updated 9:54 p.m. ET Aug. 8, 2006

NORTHBROOK, Ill. - When Roger Goodell was in college, his ambition was to someday be an NFL general manager. Turns out, he was aiming low.

Way too low.

Twenty-five years after receiving dozens of rejection letters from NFL teams, Goodell is the league’s new commissioner, working his way from public relations intern to the top.

Not that he didn’t have the pedigree to go far.

Goodell’s father, Charles, served in Congress before being appointed by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller to fill the U.S. Senate seat of Robert Kennedy after his assassination in 1968. The senior Goodell, a Republican who staunchly opposed the Vietnam War, lost his bid for re-election in 1970. He died in 1987.

His son, now 47, was born in Jamestown in upstate New York and went to high school in the northern suburbs of New York City. He graduated from Washington and Jefferson College with a degree in economics.

But his real love was football, which he had played in high school but not in college because of a shoulder injury. Hence those letters, one of which in early 1982 crossed the desk of Don Weiss, the NFL’s executive director.

Weiss was impressed, interviewed the young man and got him a three-month internship with the public relations department. He went from there to the New York Jets as an intern, then back to the league office, where he rose steadily though the ranks, in 2001 becoming the league’s chief operating officer.

“From the beginning, you knew that this guy had something to bring to the table,” says Frank Ramos, who was the Jets’ public relations director for 39 years and one of Goodell’s first NFL bosses.

“He would open envelopes, stuff envelopes, do anything. I always felt that if a guy shows you he can do something, the more things you give him to do. And he would also suggest things that were almost always helpful in dealing with the media and with the players.”

One of his early tasks was helping the NFL work with college stars who were considering signing with the competing USFL from 1983-85. He worked directly with Gil Brandt, then the personnel director of the Dallas Cowboys, who remarked: “He was 23 going on 40.”

He’s done a lot more in the last few years, although his attitude was symbolized in 1986 when Goodell volunteered to drive commissioner Pete Rozelle at the Super Bowl when Rozelle’s driver was called home for an emergency.

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He’s done a lot more since then.

Goodell’s probably best known for being Paul Tagliabue’s point man on expansion and stadium construction. He’s had a major hand in facilitating the construction or renovation of stadiums, especially in the past decade. He’s also been deeply involved in the NFL’s efforts to return to Los Angeles, which the Raiders and Rams left after the 1994 season.

Six years ago, Goodell was officially designated as the NFL’s chief operating officer — Tagliabue’s No. 1 aide in the league office.

But Goodell, who is married and has twin daughters, is not just a business guy.

He’s more outgoing than Tagliabue, who barely knew any media members when he gave his acceptance speech in 1989. Goodell, who always has gotten along well with the media, addressed almost every reporter by name Tuesday night while taking questions at his news conference.

Players are familiar with him, too.

“I don’t know the other candidates, but I’ve gotten to know Roger,” two-time NFL MVP Peyton Manning of the Colts said this week. “He’s just a good guy. Nothing pretentious or anything like that about him.”

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