NFL Getting Ready for Some Action Overseas

The NFL, already busy with late college draft details, enters a week in which it will begin to make major decisions about a proposed international spring league and the successor to Commissioner Pete Rozelle.

The 28 club owners or their representatives will meet Tuesday in New York to review the sale of the Dallas Cowboys and get down to serious business about a spring league that figures to have teams in the United States and overseas. At the least, a group will be formed to look at all aspects from television to travel costs, and almost everyone expects Cowboys President Tex Schramm to be intimately involved with the project.

By then, the league office will have received recommendations from all clubs for consideration as successors to Rozelle, who recently announced his retirement after 29 years on the job.

Any number of names may be recommended, but some of the more prominent ones include Washington-based attorney Paul Tagliabue, who has represented the NFL in court and before Congress; former player Calvin Hill; and Pete Dawkins, who recently failed in a bid to become a U.S. Senator from New Jersey. NFC President Wellington Mara of the New York Giants and AFC President Lamar Hunt of the Kansas City Chiefs head the selection team and probably will begin to seriously review the recommendations after the April 23 draft.

In an unrelated league development, there are increasing indications that if Al Davis and his Los Angeles Raiders can’t work out things in Southern California, a suitable arrangement could be worked out in Oakland, of all places.

While George Vucasin, president of the Oakland Coliseum Commission, said he has not talked with Davis, he indicated there are few if any hard feelings over the Raiders’ departure from the Bay area earlier this decade. A Raiders’ preseason game in Oakland Alameda County Stadium sold out in 2 1/2 hours. “It surprassed anybody’s wildest imagination,” Vucasin said. “There may be a stronger base of fan support here than in Los Angeles.”

Vucasin said he is prohibited from negotiating with the Raiders until something is resolved with the Southern California city of Irwindale, which had engineering and environmental problems with its potential stadium location, to where the Raiders are considering moving.

“I have not talked with Al Davis, at all,” he said, adding the Oakland stadium already has plans for new luxury boxes and more seating, which was not available when the Raiders left.

The Raiders rarely sell out the 93,000-seat Los Angeles Coliseum, and have to compete with the Los Angeles Rams, who play in nearby Anaheim, for attention. Vucasin says fan support in Oakland is coming from the East Bay areas, which don’t include the same fans who traditionally support the Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers.

“I’d love to see them back in Oakland Alameda County Stadium,” Vucasin said. “They left eight years ago, but I’ve only been with the board five years. I’d do anything I can as president of the Coliseum board, if I had any indication that’s what Al Davis wanted, to make it work. I can say this: The community still supports the Raiders, and a package would be in place.”

Oakland also is seeking an expansion team--the reason stadium improvements are already planned.

As for the spring league, many in the NFL, especially Schramm and Rozelle, would like to get the wheels turning as soon as possible. Schramm says fielding teams in the spring of 1990 is possible.

Half the teams would be based in the United States, half overseas. New YorkNew Jersey, Chicago and Los Angeles are virtually must American cities, as is London abroad. Milan, Frankfurt and a major city in Ireland likely are other sites.

Corporate ownership, not allowed in the NFL, would be encouraged in the spring league. Some believe the newly set 80-man roster limit was more than a measure to keep the richer teams from bringing 140 players to camp. With only 80 players per team under contract, there would be quite a large talent pool available for the international league.

Schramm and Davis were among those who suggested overseas teams years ago. Most of the other owners now have caught up with their thinking, especially now that games will be televised live in Great Britan, on prime time Sunday evenings.

The last days of Rozelle’s tenure hardly will be marked with inactivity. The owners have asked for his input on the selection of a new commissioner. And Rozelle will be very involved with the spring league.

He and the owners will soon begin sifting through the recommendations. Jack Kemp’s name continues to come up, but he has said he is happy with his position in President Bush’s cabinet and is not ready to leave politics. Some people close to the league believe, however, that Kemp would have to seriously consider the position if offered.

More and more, people are mentioning Tagliabue, who would certainly be well-equipped to handle the litigation problems that wore on Rozelle in the last decade.