Goodell Is Favorite to Head NFL

League's Chief Operating Officer Front-Runner to Succeed Tagliabue as Commissioner

Roger Goodell, the NFL's chief operating officer, is the front-runner to succeed Paul Tagliabue as commissioner, sources say, as the search process intensifies with a meeting of the 32 team owners today in Detroit.

The meeting is expected to last approximately four hours. The eight-owner search committee appointed by Tagliabue is to update the other owners on the progress of its work.

The owners are scheduled to have a three-day meeting in Chicago beginning in two weeks and hope to vote for a new commissioner then. They've set Aug. 18 as their target for appointing a commissioner to succeed Tagliabue, who is retiring after a nearly 17-year reign in which he helped to establish the NFL as the most prosperous and popular sports league in the country. He announced his retirement in March soon after getting the owners to ratify a new revenue-sharing agreement among the teams and a new labor deal with the players' union.

The search committee, headed by the Pittsburgh Steelers' Dan Rooney and the Carolina Panthers' Jerry Richardson, apparently plans to have the field of candidates narrowed to approximately four finalists by the Chicago meeting. Two owners said last week they continue to believe that the new commissioner likely will come from within the league office, especially if the owners stick to their stated timetable for making their selection. One owner, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the league wants the search conducted as secretly as possible, said that Goodell is the clear favorite but it's possible that some owners will raise questions about his lack of leadership experience.

Goodell has been Tagliabue's top lieutenant and has assisted him closely working on issues such as the labor and revenue-sharing negotiations and the push to put a team in Los Angeles. League counsel Jeff Pash and Eric Grubman, the NFL's executive vice president of finance and business transactions, also are regarded as candidates from within the league office. Other candidates from inside the league include Atlanta Falcons President Rich McKay, the co-chairman of the influential competition committee, and Baltimore Ravens President Dick Cass.

The committee has screened candidates from outside the league but has kept most of their identities from becoming public. Other owners have discounted the candidacies of some political figures mentioned as possibilities, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but it's likely that at least one outside candidate will be among the finalists.

It takes at least 22 votes among the 32 teams for a new commissioner to be elected. In 1989, it took seven months for the owners to choose Tagliabue over New Orleans Saints General Manager Jim Finks, but Tagliabue has labored this time to try to orchestrate a far smoother transition. He originally wanted to retire by July 31 but indicated he would stay in office until his successor is chosen.