Tagliabue's relationship with Upshaw, a Hall of Fame player

BALTIMORE (AP) — Understanding that 27 carries a game is way too dangerous for an NFL quarterback Womens Antonio Brown Jersey , Lamar Jackson may do things differently in his second NFL start Sunday.Playing in place of the injured Joe Flacco last week, the former Louisville star slithered, juked and bulled his way for 117 yards rushing to lead the Baltimore Ravens past the Cincinnati Bengals 24-21."I didn't know about it until after the game," Jackson said. "I was like, ‘I ran 27 times?' I was shocked myself. So, I was like, ‘Dang, maybe I do have to get down.'" Or perhaps the rookie will decide that passing might be the way to go when the Ravens (5-5) face the Oakland Raiders (2-8)."We did whatever it took to win," Jackson said. "Hopefully, I'm going to start throwing the ball more."With Flacco out with a sore right hip for at least one more week, Jackson hopes to utilize both his feet and right arm when operating the run-pass option that has suddenly become a staple of the Baltimore offense."They played a different style of football," Raiders coach Jon Gruden said after watching tape of the Cincinnati game. "They were able to adapt, and it's a real credit to all those Ravens. But (Jackson) is tough to prepare for. You don't know what he's going to do, but you do know what he's capable of doing and it's scary."With Jackson and rookie running back Gus Edwards (115 yards rushing) leading the way, the Ravens snapped a three-game skid and got back in the playoff hunt.The Raiders ended a five-game losing streak against Arizona last week, and quarterback Derek Carr wants to keep the momentum going."I want to mess up the draft . I don't want the first pick," Carr said. "I want to win all these games. I want everyone to be mad at me for that."Some other things to know about the Raiders-Ravens matchup:ROCKET RICHARDThere haven't been many positives for Gruden in his first season back in charge of the Raiders, but the play of running back Jalen Richard has been one of them.Richard leads the team with 51 catches this season and has been counted on as a runner more after Marshawn Lynch went on IR with a groin injury last month. Gruden called Richard the team's MVP so far."He's a guy that I think someday could run for 1,000 yards and catch 1,000 yards worth of passes," Gruden said. "He's a guy we can line up in the slot, we can line him up out wide. He might not be the biggest back, but he plays big. He's very quick and decisive, and he's got great vision."FAST AND STRONGCombining speed and strength, Edwards, an undrafted free agent, burst onto the scene last week with a huge performance."Size and speed are a good combination," coach John Harbaugh said of Edwards. "He has good acceleration, he runs hard, he's a north/south guy, and he's 240-plus (pounds). Yes, he's doing a good job, and he has that big back-type build Antonio Brown Jersey White , which is a big plus."RELIABLE ROOKIESeventh-round receiver Marcell Ateman fared well in his debut for Oakland last week, catching four passes for 50 yards, including a 32-yarder on the game-winning drive.Ateman got his first chance because of injuries to Martavis Bryant and Jordy Nelson. Nelson might be back this week, but Brandon LaFell is out for the season with an Achilles injury — meaning the Raiders will need more from Ateman again."I was really pleased with Ateman," Gruden said. "It wasn't too big for him. He was confident. He was under control. He was calm. He made some plays."UNUSED WIDEOUTSJackson's propensity to run means fewer catches for Baltimore receivers, but with they'll gladly trade receptions for wins.Long-ball threat John Brown said: "I haven't played with a quarterback that runs that much. But, at the end of the day, that's his style of play, and he's making the plays. Everybody is happy with it."MISSING CRABMichael Crabtree was Carr's most trusted receiver during their three years together in Oakland. Whenever Carr needed to find someone for a key first down or touchdown, Crabtree was usually the player he looked to first. Crabtree's 217 catches and 24 TDs on passes from Carr are the most of anyone.The Raiders released Crabtree in March and he signed with Baltimore, where he has 42 catches for 479 yards this season.Crabtree expressed no desire to extract revenge against his former team."Next game. We're on the end of a stretch right here, so every game counts for us," Crabtree said. "The next game is the Raiders." The NFL needed a change.And team owners knew one thing in 1989 when they sought a successor to Pete Rozelle: They wanted a commissioner who was going to bring the league out of the dark decade of the 1980s, when litigation, labor troubles and stagnant TV ratings dramatically slowed the growth of the league and hastened Rozelle's retirement.In Paul Tagliabue, they found someone who could guide them through a projected legal and labor jungle while keeping the profits flowing.While Rozelle didn’t hide his dissatisfaction with the path the job was taking, his retirement surprised many owners, who fell into two factions.The old guard led by Wellington Mara, Art Modell, Lamar Hunt and Ralph Wilson, favored Jim Finks, a longtime executive with three franchises. The newer bloc of owners, including Jerry Jones, Alex Spanos and Pat Bowlen, pushed for Tagliabue, then an outside NFL counsel and close adviser to Rozelle.“He has taken a very low profile in this league,” Finks told the Minnesota Star Tribune that year, “so he wasn’t very well known by the owners. But he was very well known to me. I knew, for at least 20 years, that every major decision Rozelle was faced with, (Tagliabue) advised the commissioner.”As one of his first decisions, Tagliabue reached out to the players' union, then run by Gene Upshaw Bo Jackson Jersey White , a former star player for Al Davis' Raiders. Tagliabue had insisted he be directly involved in all labor negotiations, basically rendering useless the Management Council of club executives that had handled such duties for nearly two decades.It was a wise decision: During Tagliabue’s 17-year tenure, there were no labor stoppages."When Paul was named commissioner after that seven-month search in 1989, that's when the league got back on track," says Joe Browne, who spent 50 years as an NFL executive and was a confidant of Rozelle and Tagliabue."Paul had insisted during his negotiations for the position that final control over matters such as labor and all commercial business dealings had to rest in the commissioner's office. The owners agreed and that was a large step forward toward the tremendous rebound we had as a league — an expanded league — in the '90s and beyond.” was unique. Unlike the loggerheads of previous years between the league and the NFLPA, Tagliabue and Upshaw kept the negotiations respectful and centered on what would benefit both sides. Compromise was a key ingredient, Upshaw always said — although the union often was criticized for being too accommodating.Tagliabue also oversaw a myriad of new stadiums; initiated new on-field player safety rules; negotiated television contracts that added billions of dollars to the league's bank account; expanded the league from 28 to 32 teams; implemented a substance abuse policy that is considered among the strongest in pro sports; mentored his eventual successor, Roger Goodell; and put together a committee that established the "Rooney Rule," which requires all teams with coaching and front office vacancies to interview minority candidates.But he certainly had his detractors, notably over concussions. The issue has plagued the NFL for decades and probably has kept Tagliabue from induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in which his predecessors are members.In 2017, Tagliabue apologized for remarks he made decades ago about concussions in football, acknowledging he didn’t have the proper data at the time in 1994. He called concussions "one of those pack-journalism issues" and contended the number of concussions “is relatively small; the problem is the journalist issue.""Obviously," he said on Talk of Fame Network, "I do regret those remarks. Looking back, it was not sensible language to use to express my thoughts at the time. My language was intemperate, and it led to serious misunderstanding. I overreacted on issues which we were already working on. But that doesn't excuse the overreaction and intemperate language."Bottom line, it sounded like I was shooting the messenger, which was the concussion issue. My intention at the time was to make a point which could have been made fairly simply: that there was a need for better data. There was a need for more reliable information about concussions and uniformity in terms of how they were being defined in terms of severity."Like Rozelle, Tagliabue faced a wrenching decision after a national tragedy. While Rozelle allowed games to be played on the weekend after President Kennedy’s 1963 assassination, Tagliabue postponed all Week 2 games after 9/11, moving them into January and delaying the Super Bowl by one week.He was universally praised for that action, as well as for many others as commissioner.“After my coaching career was over,” says Hall of Fame player Art Shell, the NFL's first modern-day African-American head coach with the Raiders, "I had the privilege of working directly with Paul in the league office. His philosophy on almost every issue was, 'If it's broke, fix it. And if it’s not broke, fix it anyway.'“He always challenged us to find better ways of doing things. Paul never lost sight of his responsibility to do what was right for the game. He was the perfect choice as NFL commissioner."