Tagliabue, Goodell & The Rockefellers

10.22.12

Some recent articles claim Roger Goodell was once legal counsel for the NFL under Paul Tagliabue (nope). Actually, Goodell’s first NFL job was as an administrative intern under Pete Rozelle after graduating from Washington & Jefferson College, where he majored in economics. Twenty-four years later, after being selected by the thirty-two owners as their new commissioner, Patriots new owner Robert Kraft commented, “Roger got his MBA from Pete Rozelle and Paul Tagliabue. That’s not a bad education.”
Goodell’s father, Charles Goodell, was an attorney and a member of the House of Representatives when in 1968 he was chosen by NY Governor Nelson Rockefeller to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination. Six years later, Nelson Rockefeller was chosen to fill the vacant seat of U.S. Vice-President under replacement President Gerald Ford. And then, only eighteen years later, Nelson Rockefeller’s grand nephew John Davison Rockefeller V married Emily Tagliabue, one of Paul and Chan Tagliabue’s twin daughters. Coincidence? Yeah, probably.