The Succession Planning of Commissioner...

July 6, 1989 - The Newspapers.com Football History Headline of the Day comes from the Philadelphia Daily News on July 7, 1989, with their headline of:

Gang of 11 Ensures it will Be Heard

This story is of how the NFL owners met in Chicago for a 1st vote for a successor for the soon-to-be retiring Commissioner Pete Rozelle. Saints President/General Manager, Jim Finks, was the only candidate presented, but his selection as Commish falls just short of the votes needed for election. The main reason why this occurred was that a block of 11 owners headed by Dallas’ Jerry Jones, Philly’s Norman Braman, Victor Kiam of New England, Seattle’s Ken Behring and Pat Bowlen of Denver all abstained from voting luring a few others with them which prevented the necessary number of votes to pass the anointing of a new NFL Commissioner. The League went into what was described as chaos after the vote. Braman spoke to the media after the session and said, “The issue tonight was information... there was a feeling on the part of the 11 owners that we wanted more information... this was not an anti-Finks vote. It really wasn’t and we expressed it that way. That’s why we abstained.”  

The uncertainty of who the next head of the League would be was not settled until October 26, 1989 when Paul Tagliabue was announced. More from this saga in the coming months…