ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 1, 1990                   TAG: 9006010694
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TAGLIABUE SAYS TENNANT TALKED TOO MUCH

NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue has finally spoken publicly on the tenure of the much-criticized Dr. Forrest Tennant as the NFL's drug advisor.

Meeting Tuesday with a group from the Associated Press Sports Editors in New York, Tagliabue defended Tennant's administration of the league's drug program. But he added that Tennant did have one major failing - "Forrest Tennant and the way he presented himself."

Tennant resigned in March following a series of criticisms of his administration for sloppiness and other deficiencies.

Tennant has since been replaced by two men - Dr. John A. Lombardo for steroids and Dr. Lawrence S. Brown Jr. for general substance abuse.

Tagliabue said that even before the criticism, he became concerned with Tennant's public statements. He said they should have come either from the commissioner or from Joe Browne, the league's director of communications.

"I think the main problem Forrest Tennant had was Forrest Tennant and the way he presented himself," Tagliabue said.

"I had written him before the Super Bowl that it was my job or Joe's job to make public statements and his job to be a doctor. Because there was nothing more that he liked to hear than his own voice."

Keywords:
FOOTBALL 


 by CNB