Tagliabue will push for deal, then bow out gracefully

	The current labor negotiations represent Paul Tagliabue's toughest challenge as a commissioner. Andy Lyons/Getty Images
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If NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue can somehow cobble together 24 votes from his fractious group of 32 owners who are meeting this week in Dallas, thereby accepting what the players union claims is its final offer to extend the league's collective bargaining agreement until 2012, it will represent the ultimate display of leadership in his 17-year tenure and almost undoubtedly be his cue to exit the stage and retire.

At least that's the commonly held belief among many club executives within the league.

"If this does get done, I'll bet you a steak dinner anywhere that he doesn't stay for the last two years of his contract,'' a high-level club executive told me Tuesday morning. "Paul's made big money for a long time. He won't stay just for the money. Maybe he stays through this season. But I wouldn't be shocked at all if he gets this thing done and then announces he's leaving after next season's Super Bowl.

"What more can he do? The TV deal is done. The CBA would be done. Things would be in place. This is the last major piece for him.''

Such are the considerations that sometimes decide matters of great import, and that's why Tagliabue's legacy is no small footnote in these contentious CBA talks. His determination not to have his largely successful watch end on a note of damaging labor strife could be the NFL's best hope to strike a deal with its players and avoid further escalation and the looming specter of a work stoppage in 2008.

That's why sources within the league say Tagliabue is preparing for a two-day "Come to Jesus-style'' owners meeting in Dallas. He's willing to lock the doors, order in lunch, dinner and breakfast if need be, and throw the sum total of his executive clout behind the union's latest proposal.

Tagliabue must make a convincing argument to so many diverse constituencies within the ownership and be ready to answer and assuage the concerns that spring forth from a complicated set of issues that feature so many different moving parts. It will be far and away his greatest test since succeeding Pete Rozelle in 1989, but it would represent the ideal exclamation point to end on.

"I'm the eternal optimist, but if I were a betting man, I'd say we get a deal done,'' the club executive said. "As a negotiator, Paul, in my view, would not present this proposal to the owners unless he was willing to put his full force behind it. He's a prideful man, a very intelligent man. And he's had a great run. I personally don't think he has any desire to go out on a bad note. He doesn't want a failure on this front to be the last chapter of his legacy. I think that motivates him.''

Now we'll see, maybe one last time, how much Tagliabue can motivate the discordant group of owners he works for and answers to.