DOES BOWLENS RANT HURT TAGLIABUE?
Last year, a heated debate over whether former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue should have a bronze bust in Canton unfolded at the annual selection meeting, which was held on the day before the Super Bowl in Miami. Tagliabue didn’t make it. The feeling was that more time needed to pass in order to fully assess his legacy. But with Broncos owner Pat Bowlen, who chairs the league’s labor committee, now sounding off about the inadequacy of the most recent extension of the CBA, Tagliabue’s chances for getting through this time around could be hampered. Tagliabue and NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw were primarily, if not exclusively, responsible for pushing through a revised deal that now funds the league-wide salary cap with nearly 60 percent of the total football revenue, which includes amounts not shared equally by the 32 teams. The sticking point for the owners was the negotiation among them of a way to handle the growing disparity in unshared revenues. Upshaw’s insistence on such
