FanHouse PaulTagliabue

Four years ago this April, Aaron Rodgers spent nearly six hours inside Radio City Musical Hall waiting to hear Paul Tagliabue call his name. The former Cal star was considered one of the two best quarterbacks of the 2005 draft -- Utah's Alex Smith was the other -- but the pre-draft speculation had him going anywhere from first-overall to the bottom third of the first round.

The latter turned out to be the case -- the 49ers and first-year head coach Mike Nolan, with the top pick, tied their future to Alex Smith (the decision would inevitably cost Nolan his job) -- and history could repeat itself next month.

On Tuesday, the NFL announced the finalists for the 2009 Hall of Fame class, a list that contains the NFL's all-time sack leader, a current owner, a former commissioner, and six first-time finalists.

The voters will select a minimum of four and a maximum of seven new members on January 31. The complete list of finalists after the jump.

Since Hurricane Katrina, the Saints have been rumored to be on the outs from New Orleans. Los Angeles, San Antonio, Berlin in the NFL Europa 2.0 league -- most people have been placing the future of the team in cities that aren't New Orleans (maybe that last one was made up).

Those rumors, in Katrina's wake, were justified -- and if insiders are to be believed, Tom Benson's plan to upheave the Saints to San Antonio was far more reality than rumor. Just google "New Orleans' crumbling economy can't meet the financial demands of a pro football team," and you'll get plenty of results arguing for relocation.

But those rumors haven't died even though the NFL, from the waaaay back days of Paul Tagliabue, has committed over and over to keeping the Saints in New Orleans for the long haul. When the specs were unveiled last month for the beautiful new stadium potentially coming to Los Angeles, some media reports had the Saints as potential tenants despite two consecutive season ticket sell-outs.

But the team isn't going anywhere.

Notes on a trip to the Super Bowl.

Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue was one of the 17 finalists for this year's Pro Football Hall of Fame class, but he wasn't one of the six selected. In fact, he was eliminated on the first round of voting.

The Hall of Fame doesn't release vote totals, but I have to think Tagliabue's vote total was the lowest of any of the candidates. I talked to several Hall of Fame voters this week and couldn't find anyone who planned to vote for Tagliabue.

I think Tagliabue is deserving of recognition for his contributions to the game. He managed to work with the NFL Players Association to ensure labor peace, the league grew in popularity during Tagliabue's stewardship, and I think one of his most difficult decisions was also one of his wisest, shutting the league down for a week after 9/11.

But it looks like Tagliabue has a long way to go before he'll end up in Canton. Many voters seem to want to wait and see how the final collective-bargaining agreement that Tagliabue negotiated turns out, and other voters suggested that Tagliabue's successor, Roger Goodell, is already a more effective commissioner than Tagliabue ever was. So we might not get to see Tags in Canton.

Current MLB commissioner Bud Selig and former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue have been through it before, and it now it appears as if the WWE will have its steroids policy under investigation by congress. According to the New York Daily News, the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection will hold its hearing late next month as a response to the premature death of wrestler Chris Benoit.

"I am extremely concerned about the possible illegal and destructive practices by professional entertainment athletes that negatively influence the younger generation," said Rep. Bobby Rush, the Illinois Democrat who is the chairman of the committee. "We must make sure that today's wrestling sports heroes are not using illegal performance-enhancing drugs that, unfortunately, can and have led to their untimely deaths."

A congressional source told the Daily News that the panel has not yet compiled witness lists, and it is still not clear who will be asked to appear at the late-September hearing. Rush's subcommittee sent a letter to the WWE on July 31 requesting information about the wrestling federation's drug-testing policies. Similar letters were sent to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and the National Wrestling Alliance on Aug. 13.

Heavens! If they start testing for steroids and performance-enhancers in professional wrestling, what will we be left with? Nobody will believe someone as skinny as the 1-2-3 Kid can actually win a wrestling match, wil they? It's all about the spectacle in the sport, and this will be a huge blow. Then again, if it will help save some lives, I can't say I'm opposed to it, though MJD makes a good argument for being unfazed by performance-enhancers.
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