Paul Tagliabue died this past weekend. The former NFL commissioner was influential and successful in helping America’s favorite league navigate enormous change with profitable leaps and bounds.

It’s necessary to say that here, at the top, because this column isn’t an ode or obituary to Tagliabue. This is about an admittedly trivial, personal and recurring question that comes in the aftermath of some sports figures’ deaths:

Do I keep his name on my phone?

My cell phone is a graveyard as I grow older. Tagliabue is a swipe from “Shula,” the Miami Dolphins legend who also never needed a first name on my phone. Don Shula also is another swipe from a couple of other Dolphins of different eras, safety Jake Scott a nd coach Tony Sparano.

They’ve all been gone for years, meaning these phone

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