Express Gives Best Shot and Wins, 17-12 : All It Can Do Now Is Wait to See If Team Folds on Monday

If this was indeed the last waltz for the Los Angeles Express, then let it be written that this team went out a winner.

Saturday’s 17-12 victory over the Portland Breakers before a crowd of 7,188 at the Coliseum was neither glorious nor memorable.

Now, Express players can only sit and wait for Monday, when the chiefs of the United States Football League determine the fate of a curious football team.

The biggest game of the Express franchise will be played out on Monday in New Jersey. Thirteen league owners, who have carried the financial weight of the ownerless Express, will decide its fate.

“I wish the league would give us a second chance,” Express defensive tackle George Achica said.

But, for the Express, it may have been too little and too late to ever start again. It was a talented team, but it lost an owner to a federal investigation and has since wallowed in a sea of indifference.

It was a team kept alive only because of what it might have been. And even Express players can face the reality of their situation. Even they know that owners with hot tempers and little patience will not long pay the bills for teams with losing records.

If only the Express was 7-3 today and not 3-7. Never mind the injuries or the constant strain of uncertainty playing upon their psyches. If only this team had live up to expectations.

“They (the owners) are the ones that are giving up on us,” Express safety Dwight Drane said. “I wouldn’t mind a second chance. Last year we were in last place and came back and won our division. We believe we can do the same thing.”

But is it too late.

Many had left this team for dead a week ago when it was pounded by the Denver Gold, 51-0.

The Express, perhaps sensing its ultimate demise, has been listless and lifeless for weeks, scoring only two touchdowns in five games.

Was it coincidence that the Express may have saved its best for last? It was Saturday that the Express broke season records for longest run from scrimmage (32 yards by Kevin Nelson), longest pass (71 yards; Frank Seurer to Duane Gunn) and longest field goal (52 yards, Tony Zendejas).

The mood in the Express locker room was peculiar. Players weren’t certain just how to act. There were no tears and few hugs. They know they could very well be slapping towels at each other on Tuesday. Or, they might have played their last game together.

You could almost sense a sigh of relief.

“A lot of the negative stuff that has been said about us since February got us down,” Express quarterback Steve Young said. “It just piled on us. Tonight, we just said ‘Hey, let’s forget the crap and just play. I would like to be positive, but I realize that it doesn’t look good right now.”

Around the Coliseum, there were signs of finality.

For the second time this season, the Express was without a radio broadcast. Fearing the demise of the team, some of the Express’ sponsors pulled out on Friday.

“It’s a whole thing of continuity,” Express President Don Klosterman said. “I guess their thinking was if it was our last game, why make a commitment. It’s another by-product of doubt as to whether we’re going to be here.”

So there is nothing to do but wait.

Of Monday, Express Coach John Hadl would say: “Well, it won’t be like Christmas, if you know what I mean.”

Express players will report to practice Monday morning and prepare for next Saturday’s game against the Tampa Bay Bandits.

But their minds will be thousands of miles away. They will all sit and wait for a phone call from Don Klosterman telling whether or not to clean out their lockers.

The players are hoping only for a second chance, only for the chance to prove that their horrible start this season was a fluke. They say they will make amends for their sins.

“I have faith that we’ll come back,” defensive lineman Fletcher Jenkins said. “It would be bad for the league to let us go with the team we have. It’ll be a minus for them if they drop us.”

But, if it happens, the Express will at least have the memory of a 17-12 win to take with them. It could have been worse. It could have ended after Denver.

Express Notes Guess who’s back in the news? It’s J. William Oldenburg, former owner of the Express. Oldenburg, who gave up the Express last July after going under federal investigation for alleged business irregularities, is on next month’s cover of San Francisco Magazine. Oldenburg is pictured with his finger blocking the barrel of a rifle, which is pointed at his head. The headline reads: “Oldenburg Shoots Back.” In the lengthy feature, Oldenburg said that he intends to file a libel lawsuit against the San Francisco Chronicle, the Sunday Examiner/Chronicle and the Wall Street Journal. Oldenburg, who will be represented by Joseph Alioto, claims a series of newspaper articles led to the financial collapse of his mortgage banking business. Alioto said in the article that he will try to prove that Oldenburg, though he owned a professional football franchise, was not a public figure and was libeled by the media.