David Rosenthal

They don't have a commissioner.

They're upstart rivals, the AFL, who haven't played a game yet.

They have a multi-million dollar contract.

An eight and a half million dollar five-year TV deal with a national network that the NFL doesn't have.

This is a real existential crisis.

And unlike last time where they're like, okay, great.

We'll just draft one of our own Burt Bell owner, the Philadelphia Eagles to come in and lead us through this.

They can't agree on a new commissioner.

So it takes 11 days and 23 separate votes of the NFL ownership groups in a total knockdown drag out negotiation.

There's multiple camps backing multiple candidates and

Indeed.

By the end of the process, none of the original candidates are still in it.

But fortunately for the NFL, they were very, very, very wrong about that.

Lucky.

Yes.

They choose, as the compromised dark horse candidate, 33-year-old general manager of the Los Angeles Rams, former public relations intern...

Compton College graduate Pete Rozelle to be the new young commissioner of this league in crisis.

And it was totally brilliant.

I mean, A, Rozelle grows into this just incredible leader, visionary who does so many things that we're going to enumerate now for the league, for the game, for television, for America.

But it was so not the owner's intention, they had to go to this compromise candidate and this young person who most people hadn't heard of.