6A
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2008
MTTI
WELLSPRING
CENTER FOR NATURAL HEALTH & WELLNESS
$25
STUDENT MASSAGE
(50 MINUTES)
NOW ENROLLING • MASSAGE THERAPY PROGRAM • FITNESS TRAINING & WELLNESS PROGRAM
947 NEW HAMPSHIRE ST. INDEX 10, PIPE BLOCK 785-856-3908
expires 12:00 DST
Paul Taglabia, former commissioner of the National Football League, speaks to an audience as part of the Leadership and Globalization in Sports lecture series at the Robert Dole Institute of Politics Thursday evening. In his 17 years as NFL commissioner, Taglabia supported the construction of more than 20 new NFL team stadiums and established NFL operations in overseas markets.
SPEAKER
Tagliabue lectures at Dole Institute
Former NFL head calls keeping steroids at bay his best work
"We were able to share infor-
BY B.J. RAINS
rains@kansan.com
Four expansion teams were added to the league. A salary cap was initiated. Instant replay began. But maybe Tagliabue's greatest accomplishment, he said during a speech Thursday at the Dole Institute of Politics, was his ability to keep steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs out of the league.
During Paul Tagliabue's 17-year tenure as commissioner and CEO of the NFL, the league saw several advances that turned it into the premier sports league in the world.
While Major League Baseball and other leagues were going through a steroid crisis, Tagliaue had a plan in place years ago that helped keep his players clean from those illegal and harmful drugs.
we were mation with the players and their leadership through the union and were able to convince them that these substances were a hazard and not an attraction," Tagliabue said. "The players also viewed it
Globalization in Sports," intended to bring in guests from around the sports world to discuss inner issues
"When television first appeared in sports, the owners in the NFL made a decision that the league would control all of the television arrangements."
PAUL TAGLIABUE Former NFL commissioner
as unfair because they didn't want the small group of players using artificial substances to put pressure on all of them to use them."
Tahliabe's speech was the first in a series started by the Dole Institute of Politics called "Leadership and
of sports and not just the winners and losers.
to turn the NFL into an economical power. The NFL's television package is second to none and provides $130 million to each NFL team through its rights agreements with the television networks.
"When television first appeared
in sports, the owners in the NFL made a decision that the league would control all of the television arrangements," Tagliabue said. "No other league would do that. And more importantly, that each of the teams would share the revenue."
Tagliabue cited the poor television ratings for the recent World Series featuring the small-market Tampa Bay Rays and said that would never happen in the NFL because their television package allows for each team to receive similar television coverage each week.
"Some of the greatest audiences for Super Bowls have been for some of the smallest market teams," Tagliabue said. "Because all of the teams get the same exposure."
"Very few people have ever been seen as being ready to play in the NFL out of high school," Tagliabue said. "The likelihood is that you would not be successful without some sort of college or other experience. We were able to get that agreed upon in the collective bargaining agreement."
sioner questions ranging from his thoughts on the increased fines for celebrations that have some calling it the "No Fun League" to the minimum three years' wait needed for students out of high school wanting to play in the NFL.
The speech, which was taped and will air on CSPAN at a later date, allowed members of the audience to ask the former commis-
Tagliabue retired from the NFL in 2006 but has spent the last two years traveling around the world to speak about his time with the league and his thoughts on the globalization and advancements made in modern-day sports.
Edited by Arthur Hur
NATIONAL Parents utilize drop-off law before it changes
LINCOLN, Neb. — The mother was running out of more than patience when she abandoned her 18-year-old daughter at a hospital over the weekend under Nebraska's safe-haven law.
She was also running out of time: She knew that state lawmakers would soon meet in a special session to amend the ill-fated law so that it would apply to newborns only.
"Where am I going to get help if they change the law?" said the mother, who lives in Lincoln and asked to not be identified by name to protect her adopted child.
To the state's surprise and embarrassment, more than half of the 31 children legally abandoned under the safe-haven law since it took effect in mid-July have been teenagers.
But state officials may have inadvertently made things worse with their hesitant response to the problem: The number of drop-offs has almost tripped to about three a week since Gov. Dave Heineman announced on Oct. 29 that lawmakers would rewrite the law.
With legislators set to convene on Friday, weary parents like the Lincoln mother have been racing to drop off their children while they still can.
On Thursday, authorities searched for two teens — a boy and girl, ages 14 and 17 — who fled an Omaha hospital as their mother tried to abandon them. The mother was trying to take them from the car to the emergency room when they took off.
Child welfare experts said the late deluge of drop-off was probably inevitable. After all, they said, some date had to be picked to begin changing the law.
But some of them said lawmakers and the governor missed chances to change the law early because they underestimated the number of desperate families looking for help. Heineman called the special session only after a spate of five drop-offs in eight days.
Associated Press