You've got institutional memory butting up against the realities of leveraged debt. In the past, the people with institutional memory have held sway, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will be that way this time.

It's a mistake to think that common sense will prevail again,

The NFL has been very good about solving problems before they got out of hand, ... Pro football has certainly suffered fewer self-inflicted wounds than other sports.

The NFL has been very good about solving problems before they got out of hand. Pro football has certainly suffered fewer self-inflicted wounds than other sports.

It is the central challenge that the N.F.L. is facing: how to retain those core values as it moves forward,

The old guard that is worried, is worried that the finances become the most important thing. You have to remember that the real competition is on the field. And all the devices we're talking about here - the salary cap and revenue sharing and the draft and so on - are to keep a notion of competitive balance.

The scarcity of football is an advantage that's not commented on enough. The country as a whole is becoming an event-driven culture and pro football games are still events in the way that baseball can't be.

Even if you weren't a sports fan, there were things on 'Monday Night Football' that you could care about.

He consciously positioned it as a bigger, grander, more concentrated event than baseball's World Series.

The owners, as cantankerous as some of them are, and as singled-minded as some of them are and as greedy as some of them are, ultimately have respect for who Tagliabue is and what he has accomplished.