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http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/15330150.htm
Bryant Gumbel signed on for play-by-play for the NFL Network's eight regular-season games. He isn't exactly biting the hand that feeds him -- we're going to guess he eats pretty well anyway -- but don't expect to hear his ode to the 8-yard slant.
On last week's episode of ``Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel'' on HBO, the host offered some advice to new commissioner Roger Goodell:
``Before he cleans out his office, have Paul Tagliabue show you where he keeps Gene Upshaw's leash. By making the docile head of the players union his personal pet, your predecessor has kept the peace without giving players the kind of guarantees other pros take for granted. Try to make sure no one competent ever replaces Upshaw on your watch.''
Tagliabue strongly disagreed, saying, ``I think things that Bryant Gumbel said about Gene Upshaw and the owners are about as uninformed as anything I've read or heard in a long, long time, and quite inexcusable because they are subjects about which you can and should be better informed.''
Tagliabue said Gumbel's NFL Network status would be up to Goodell after Sept. 1. But the retiring boss said the comments ``suggest to me that maybe he's having buyer's remorse and they call into question his desire to do the job and to do it in a way that we in the NFL would expect it to be done.''
Bryant Gumbel signed on for play-by-play for the NFL Network's eight regular-season games. He isn't exactly biting the hand that feeds him -- we're going to guess he eats pretty well anyway -- but don't expect to hear his ode to the 8-yard slant.
On last week's episode of ``Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel'' on HBO, the host offered some advice to new commissioner Roger Goodell:
``Before he cleans out his office, have Paul Tagliabue show you where he keeps Gene Upshaw's leash. By making the docile head of the players union his personal pet, your predecessor has kept the peace without giving players the kind of guarantees other pros take for granted. Try to make sure no one competent ever replaces Upshaw on your watch.''
Tagliabue strongly disagreed, saying, ``I think things that Bryant Gumbel said about Gene Upshaw and the owners are about as uninformed as anything I've read or heard in a long, long time, and quite inexcusable because they are subjects about which you can and should be better informed.''
Tagliabue said Gumbel's NFL Network status would be up to Goodell after Sept. 1. But the retiring boss said the comments ``suggest to me that maybe he's having buyer's remorse and they call into question his desire to do the job and to do it in a way that we in the NFL would expect it to be done.''