Tackling the Weekend Without the NFL

On Sunday, it appears, a sack will once again become a paper bag and a spread will again be something you put on bread.

The unthinkable is about to happen: Life minus professional football. Or at least without the players generally thought to be professional.

For those of you who have just returned from Mars, the National Football League Players Assn. went on strike at the conclusion of Monday night’s game, which ended Tuesday morning, Eastern Daylight Time.

After a one-game hiatus this weekend, the club owners plan to resume the season Oct. 4 with teams comprised of non-union players. What effect this will have on future televising of those games, on attendance, on the rights of season tickets holders remains to be seen.

One thing is certain: An entire nation is about to have its Sunday day and Monday night life styles changed.

As with so many things on the seesaw of life, some things go up and some things go down, some are winners and some losers.

“What else can go wrong?” groaned the owner of Julie’s Restaurant, which, at 3730 S. Flower St., is within a few punts of the Coliseum. “First the Raiders say they are moving to Irwindale--and now a strike by the players in the National Football League.”

Steve O’bradovich is the owner of the watering hole that prepares Raiders fans for games and sees them through their subsequent celebration or lack thereof.

“If the usual games with the regular players come to a halt for any length of time, it will mean a loss of at least 10% of our annual business,” O’bradovich said Tuesday.

“We close Sundays at other times of the year and when there are no home games, so this will just mean that many more Sunday closures. This is what we did when they had the 57-day strike five years ago. I can already feel the pain.”

Lori Lenick, manager of the Long Beach sports hangout Legends, said she anticipates a 30% to 40% drop-off in business during the day on Sundays and on Monday nights.

“We have four big-screen TV sets and we show four separate games on Sunday mornings, and four more in the afternoon,” Lenick said. “Our seating capacity of 250 is usually filled. I guess we’ll have to show baseball or whatever’s on (cable sports channel) ESPN.”

In Pomona, where the Los Angeles County Fair is in the midst of its annual 18-day run, an extra parking lot is being added near Brackett Airport in anticipation of what fair promoters now hope will be a record crowd for the second of its three Sundays.

Some members of the clergy foresee an increase in church attendance.

Pastor Harry Durkee of the Hollywood Lutheran Church, for example, predicts an attendance increase of 10% at his church Sunday if the strike suspends NFL play.

“Oh, yes. You bet your life. Indeed,” he said when asked if congregants skip services to watch games on television or in person. “That’s a popular event on Sunday that’s hard to compete with.”

The temptation to watch the games is so strong, said the pastor, who starts his 28th year at Hollywood Lutheran this Sunday, that he doesn’t necessarily blame the members of his flock. In fact, Durkee said, his congregants’ interest in the NFL is so powerful that he often provides scores during the service.

“The usher usually has a radio,” he said. “When it gets to the football playoffs or the baseball World Series, I’ve been known to step out (from the pulpit) to check with him . . . or he comes up with a little paper and gives us the info. . . . That would be an obvious agenda item for the announcements in the middle part of the service.”

Another Los Angeles spiritual leader said he also has observed sizable absences in his congregation on Sundays when the Raiders play at home.

On those days, attendance at his services can drop by as much as 20% said the Rev. T. Larry Kirkland, whose Brookin’s Community African Methodist Episcopal Church is only about 10 blocks from the Raiders’ home at the Coliseum.

Does this labor action also mean a bonanza for the movie houses?

“It depends on the time zone” answered Art Murphy, industry analyst for the trade paper Variety. “On Sundays, business is usually over by 6 p.m.

“The biggest effect, if any, will be on the West Coast. Let us not presume, however, that just because people can’t watch football, they won’t do things such as paint the fence.” And, of course, there is the emergency standby of conversation.

As for Monday nights, Murphy continued, because they follow weekends, most folks stay put anyway rather than head for theaters. This is known as the home field advantage.

One place that knows the answers already--and doesn’t like them--is Las Vegas.

“Betting on professional football overshadows everything else,” said Michael (Roxy) Roxborough. “The National Football League plays only 16 weeks, plus the pre-season and playoffs, but it can account for 25% to 30% of a sports book’s profit for the year.”

Roxborough is president of Las Vegas Sports Consultants and sets the odds for 22 major Nevada sports books.

“Large books such as Caesars Palace, the Hilton and the Stardust will do close to $1 million each in action each Sunday,” Roxborough said. Betting is 11-to-10, that is, a player puts up $11 to win $10.

“If non-union teams take the field, we will post a line” or spread, the linemaker said. “But betting limits will be small, probably $500. Players now can bet up to $20,000 .”

How will he arrive at a line? “We’ll be looking at 40 new players for each team, but basically we will focus on the particularly skilled positions--quarterback, running back and the wide receivers, plus any current NFL players who don’t belong to the union, or are on injured reserve, or who have played in the league in the past.”

Bettors have one straw to grasp at. Roxborough said he hears that if the strike goes into late October at least one network is considering moving some college contests to Sundays.

“As it is, betting on college football games is second in volume,” he said. “Anything would help.”

Others who figure to suffer financially from the strike include security people, food vendors and souvenir distributors.

Los Angeles Police Department officer Duane Kelliher grosses about $90 at each Raiders home game as he joins about 100 of the city’s finest who help preserve order at the Coliseum.

A prolonged strike would also cause belt tightening among some vendors at Anaheim Stadium, the home field for the Los Angeles Rams.

Kerri Hardin, 19, said a lengthy strike cutting off income from her job managing a stadium ice cream parlor would prevent her from giving Christmas presents to her 8- and 14-year-old brothers.

And what about the season ticket holders? Will they be charged for sub-quality games they didn’t, in effect, contract for and may not wish to attend?

That would appear to be (like a pass, sigh) still in the air. “The league will announce a policy that all 28 teams will adhere to regarding season tickets,” said Al LoCasale, executive assistant with the Raiders.

Although this weekend’s games apparently are off, reports seem to differ on whether Week 3 will or will not be made up. Doug Ward, spokesman for the Rams, said because there are two weeks between the end of the divisional playoffs and the Super Bowl, it is possible that things could be scheduled so that Week 3 games could be played during that extra time.

All of which has created a situation not entirely to the approval of those who expected a scrimmage line rather than a picket line.

“Joe Fan gets taken once again,” fumed O’bradovich, a Raiders season ticket holder. “He is supposed to pay to watch guys who couldn’t make a team. I have no intention of going to any scab games.” On the other hand, a Rams season ticket user, Marina del Rey attorney Adrian Wilbur, said whether he attends will depend on what kind of a new team is put together.

“I want to watch a respectable team,” he said. “If some of the regulars cross the line and play, I’ll go out and watch. Otherwise, I’ll go out and work on my golf game.”

Diehard is an understatement when it comes to NFL fans. For example, Kevin Eubanks, a Baldwin Hills insurance agent, said he puts his 19-inch television on a couch in his bedroom, turns it on at 9:30 a.m. and doesn’t get up, except to eat, until the games conclude as late as 4:30 p.m.

Who knows (does the Shadow know?) who will show up in the team uniforms. Although all teams have been directed by the NFL Management Council to field lineups--and most are reportedly planning to use players who have been in a professional camp before--this hasn’t discouraged the Walter Mittys.

“We’ve had several phone calls from fans,” Ward of the Rams disclosed. “They want to know where they can go to try out as replacements.”

In Santa Barbara, there is an ad hoc group that has held services ever since it was started in 1979 by marketing consultant Rick Slade--the Church of Monday Night Football.

At Derf’s Cafe, where the faithful have become accustomed to assembling, gloom hangs heavily. “Monday nights during football season accounts for 25% of our annual business,” said manager Charlie Biller.

“I guess we try showing videos of old games.”

It is traditional, before each game, for the faithful to recite their commandments, such as:

--Thou shalt not commit adultery during half time.

--Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s beer.

Plenty of time for that now.