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Photograph by Ben Rose

"Perfectly cast in the role of the modern executive, Rozelle is a man who hardly ever raises his voice...Rozelle's aptitude for conciliation no longer deceives people into thinking he is a bootlicker, the puppet of string-pulling owners who have been described as 'the most contrary bunch of individualists you ever saw.'"

Text by Kenneth Rudeen
Issue Date: January 6, 1964

In 1963 just three years into his reign as NFL commissioner, Pete Rozelle helped the league make enormous strides. He expanded the game to Dallas and Minnesota, improved the player-pension plan, and moved the NFL headquarters from a back room in Philadelphia to a suite of offices in midtown Manhattan. The 37-year-old former public relations man ruled with an iron hand, suspending and fining star players Paul Hornung and Alex Karras after they had admitted to placing bets on NFL games. Two years earlier, in 1961, Rozelle had presided over the NFL's first big TV contract, a $4.6 million two-year deal with CBS.