NFL May Have Its Man, and Not Know It

For better or worse, the National Football League committee searching for the next Pete Rozelle hopes to find him tonight.

Only it won’t know--for sure--that he’s the one.

At this stage, the next commissioner will merely be classed with eight or 10 other finalists, Wellington Mara, co-chairman of the search committee, said Monday.

“We’ll get the final group down (from nearly 50 candidates) when the committee meets (tonight) in New Orleans,” said Mara, president of the New York Giants.

“We’re going into this meeting with fewer than 10 names. And we expect that there will be fewer than 10 (others) submitted by the professional search firm that’s working with us.

“There won’t be any new candidates after (today).

“I can’t get into names or exact numbers, but we’ve asked the search firm (Heidrick and Struggles) to evaluate them all. Next, after we choose the (finalists), the search firm and perhaps some (NFL people) will interview them all.

“Then the committee will make one or two or three recommendations to the clubs at a special election meeting. If we stay on target, the election will be next month.”

The search committee members have agreed to mention no names but other NFL people say former Congressman Jack Kemp is still the front-runner.

“Kemp is the one candidate who would have a chance to get quick approval,” one source said. “Kemp has no enemies.

“But he personalizes the dilemma facing the owners. On the one hand, you’ve got to have something on the ball to get as far as he has--powerful congressman, (Republican) candidate for president, secretary of housing and urban development.

“On the other hand, what do we really know about Jack Kemp? You don’t know anybody until you know them--you personally see how quick they are.

“The league is totally flying in the dark in this. I don’t care how careful you are, you could make a whale of a mistake.”

The only in-house candidate seems to be Jim Finks, the general manager of the New Orleans Saints, and at 62, Finks is Rozelle’s age.

The only other candidate with NFL connections is Washington lawyer Paul Tagliabue, who often represents the league.

There is a possibility that more than one man will be chosen, as co-commissioner or a commissioner and one or two deputy commissioners, because there is a consensus in the league that the job has become too much for one man.

Other business to be considered will include the new 80-player roster limit and the direction of the NFL’s new international league.

More than half the clubs are concerned about the roster limit, which they say should be lifted to a more realistic 85 or more. An effort will be made to raise it.

The Worldwide American Football League, as the new league is being called by Commissioner Tex Schramm, has caused a bit of a split. Some NFL club owners want the WAFL to be an NFL subsidiary. Others want WAFL investors to be individual NFL club owners, not the NFL itself.