Many Richer for the Experience

Here’s to the winners and losers on the Los Angeles Express. If the Express folds, the winners are the players who were in the college graduating class of 1984. They walked into a bidding war between the USFL and NFL and walked away with their pockets stuffed with money.

As quarterback Steve Young once said: “It was like hitting the lottery.”

When Bill Oldenburg bought the Express in December of 1983, he hired former Ram general manager Don Klosterman and told him to buy him the best team in the land. Money was no object.

With Klosterman as orchestrator, the Express spent nearly $12 million on football talent.

The players didn’t even lose out when the Express was taken over by the USFL last January. The other 13 league owners contributed about $500,000 each to keep the team going through the season. Most of the money went to pay the players.

Some Express players who struck it rich:

--Kevin Nelson. The former UCLA running back, riding the crest of a big Rose Bowl game in 1984, received a signing bonus of $1,150,000 ($300,000 in cash and $850,000 in deferred payments). This season, the injury-plagued Nelson drew a salary of $250,000 while gaining 355 yards.

--Allanda Smith. The highly touted defensive back from Texas Christian received a $600,000-signing bonus last season. Smith was inconsistent and injury prone with the Express. The team released him late in the 1985 season.

--Mike Ruether (Texas) and Gary Zimmerman (Oregon) each signed identical four-year contracts worth (including deferments) $5.9 million. Zimmerman and Ruether each received signing bonuses of $350,000.

“It seemed perfect,” Ruether said. “They wanted to get good players and they didn’t care what it cost. There was no way I was going to play in the USFL until they offered me what they did.”

--Frank Seurer. The reserve quarterback earned $100,000 in 1984 and received a $50,000 signing bonus.

--Mark Adickes. The offensive tackle from Baylor signed a four-contract worth about $700,000 a year.

But the big winner was Young, the All-American quarterback from BYU. He spurned the NFL draft and signed with the Express on March 5, 1984. News leaked out that his contract, which ran through the year 2,027, would eventually pay Young $40 million. Of course, that wasn’t all present-day cash.

Young received $2.5 million in signing bonuses, but the bulk of his payoff will come from a deferment-type deal. The money needed to fund the annuity, about $2 million, was paid by the league last November.

Young must decide whether to stay or leave.

Young has two years remaining on his contract but his attorney, Leigh Steinberg, says the league has breached Young’s contract, and Young should be free to sign with the NFL. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers own his rights.

Young and Steinberg met with league Commissioner Harry Usher on Thursday in New York to discuss his future in the league. Steinberg doesn’t want the case to end up in court, but there may be no other recourse.

Does Young have an obligation to the league?

“You mean other that contractual?” Usher said. “He has a contractual obligation. I’m hoping the experience can be a positive one for him. It’s been a difficult year for all the players. But it would have been a lot more difficult if they would have been unpaid.

“Steve has displayed considerable talent, but he’s also received a lot of money. I hope that the people who come in early in the league will feel some level of interest in leading this league forward. If you talk to Herschel Walker (of the Generals), you’d be amazed at the dedication he has toward the league.”

Young, getting the point, said he’d love to stay with the Express in Los Angeles, but not under the present conditions.

“I’d be willing to do just about anything to figure out where the league is heading,” Young said Thursday. “But I’m wondering if there even is a team. I’d love to stay in L.A., I really would.”

Young, who is one to think of such things, is very concerned over what public sentiment would be if he left the USFL, breach or no breach of contract.

But he says he never cared that much about the money and he’d even consider giving some of it back if it came to that.

“If it means giving it up then it means giving it up,” Young said, “I just want to move things along. I’ll always be remembered for the $40-million thing, and I’ve always disliked that. I’m not on a crusade to prove that money is not important, but I live the way I live.”

No, things didn’t work out as planned.

Steinberg said that Young has shown good faith since joining the Express. This year, Young played injured in several games behind an offense line that was devastated by injuries. Steinberg said Young could have legally left the team in the off-season when his annuity payment was not made. But Young wanted to stay.

Steinberg said Young is free because his contract cannot be transferred from one party to another. And Steinberg said that the transference of the contract from former owner Bill Oldenburg to the league greatly hindered his client’s future.

However, the big loser seemingly is Don Klosterman. the recently fired president and general manager. Will his football reputation ever be restored?

Klosterman, one of pro football’s most respected front-office men, was in his glory when he was wheeling and dealing with Oldenburg’s money. But when Oldenburg’s company became the target of a federal investigation in the spring of 1984, the money quit coming to the Express. The USFL assumed control but left Klosterman with the headaches of trying to find a new owner while fighting off unpaid creditors.

“I used to drive down La Cienega Boulevard every morning in a fog,” Klosterman said.

Last January, new commissioner Harry Usher appointed long-time friend Richard Stevens as the team’s chairman of the board. What resulted was a power play.

Klosterman went about his business, but those close to him said he was affected by his loss of clout.

Stevens denied he was trying to take over.

“I have no aspirations for a personal career in football,” Stevens said.

But two weeks ago, Usher fired Klosterman, not Stevens.

Former Express Coach John Hadl, also fired by Usher, was outraged by the whole situation.

“Who the bleep is Harry Usher, that’s what I want to know,” Hadl said. “He’s telling Don Klosterman, a guy who’s led teams to the Super Bowl, how to run a team? They treated him like a dog. They didn’t even talk to him. Don’t tell me about professionalism. It’s killing him. This business has been his whole life. He’s been on top of it, more than anyone else in this league.”

Usher denies Klosterman was ignored.

“He’s an excellent football man,” Usher said. “Sure his hands were tied. But all our hands were tied. It was not enjoyable for anyone.”

Some, like former owners Bill Daniels and Alan Harmon, criticized Klosterman for his role in escalating football salaries.

“Anyone who spends $11.5 million on a football team and doesn’t realize he’s destroying a team and a league has absolutely no vision,” Harmon said.

Klosterman said he was just doing what his boss (Oldenburg) told him to do. He doesn’t worry much about the critics.

“Anyone knowledgeable knows that we couldn’t function,” Klosterman said. “It (the Express) was like designing a car to go 200 m.p.h. and then being told we only wanted it to go 50. They (the league) wouldn’t let us put anything on it.”