FOX Sports interrupted NFL game to make tragic | Sports News

FOX paused its NFL broadcast on Sunday to announce the death of Paul Tagliabue, the league’s former commissioner.

Tagliabue led the NFL for almost 20 years, overseeing the addition of 4 new franchises and guaranteeing the Saints stayed in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. He additionally moved Super Bowl XXVII to California after Arizona declined to set up a state vacation honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

He handed away on Nov. 9 at 84 from coronary heart failure and Parkinson’s illness issues. FOX Sports paused to honor his legacy, with Kevin Burkhardt delivering the announcement during the San Francisco 49ers versus Los Angeles Rams game, coincidentally on the identical day a Commanders participant was struck within the face after making a particular gesture towards Donald Trump.

“Sad news just a little while ago as former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue passed away at the age of 84,” Burkhardt introduced.

“Tagliabue elected commissioner in ’89; he served through the 2006 season. He maintained, brokered labor peace, avoided any work stoppages. Big factor in the NFL’s success. Rest in peace, Paul Tagliabue.”

Following Tagliabue’s passing, David Hill, FOX Sports’ founding president, issued a tribute. “Paul was a wonderfully smart, strategic, incisive intellectual – who also had a world-class legal mind and an amazingly wry sense of humor.

“Personally, I loved each second I spent working with him, and the important thing lesson I learnt from Paul was that when you should all the time respect custom, it’s essential to additionally ceaselessly look to improve each side of your business. His legacy is the National Football League, and our condolences exit to Chan, Drew and Emily. He was a great man.”

Current NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell issued a statement paying tribute to Tagliabue, emphasizing his instrumental role in shaping the modern league.

“All of us within the NFL are deeply saddened by the passing of Paul Tagliabue, whose principled management and imaginative and prescient put the NFL on the trail to unparalleled success,” the statement began.

“Throughout his decades-long management on behalf of the NFL, first as exterior counsel after which during a highly effective 17-year tenure as commissioner, Paul served with integrity, ardour and an unwavering conviction to do what was best for the league.

“Paul was the ultimate steward of the game-tall in stature, humble in presence and decisive in his loyalty to the NFL. He viewed every challenge and opportunity through the lens of what was best for the greater good, a principle he inherited from Pete Rozelle and passed on to me.

“During his Hall of Fame NFL profession, Paul fostered labor peace with our gamers, oversaw the enlargement of the league to 32 groups, ushered in an period of state-of-the-art stadiums and laid the important groundwork of establishing the league as a world model.

“He helped modernize the structure of the league office and its business operations, providing the playbook for the NFL’s strategic embrace of his era’s emerging technologies including cable, satellite and the internet. Paul was a fierce advocate for diversity and inclusion and guided the league through the challenges of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.

“I’m endlessly grateful and proud to have Paul as my pal and mentor. I cherished the innumerable hours we spent collectively the place he helped form me as an government but in addition as a man, husband and father.

“Jane and I extend our heartfelt condolences to the entire Tagliabue family, especially Chan, his wife of 60 years, and their children Drew and Emily.”