NFL Owners Elect Goodell as Commissioner

NORTHBROOK, Ill., Aug. 9, 2006 — -- The knock on Roger Goodell's hotel room door came almost three hours to the minute after NFL owners began voting for a new commissioner.

When he opened it, there stood the Steelers' Dan Rooney. He didn't have to say a word.

"When I saw Dan smiling, I knew it wasn't bad news," Goodell said Tuesday.

And right then, in a seamless transition that followed a swift, unanimous selection, the symbol of the NFL's storied history embraced the league's future.

Favored for months to succeed Paul Tagliabue, the 47-year-old Goodell said he expects to begin serving a five-year term before the regular season starts Sept. 7.

ESPN.com's Len Pasquarelli reports that, on the fifth ballot, the last remaining contender was Gregg Levy, who serves as the league's outside counsel.

Goodell, who never stopped rising through the ranks during his lifelong service to the NFL, was chosen on the fifth ballot, beating four other contenders in a vote that took only three hours.

He becomes just the fourth commissioner since World War II, having started his NFL career as a public relations intern a quarter-century ago and having served as Tagliabue's second-in-command for most of the last decade.

"We've had the two greatest sports commissioners in the history of professional sports, Paul Tagliabue and Pete Rozelle, and I was fortunate to work for both of them," said Goodell, who shook every owners' hand afterward. "I look forward to the challenge and thank them again for their confidence."

Goodell remained the favorite even through a four-month search conducted by a committee headed by Rooney and Carolina's Jerry Richardson. There was no question that he was the choice of the league's most important owners all along, but none declared any allegiance until the finale.

"I said from the beginning that we were going to look for the man to lead us," Rooney said he told the owners during the voting Wednesday afternoon. "I said that when we finished, I had no doubt that that was Roger Goodell."