He took over as commissioner from Pete Rozelle in 1989 and kept the golden goose clucking by negotiating some of the largest television deals in the history of entertainment. He also watched as the league expanded from 28 to 32 teams and presided over stadium building that saw more than two-thirds of the franchises get new homes.

Yet he did all of that without bombast or bluster, which was critical. When bags of wind gather in a business enterprise, what they don’t need is another one to maintain order. Tagliabue was a lawyer and unofficial lobbyist for the NFL and was well acquainted with the fine art of persuasion before he assumed Rozelle’s chair. His bookish manner and arid personality might have frustrated members of the sports media over the years, but it helped him gain the respect of the business partners.

Tagliabue’s task grew more difficult over the years as modern-day carpetbaggers like Jones and Snyder bought into franchises in Dallas and Washington, respectively, and then began to question this whole revenue-sharing model. Why should the Cowboys have to share the revenue from their luxury boxes chock full of rich oil men with poor cousins in Green Bay and Cincinnati? Why shouldn’t the Redskins be operated with abandon and free-market glee?

The answers to those questions and others came simply and directly from the commissioner: Because it’s working. And to deviate from a wildly successful formula would risk eventual ruin. Fortunately for fans, almost all the owners agreed that he had a good point.

Names that have emerged as possible replacements include Roger Goodell, the league’s chief operating officer, and Atlanta Falcons general manager Rich McKay. Either of these fine gentlemen might make an excellent commissioner.

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But for now, it’s important to remember the contributions of Tagliabue, and to do so I’ll twist an old saying from “Forrest Gump,” the one that suggested, “Stupid is as stupid does.” In my recollection of that phrase, Forrest’s mom utters it to encourage her son, emphasizing that you’re only stupid if you do stupid things.

In the commissioner’s case, “Dull is as dull does.”

Therefore, in the context of a man who has developed an insanely successful business enterprise over more than 16 years while keeping some of the most incorrigible personalities in the history of capitalism from destroying each other and everything around them, Paul Tagliabue is anything but dull.