Rozelle Uses Occasion to Discuss NFL’s Trials

In the good old days, when men were men and pro football was a game instead of a means to a fat paycheck for a lot of lawyers, Pete Rozelle would hold his press conference at the Super Bowl and actually talk about the Super Bowl.

Friday, when Rozelle met the press in this, his XXV year as the National Football League’s majordomo, he made direct mention of game elements of Super Bowl XIX just once. And that was a throwaway line, something about “those two crazy Italians”--Joe Montana of the 49ers and Dan Marino of the Dolphins--who will play quarterback in the game Sunday at Palo Alto.

The rest was pretty much legalese, which is fast becoming the language of the game, taking over for “Hut-One, Hut-Two, Hut-Three. . . .”

“This is a litigious time,” Rozelle said. Which is Madison Avenue for, “People are suing each other a lot.”

Among the most prominent litigious people are the NFL and its unhappy ward, the Los Angeles Raiders, plus the upstart United States Football League. What substance did come out of the commissioner’s meeting with the press centered around those groups and their favorite--not to mention well-paid--barristers.

Rozelle confirmed, as most suspected, that the never-ending court battle between the Raiders and the NFL over the Raiders’ move from Oakland to Los Angeles was not over.

“After the Supreme Court sets the damages, we will go back to them,” Rozelle said. “We are hopeful the Supreme Court can give us some guidelines. We would like some understanding of where we fit in in anti-trust situations. According to the Raiders’ case, just having a meeting (of NFL owners) is a conspiracy.”

Rozelle said that the courts are treating the NFL as if it were “General Motors and Ford” getting together. He said that all this confusion has prompted owners in cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans, where the owners aren’t completely happy with existing facilities, to use the Raider case as a precedent to inform him of their possible future desire to move on, a la Al Davis.

“Just because we now have set procedures for things like a franchise shift doesn’t sprinkle holy water on it,” Rozelle said.

Rozelle, also fighting a legal war on another front, called the USFL’s recent $1.32-billion antitrust suit against his NFL “baseless.” He said his league’s best defense against this will be no defense. And he added that USFL owners who are banking on the NFL taking in some of their teams in a merger are mistaken.

“We have no interest in having a merger,” he said. “We are 28 teams now, and we’ll get to 30. But the cities we pick will be the cities the owners of our league want.”

He said that not one NFL owner has even asked him about a possible merger with the USFL.

“One of their owners stated publicly that they expect to get their income from ticket sales, TV revenue and treble damages (in their suit against the NFL),” Rozelle said. “Well, that’s not going to happen. They are misleading themselves.”

Rozelle said the status of the USFL suit is that it has gone nowhere.

“They have taken no depositions of anybody,” Rozelle said. “Right now, they are objecting to the attorney we have working for us, because his firm once did some work for them. That’s as far as it has gone.”

As for the USFL going head-to-head with the NFL in 1986, which is the USFL’s plan, Rozelle said: “I really can’t be objective on that. I just think our sport has a great hold on the public.”

Presumably, he meant the NFL version of “our sport.”

Other topics Rozelle touched on were:

--The question of full-time officials. “If we were assured that full-time officials would solve our problems, I’m sure league owners would put up the dough to get it done. But then, we’d lose many of our best officials because they have good jobs now, plus, what would we do with them in the off-season? It would be clinic after clinic.”

--The question of using instant replays for official rulings. “We made a study of preseason games in 1978, and on 96% of the plays it was either impossible to tell, or the call that was made was correct. Plus, the networks aren’t that vitally interested in making their feed available for that use.”

--The question of games getting longer and longer. “We allow 25 commercial minutes per game. Other pro sports allow 27, and I think the USFL allows 30. The problem comes when the producer or director feels pressure to get the spots in and bunches them up too much. Also, there are some rules changes that are possible, such as starting the clock at the same time as the 30-second clock. But then you have to weigh how many plays are lost and how that affects the game.”

--The question of whether Leonard Tose received soft treatment from the league, despite getting himself in his financial fix at various casinos. “I spoke to Leonard about a year ago, and he agreed that it (his gambling) wasn’t healthy. He agreed to stop.”

--Finally, the ongoing question of players’ involvement with drugs and what the NFL is going to do about it. “The biggest problem is the outpatient problem. You’ve seen it. When a person comes out of a rehabilitation center after 30 days and says he’s cured. But is he? We’ll try to take stronger follow-up action next year.”