Pete Rozelle Interview (page: 2 / 9) Pro Football Hall of Fame	Print Interview

The success of football during your tenure now seems very smooth and rapid. Back then, in 1960, '61, when you were fighting these initial battles, did you have a vision of what this was going to become?

Pete Rozelle: We really didn't at that time.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. We were in competition with the American Football League, and that lasted until 1966. Then I think the owners on both sides realized that something would have to be done, or the weaker clubs in both leagues might eventually fail. So we quietly arranged a merger, and got a bill through Congress permitting the merger as being not against the monopoly laws. That was really the turning point. Set up the Super Bowl, and so forth, where the winner of each of those two -- they became conferences in the National Football League -- the American Football League and the National Football League merged, and that created two different conferences, and then the winning teams met in the Super Bowl.

There is a certain irony, because the AFL was always interested in some kind of inter-league play, but you refused for a number of years. Is that because you wanted it on your own terms?

Pete Rozelle: Well, there was a great rivalry, as an example, for football players. For seniors coming out of college. That was our first big escalation of salaries. The owners were getting a little more from television and the players started being paid a great deal more. There was intense competition, and the National League owners didn't want to help the American Football League achieve an inch in that way. They wanted to downplay them. So that's why it wasn't done until after the merger.

That sounds very polite, but you took a lot of heat for it at the time.

Pete Rozelle: I think the press took both sides of the argument. They weren't friendly to the National Football League, while they fully understood and were friendly to the American Football League. They sniped at the NFL.

Over the years, in that very high profile position, you were discussed in the press on a daily basis. How did you handle the criticism that was directed at you?

Pete Rozelle: Well, I remember Joe Frost, who was then commissioner of the rival league, the AFL. He sent me a wire once. They were talking about playing games and so forth, and we didn't have an interest. He sent me a wire, something to the effect that even the Pope recognized the other league. And I sent a wire back, "Yes, Joe, we are taking 2,000 years!"

Do you think it's important to develop a thick skin in a field like yours?

Pete Rozelle: Oh sure, you have to, because you're so much in the limelight. The important people really are the coaches and players, but everyone involved in the sport comes into the limelight. You get criticism, you get praise. You have to be able to take it all, the good and the bad.

Was there any criticism directed at you over the years that you think was actually well-founded?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Pete Rozelle: Our teams were traveling at the time of President Kennedy's assassination. I remember trying to get Pierre Salinger, who was President Kennedy's press secretary. He was traveling down with some cabinet members to Tokyo. I tried to reach him, and he finally called me back from Hawaii on the way back. And I asked him what could we do on this. We didn't know when services were going to be, we don't know the day of mourning, and so forth. This was on a Friday afternoon. So he told me that he thought I should go ahead and follow the team's schedule, play the games. It was my decision. I did check with Pierre, and off the top of his head, he thought maybe we should play the games. I think it was a mistake, because it was such a horrendous thing, with follow-up on Lee Harvey Oswald, and so forth. It absorbed the nation and put them in a deep sense of mourning. We had teams that had gone to different cities, ready for a game on Sunday. So we did play the games that Sunday. I think it was a serious public relations mistake. I think it would have been much better if we hadn't, of course. I was criticized intensely for that.

Wasn't there an element of wanting to show that life goes on?

Pete Rozelle: Some felt that way. In retrospect, I certainly think it would have been much better from a public relations viewpoint not to have played the games, because I did respect President Kennedy a great deal. I had met him through Pierre. I was close to the family even afterwards. I played in Ethel's celebrity tennis tournament each year for about eight or ten years, and that was a lot of fun.

Almost immediately after you became commissioner, you started expanding the NFL. What was the importance of that?

Pete Rozelle: We were starting to develop strong interest, the NFL was. We had to get into some top markets to really develop this interest in the way of television and so forth, big. There were some cities I felt were very well set up to handle a team. So we did expand to Dallas and Minneapolis. They called it the Minnesota Vikings. We did that in 1960, at that meeting when I was elected commissioner. So we added two then, making 14. Then we expanded later on, we merged, presently up to 28.

Did you have a vision, when you took the job, that there would be many more teams?

Pete Rozelle: Yes, very much so.

That was a pretty daring move. It cost a lot of money to support these teams.

Pete Rozelle: Well, it was just starting to turn the corner, I felt, where it could be done without diluting the count or the money from television, and so forth.

The 1962 betting scandal was another very important crisis in your early years as commissioner. You took a very hard line. How did you make those difficult decisions back then?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Pete Rozelle: There were reports that some players had been betting on games. It was never established they ever bet against their own team. But in the final analysis, I developed enough information through investigation that -- the big one was Paul Hornung, who was a great star with the Green Bay Packers, and Vince Lombardi was his coach. I remember when I called Vinnie and asked him to come in to see me. So he flew into New York. He was a remarkable man. Paul was the star of his championship team, and I laid out the information that we had about Paul, what Paul had been doing. And again, never betting against the Packers, but betting on football. Vince looked at it, he said, "Well, you have no choice, do you?" I said, "I don't think so, Vinnie. Let's go get a drink." He really handled it like a man. Because coaches have an inordinate interest in their football players, and he wanted that talent on the field, and they will argue almost on any case, saying, "Well, you should let him play." But Vince was outstanding in that way. He, the man in authority -- from respect for his authority with the players, with everyone in the Green Bay organization -- but he also gave authority to the commissioner.

[ Key to Success ] Integrity

Weren't there a lot of people who thought you were too hard on those players?

Pete Rozelle: Yes. It's like anything else. Some felt it was proper, some improper, so you have to take the praise with the criticism.

It seems that you have a very strong sense of integrity, and that you're very protective of the sport, and this was a very early example.

Pete Rozelle: That's why I did feel strongly about it. Because it's the league that counts, and it's the public perception of the league, and reputation and character. The character of the league had to remain strong for the reputation to be good.

Huge sums of money have become a regular part of professional football. Does that make it even more important to retain that sense of integrity?

Pete Rozelle: The commissioner's role is really to protect the sport from inside, on behalf of the owners, players and coaches -- and future owners, players and coaches. And the general public. Fortunately, the NFL has been strong. As an example, in 1960, we sold those two expansion franchises, Dallas and Minneapolis, for $600,000 a piece. That's how much they paid to get in the NFL and be stocked with players from the other teams. Now, in the most recent sale I know of, my friend Bob Tisch, he bought 50 percent of the New York Giants for 75 million dollars -- for half interest in the club. So I think the league is healthy, and the perception of the league is healthy, which is the main thing.

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