BY CHRIS HAFT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Mike Brown, who has a knack for saying a lot with a little, needed few words to summarize Pete Rozelle's importance to the Bengals.
''I doubt that there would have been a Cincinnati Bengals team without Pete Rozelle,'' Brown said Saturday.
Brown, the Bengals' president and general manager, lavished praise and affection upon Rozelle, the former NFL commissioner who died Friday at his home in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. Rozelle's ability to raise the league to the pinnacle of professional sports left an enduring impression on Brown, whose father, Paul, launched the Cincinnati franchise.
''He was in my mind, and I think in the minds of most people, the outstanding sports commissioner, not just of his time, but perhaps of all time,'' Mike Brown said. ''He projected our game way beyond where it had been, and he kept the fires of discontent tamped down. He did it all with a certain grace and ease that we came to take for granted but was really part of his unique talent.''
Brown indicated that Rozelle worked extensively behind the scenes to help his father secure the Bengals: ''There were competitors at that time for an NFL franchise besides Cincinnati. Pete knew my father wanted to come here and start a franchise, and he helped him do that.''
Rozelle also used the persuasive charm Mike Brown cited to help Paul Brown feel comfortable about starting pro football in Cincinnati, which was awarded a franchise in 1967 and began play the following year.
Cincinnati was initially assigned to the AFL, which was less established and glamorous than the NFL. The NFL-AFL merger had been announced in 1966 but wouldn't take effect until 1970, forcing the Bengals to spend their first two seasons in the ''other'' league.
''My dad considered himself an NFL person. He took that decision (placing Cincinnati in the AFL) with a real dissatisfaction,'' Brown recalled. That was understandable, given Paul Brown's deep involvement with the Cleveland Browns.
Simmering in a New York hotel room, Paul Brown complained that the Cincinnati group hadn't received as favorable a deal as New Orleans investors got a year earlier when they were awarded the Saints - who joined the NFL.
''He felt that it was just unfair,'' Mike Brown recalled. ''Pete came up to our hotel room, sat with us and told my dad in a very nice and friendly way that he had to go forward or he was going to lose the opportunity.
''My dad stewed on that. He wasn't used to being told things. Yet he swallowed and accepted it and went forward.''
Years earlier, Paul Brown was instrumental in Rozelle's surprise ascent from general manager of the Los Angeles Rams to NFL commissioner as a compromise candidate on the 23rd ballot. Mike Brown attended that historic league meeting in January 1960, at Miami Beach.
None of the leading candidates could muster enough votes to earn election.
Even Paul Brown was asked to take the job. He declined, but he had another idea.
''My dad got hold of (New York Giants owner) Wellington Mara and (Rams owner) Dan Reeves and asked if Dan would agree to let them nominate Pete,'' Mike Brown said.
Rozelle was 33 years old, but that didn't matter to Paul Brown.
''My dad had a genius for picking out good people,'' Mike Brown said. ''He saw in Pete qualities that would make him, in time, an outstanding commissioner. He said to Pete, 'Don't worry about being too young; you'll grow into the job.'
''And of course he did.''
