Carmen Policy (born January 26, 1943) is an American attorney and professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

executive Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive dir ...

best known for his work for the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...

during the 1980s and 1990s. He also led the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. The Browns compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team is named after ...

until he sold his minority ownership stake in 2004.

Education

A native of

Youngstown Youngstown is a city in Mahoning County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, 11th-most populous city in Ohio with a population of 60,068 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Mahoning ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, Policy graduated in 1963 from

Youngstown State University Youngstown State University (YSU or Youngstown State) is a public university in Youngstown, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1908 and is the easternmost member of the University System of Ohio. The university is composed of six undergrad ...

and is a 1966 graduate of

Georgetown University Law Center Georgetown University Law Center is the Law school in the United States, law school of Georgetown University, a Private university, private research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law ...

NFL career

San Francisco 49ers

Policy joined the San Francisco 49ers in 1981 as Counsel to the Owner and in 1983 was vice president and general counsel. In 1991, he became president and CEO of the San Francisco 49ers and played a key role in the 49ers

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

victories in

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

, and

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

. In 1994, he was named the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

Executive of the Year by ''

The Sporting News ''The Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a ...

'' and ''

Pro Football Weekly ''Pro Football Weekly'' (sometimes shortened to ''PFW'') is an American sports magazine, founded in 1967, and website that covers the National Football League (NFL). It was owned by Pro Football Weekly LLC and headquartered in Riverwoods, Illin ...

'', as voted on by NFL owners and executives. ''The Sporting News'' and '' GQ'' also named him one of the "Most Influential People in

Professional Sports In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larger a ...

". His partnership with 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo ended in the late 1990s due to "mistrust and front-office power plays".

Cleveland Browns

He was involved with the current incarnation of the

. While serving as president and CEO of the Browns, Policy served as a member of the NFL Business Ventures Committee as well as the Super Bowl Advisory Committee and the Los Angeles Market Advisory Group. He also served as a member of the NFL Finance Committee. Policy stepped down as president and CEO of the Cleveland Browns on May 1, 2004.

Los Angeles

In 1994, then-commissioner

Paul Tagliabue Paul John Tagliabue (; born November 24, 1940) is an American lawyer who was the National Football League Commissioner, commissioner of the National Football League (NFL). He took the position in 1989 NFL season, 1989 and served until September ...

appointed Policy and owners

Jerry Richardson Jerome Johnson Richardson Sr. (July 18, 1936 – March 1, 2023) was an American businessman, professional football player, and owner in the National Football League (NFL). A native of Spring Hope, North Carolina, he played college football f ...

of the

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The t ...

and Pat Bowlen of the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC West, West division. The team is headquartered in E ...

to "negotiate on behalf of the NFL" for the Los Angeles Raiders to play in a proposed stadium in Hollywood Park. However, the deal fell through and owner

Al Davis Allen R. Davis (July 4, 1929 – October 8, 2011) was an American professional football executive and coach. He was the managing general partner, principal owner and ''de facto'' general manager of the National Football League (NFL) Oakland Rai ...

moved the team back to Oakland. Carmen Policy was hired by the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...

and

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team in the National Football League (NFL). The Chargers played in San Diego, California from 1961 until 2016, before relocating back to the Greater Los Angeles area, where the franch ...

on May 18, 2015, to lead their efforts in building a stadium in

Carson, California Carson is a city in the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay and the Los Angeles Harbor Region, Harbor regions of Los Angeles County, California, located south of downtown Los Angeles and approximately away from Los Angeles International ...

. He was the headman of the Carson stadium project until the project was defeated by

Stan Kroenke Enos Stanley Kroenke (; born July 29, 1947) is an American billionaire real estate magnate and sports team owner. He is the owner of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which is the holding company of Arsenal of the Premier League and Arsenal Wo ...

of the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1995 through the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, California, where the team had played ...

and

Jerry Jones Jerral Wayne Jones Sr. (born October 13, 1942) is an American billionaire businessman who is the owner, president, and General manager (American football), general manager of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He bought t ...

of the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. T ...

on January 12, 2016, in favor of

SoFi Stadium SoFi Stadium ( ) is a domed multi-purpose stadium in Inglewood, California, U.S., a suburb of Los Angeles. SoFi occupies the former site of the Hollywood Park Racetrack and neighbors the Kia Forum and Intuit Dome. Opened in September 2020, the ...

Inglewood, California Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the city had a population of 107,762. ...

Denver Broncos ownership dispute

In 2019, the NFL announced that Policy would lead an arbitration effort to settle an ongoing dispute regarding the ownership of the

, the dispute being between the trustees who run the team—Broncos president/CEO Joe Ellis, team counsel Rich Slivka and local attorney Mary Kelly—and two of owner Pat Bowlen's daughters, Amie Klemmer and Beth Bowlen Wallace. The announcement of Policy's involvement was made by NFL commissioner

Roger Goodell Roger Stokoe Goodell (born February 19, 1959) is an American businessman who has served as the National Football League Commissioner, commissioner of the National Football League (NFL) since 2006. Goodell began his NFL career in 1982 as an admi ...

at the annual league meeting held in March 2019 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Family

Policy and his wife Gail endowed the Carmen and Gail Policy Clinical Fellowship at the Georgetown University Law Center, which promotes advocacy of

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

issues. Carmen is the parent of three sons and two daughters. Ed Policy is the current president and chief executive officer for the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...

and former deputy commissioner of the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...

, taking over in an interim basis after Commissioner David Baker stepped down two days before the ArenaBowl in 2008. James Policy is an

orthopedic surgeon Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics (American and British English spelling differences, alternative spelling orthopaedics) is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgic ...

at Stanford University Medical Center specializing in pediatric spine surgery. Daniel Policy and Kathleen Marie Policy work as attorneys. Kerry Rae Groth is an MBA graduate. After he retired from the NFL in 2004, Policy has focused on developing his Casa Piena Wines from the Policy Vineyard in Yountville, California.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Policy, Carmen 1943 births Living people Cleveland Browns executives San Francisco 49ers executives Youngstown State Penguins football players NFL general managers NFL team presidents Georgetown University Law Center alumni People from Yountville, California Players of American football from Youngstown, Ohio

Education

NFL career

San Francisco 49ers

Cleveland Browns

Los Angeles

Denver Broncos ownership dispute

Family

See also

References