NFL Commissioner Search: ESPN Thinks Goodell's a Shoe-In

Contrary to Profootballtalk.com, ESPN thinks Roger Goodell's a lock for commissioner

NORTHBROOK, Ill. -- In a meteorological stroke of good fortune, the skies over O'Hare Airport were brilliantly sunny on Monday morning and most NFL owners, convening here for the purpose of selecting a successor to retiring commissioner Paul Tagliabue, arrived on time for the start of the session.

Which could mean clear sailing for the candidacy of Roger Goodell, the first lieutenant to Tagliabue for the last several years, the man who clearly rates as an overwhelming favorite in a five-horse race.

In 1989, stormy weather and a glitch in the O'Hare radar system delayed the arrival of several owners, as they were scheduled to huddle at an airport hotel to debate the merits of New Orleans general manager and football lifer Jim Finks, the clear-cut choice to succeed Pete Rozelle as commissioner. As the flight delays lengthened, and liquor tabs at the hotel bar mounted, so did the opposition to Finks by a contingent of younger owners who felt they hadn't enjoyed much input into the process.

The more the dissident group, which came to be known as the "Chicago 11," spoke, the less chance Finks had of ever landing the position for which he was supposed to have been rubber-stamped. His candidacy essentially vanished from the radar screen that day and, four months later, after a drawn-out and pitched battle, the league elected Tagliabue, who had served as its out-of-house counsel.

There was one similarity here Monday, with owners interviewing Gregg Levy, a Washington attorney who holds the same position Tagliabue did in the Covington and Burling law firm. Levy is one of the finalists selected last week from what began with a ponderous contingent of nearly 200 commissioner wannabes. But unlike 1989, the selection doesn't figure to take four months this time.

"I think there's a chance that we'll be done [on Tuesday]," said Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, co-chairman of the eight-man selection committee which winnowed the list. "A good chance."

If that is the case, this meeting, originally scheduled by the league to last as many as three days, probably will have turned into a coronation of sorts for Goodell, the NFL's chief operating officer and a man who has played an integral role in most of its most important accomplishments in recent years. In fact, when the list of five candidates was released on July 30, some owners reacted to the absence of league insiders Jeffrey Pash and Eric Grubman as finalists by suggesting that the search committee chose the quintets with an eye toward not siphoning off potential Goodell votes with their inclusion.

Others responded with an undeniable "Who's he?" reaction to at least three of five candidates.

Everyone, of course, knows Goodell and the key role he has played with the league. Levy, who represented the NFL in the Maurice Clarett antitrust lawsuit, is familiar to most owners as well. But the three other men -- Cleveland attorney Fred Nance, Fidelity Investments chief operating officer Robert Reynolds, and Mayo A. Shattuck III, chairman of the board of Constellation Energy -- are virtual unknowns.

Or at least they were until Monday, when all five candidates were presented to the full membership.

A sixth finalist, Domino's Pizza chief executive officer David Brandon, withdrew his candidacy before his name was ever announced. Brandon had been identified by ESPN's Chris Mortensen as a finalist.

Each of the finalists had 15-20 minutes to present himself on Monday and were questioned for another 15-20 by the owners, with each man being asked the same thing. The executive search firm Korn Ferry International, which helped to both amass and whittle the initial list of candidates, presented detailed dossiers on each of the finalists. On Tuesday, the candidates will meet with owners in smaller forums, with four groups of eight owners each, and the questions are expected to be much more wide-ranging.

A vote could come as early as Tuesday afternoon. It takes the votes of two-thirds of the owners, or 22 of 32, to elect a commissioner.

"It's been a good and thorough process," said Jets owner Woody Johnson, a member of the search committee, "and that process is moving forward here today. But in matters this important, I'm not going to be drawn into making any predictions."

Most owners acknowledged that Goodell, 47, probably has the necessary votes in hand. But no one was about to say that publicly on Monday.

"I'm not going to be surprised by anything this week," Tagliabue said.

If there is anyone with a semi-legitimate chance of upsetting Goodell it is almost certainly Levy, who was described by one source as "probably the smartest guy in the room."

Said one NFC owner: "No matter how worthy or viable the rest of the candidates appear to be, I just can't fathom us putting the league in the hands of a guy we've only known for a couple hours. You can read all the reports in the world, complete all the due diligence, but the bottom line is, they're outsiders. And I don't know that it's prudent to stir the pot with a person who isn't very familiar with us, and with whom we are not all that familiar, either. So, yeah, I'd say the tea leaves look pretty good [for Goodell]."

That said, strange things often transpire when the NFL huddles to select a commissioner, as evidenced in the cases of both Rozelle and Tagliabue.

There are, it seems, two potential hurdles for Goodell, the son of former U.S. Senator Charles Goodell of New York: First, there remains a block of low-revenue owners whose dissatisfaction with the recent extension to the collective bargaining agreement, an accord with which Goodell was crucial, is still festering. But those same owners, who are concerned with the status quo, backed down when it came time to endorse the CBA extension; they tend to be more about bluster than action. Second, there is a group of general managers and other front office executives who feel the time is appropriate for a commissioner with more of a football than business background.

But the reality is that owners, not GMs, elect the commissioner. And the owners appear poised to elect Goodell as the next caretaker of their $6 billion-a-year industry.

As usual in commissioner elections, though, there remains a scintilla of intrigue -- but probably not much more than that.

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, whose late father, Bob, was part of the "Chicago 11" that scuttled Finks' ascension to the NFL throne in 1989, acknowledged things should be smoother this time. But, in typical Irsay fashion, he leaned on a rock analogy to sound a somewhat cautionary tone.

"You would assume it shouldn't be as fractious [as in 1989]," Irsay said, "but as the late Jim Morrison (of The Doors) said: 'The future is always uncertain but the end is always near.' So we'll see."

Senior writer Len Pasquarelli covers the NFL for ESPN.com.

NFL Commissioner Search: Procedure For Electing A Commissioner - ESPN

ESPN's Len Pasquarelli reported on this newly adopted resolution...

By a unanimous 32-0 vote, NFL owners on Monday adopted the following resolution, which establishes the procedure for electing a commissioner, with balloting possibly beginning as early as Tuesday afternoon:

Whereas, the ability of the league's membership to reach a decision to select the next commissioner may be enhanced with specified procedures, be it resolved that:

1. The initial rounds of voting will be conducted by secret ballot;
2. If no candidate receives the necessary 22 votes on any of the first three ballots, those three ballots, at a minimum, will include all five candidates nominated by the search committee;
3. During the voting process, it may become evident that additional voting procedures should be implemented in order to reach a membership consensus; and
4. The commissioner, in consultation with the search committee, will weigh membership views and determine whether to follow procedures such as (for example) the following:
a) dropping the candidate(s) with the fewest votes from one or more subsequent ballots;
b) implementing an open roll-call vote;
c) having the full membership rank the candidates in order of preference; and
d) other similar procedural steps.

-- Len Pasquarelli

Roger Goodell - Some Owners Opposed To Him Because of Process - Profootballtalk.com

This came from Profootballtalk.com

MOVE AGAINST (ROGER) GOODELL COMING?

As the 32 owners meet in Chicago on a so-called "one per club" basis (i.e., the room will have only 32 chairs), we're hearing that there very well could be a move by owners against the installation of Roger Goodell as the successor to Paul Tagliabue.

While some teams, we're told, are opposed to Goodell on the merits of whether he's the best candidate, a larger number of teams are miffed about the process. Andrea Kremer of NBC reported last night that one owner expressed concern regarding the "transparency" of the effort that, by all appearances, has set the table for Goodell.

As we hear it, there's a growing perception that the process has not been "fair, open, or above board."

The thinking is that Tagliabue helped steer the eight-member selection committee toward a list of five finalists from which Goodell would be the obvious choice. But even though Tagliabue has tried his best to put Goodell in position to get the job, we're also told that some league insiders believe that NFL outside counsel Gregg Levy was added to the list of five finalists in order to give Tagliabue a fallback candidate if Goodell can't win the support of 22 of 32 teams. Under this scenario, if Goodell can't get the votes, then Levy would acquire Tags' support, since Tagliabue's primary objective (we hear) is to get a new Commissioner in place, so that he can then ride off into the sunset.

We're hearing that there has been "a lot of chatter" about Levy over the past couple of weeks, and that he could indeed emerge as a compromise candidate.

Whether a compromise candidate is even necessary depends on whether enough owners mount an open charge against Goodell. Though there has been no overt lobbying for another candidate in the run up to the meeting, the undercurrent of frustration regarding the process, which as we hear it includes consternation as to the perception that the owners are limited by the list of hand-picked finalists, could bubble over.

If that happens, then the question becomes whether anyone can muster 22 votes in a three-day meeting. The owners proved in March that they can reach a consensus when the chips are down; however, this time around they have the luxury of time. Sure, Tagliabue might not like it if they can't git 'r done by Wednesday.

But what's he gonna do, vacate the office?

We're also told that there's another candidate who opted out of placement on the list of finalists because he didn't want to publicly make it to the last cut and then fail. We're trying to find out who the sixth finalist is, since there's a chance that he could end up right back in the mix if none of the five who are currently under consideration get the job.

Finally, we're told that the voting by the owners will occur on a "to be determined ad hoc basis" involving a combination of open voting and secret ballot. To the extent that secret ballots will be used, one of the Big 4 accounting firms is on hand to verify the results.

Stay tuned.

Chicago Bears Training Camp - Rex Grossman

Bears Training Camp 51.jpg, originally uploaded by Wahooo.

This is a photo from the Chicago Bears training camp scrimage and taken by "Wahooo!" on Flickr. It shows Bears starting QB Rex Grossman ready to pick up where he left off before being injured in a preseason game against the St. Louis Rams last year. Purdue Rookie Kyle Orton took over for most of the year.

The video features a pitch to the running back Adrian Peterson from Grossman. But watch how the lineman rise to tell Grossman something before the play. Is that something we will see more of in the NFL, and without a call for false-start?

The TURK - Tuesday Morning Comes Early In The NFL Thanks To The TURK

One thing i know about football players: they never wanna hear " Coach wants to see you in his office, and bring your playbook."

That means your going home. One week from today, on the 15th at 4 pm, some men will have their dreams of making it in the NFL end when they hear that phrase. For some it may not be over, they may catch on with another team, or play another version of the sport(arena, CFL, NFL Europe, or a variant of Semi-Pro ball).

But for most others, when they hear those words,..it's over. Those who finished college have a chance to Teach, and possibly coach at some level. others wind up doing a "regular" job while they wait for a call to go back and try one more time.

Kurt Warner got the call while he was bagging groceries in a supermarket. It's a process that goes on each year. The person who bringsthe bad news has been called all sorts of names by many people, but he'll always be known as the "Turk." i wish all the rookies in camps right now the best of luck. When the Turk shows up, they will need it!

Zennie is....

Many things to many of us. But he's Simply an amazing person. He was a pleasure to work with last week, and I'm sure we will do so again in the near future. His grasp of the business issues surrounding Football is remarkable.

Condoleezza Rice Greeted With Racist Images By Palestinian Media

As my Mom says, racism is alive and well. I'm not going to post here the image used to greet Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, as you can see the story with a click here. But I will state that the Palestinian media does that country's efforts at building World support a lot of damage with this kind of crap, proving once again just how stupid and animalistic people can be.

Think about it. Isn't the smart move by Palestinians to curry favor from other minorities Worldwide? Pretty dumb for them to even allow this approach.

This also reminds me of a racist incident that happened to me at a bar called Easy in Oakland. After I wrote about it in my Oakland Focus blog, someone had the never to write that my attacker was Arab, and the implication that he was not capable of being racist toward me.

How totally ridiculous.