Writing His Own Ticket As a vice president at the NFL, Pete Abitante ’78 has spearheaded communications and special projects for the organization.

Jessica Luck | W&L: The Washington and Lee Magazine
August 21, 2024

This article first appeared in the Summer 2024 issue of W&L: The Washington and Lee Magazine.

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Pete Abitante ’78 believes in the power of a handwritten note. After spending two years planning the year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of the NFL in 2019, the former vice president of special projects for the NFL sent a note to each person he worked with in planning the festivities. After he decided to retire from his 46-year career in the NFL in April 2024, he again got out his pen and wrote cards to people thanking them for their role in his career and life.

“It’s all about people,” he says. “I love connecting the dots and connecting people. It gives me great satisfaction to help someone else out who might benefit in some way.”

In the fall of 1976, Abitante started brainstorming ideas for a summer internship, and he distilled down his interests to two things: business and sports. He began writing letters (see a pattern?) to all the major sports leagues and teams in the New York City area explaining his interest in a summer job — he estimates he mailed at least 50. One of the responses, of which he still has the carbon copy, was from NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, inviting Abitante to come to New York City for an interview.

Abitante jokes that his time at the NFL has been a more than four-decades-long internship. In a way, it has, as he has continued growing and learning along with the organization. Part of that growth includes 26 years in the communications department in roles such as information director of the American Football Conference (one of two conferences in the NFL) followed by director of information for the NFL. He’s been a part of 46 Super Bowls, starting with Super Bowl XIII. He’s worked under three commissioners: Rozelle, Paul Tagliabue and current Commissioner Roger Goodell, and says he’s learned from each one how to conduct business, address issues and treat people well. He enjoyed regular phone calls with NFL coach and sports commentator John Madden during his commutes home from work, which formed into a friendship.

He’s been on the sidelines for some of the most memorable plays in NFL history, including “The Catch” in the 1981 NFC Championship game in which Dallas Cowboys quarterback Joe Montana found receiver Dwight Clark in the end zone with 58 seconds left for a touchdown pass to win the game. And he’s traveled overseas many times as part of the NFL’s expansion in the ‘80s and ‘90s to play preseason games in other countries and as the NFL representative, along with NFL players, on five USO tours to Afghanistan and Iraq to thank the men and women serving our country.

“It’s just incredibly emotional because you think you’re going there to do something for them, and it really goes both ways,” he says. “And the players you take with you become friends for life.”

If you were one of the lucky ones who visited Abitante in his office for one of his famous advice-giving sessions (“My door is open at 8:30 a.m.,” he tells young employees), you would have noticed something unique. On the side desk was a 50-pound piece of the Berlin Wall, which Abitante excavated himself during an NFL trip to Berlin five months after the wall came down. (The league played five preseason games in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium from 1990-94.)

“It’s unbelievable what I’ve been able to be a part of,” says Abitante. “It’s been quite a ride.”