I just read some commentary praising him:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/column...len&id=2377058


The best they could say is that he oversaw revenues going up and no labor strife.

Wow. Big fucking deal.

It shocked me how there was basically nothing concrete to give him credit for.

Sounds like he pretty much stood pat and just stayed out of the way. When you add that to the failings I already mentioned, I'd say this guy has been mediocre at best.

He has benefitted from the fact that the NBA let itself degrade into a thug filled game of convicts and the MLB is plagued by massive drug abuse and the idiocy of no revenue sharing.

As those two sports shot themselves in the foot, the NFL benefitted greatly.

Also, lets not underestimate the fact that NFL is arguably a much more watchable sport.

Basketball is great, but lets be serious, only the last 5 minutes of the game really matters. The rest is pretty much fluff unless you are a hardcore fan.

Baseball is about as exciting to watch as drying paint.

A football game can be won at any time. You can build a lead in the first half that is just too big to overcome in the second. The whole 60 minues MATTERS. That is on top of the very watchable nature of the sport itself, which I won't really get into because that is far too subjective.

Tagliabue had an enormous amount of factors going in his favor that he had absolutely no influence on. The areas that he COULD have improved (see previous post), he didn't.