFL's 72nd season, commissioner Paul Tagliabue said yesterday that the league could settle its five-year labor battle with the players without going to trial.In a teleconference with writers, Tagliabue said, "There's reasons to think we may be able to settle these matters without going to court in February."But Jim Quinn, lawyer for the players, replied, "I don't share the commissioner's ebullient optimism." He said he expects the free-agency trial to start on schedule Feb. 17 in Minneapolis.

Make Terps a priorityFor many years I have been an avid reader of your paper and have enjoyed it very much. As a proud University of Maryland alumnus, I have always enjoyed The Sun's coverage, perspective and editorials on Terps athletics.Most recently, however, I have become disturbed with the small emphasis you are giving to Maryland football.I have noticed you send only Bill Free to cover the Terps' football games. He is an excellent reporter and is very thorough. The problem is having only one reporter cover the games.

MIAMI -- Super Bowl XXXIII might be the last NFL game that could be decided by a bad officiating call that league officials would be powerless to reverse.Although team owners rejected the idea of bringing back instant replay for the playoffs after a series of bad calls marred the second half of the season, commissioner Paul Tagliabue predicted at his annual Super Bowl news conference yesterday that replay will be back next year."I'm optimistic, but nothing in the NFL is a certainty," Tagliabue said, while conceding that replay could create as many problems as it solves.