NFL Meetings : Rozelle Appoints New Search Committee--and Al Davis Is on It

The National Football League search committee that unanimously recommended New Orleans Saints’ executive Jim Finks to replace Pete Rozelle as commissioner was dissolved Wednesday and replaced with a new one that includes Al Davis, owner of the Raiders.

Pete Rozelle, the outgoing commissioner, appointed the new committee to either recommend new candidates or ratify the original committee finalists as soon as possible.

How soon will that be?

“I’ll be home for Christmas,” said Rozelle, who is building a new residence in San Diego.

The change in the bitterly divided NFL was interpreted as a boost for the candidacy of Finks, 61, the general manager of the Saints.

At the NFL’s election meeting here July 6 he got the votes of four of the six new committeemen--Davis, Wellington Mara of the New York Giants, Lamar Hunt of Kansas City and John Kent Cooke of Washington, who, as Jack Kent Cooke’s son, is the executive vice president of the Redskins.

Moreover, the NFL’s 11 dissident owners--those who have been blocking Finks’ election--voted Wednesday to disband.

Presumably, they will stop troubling the majority owners because one of their demands has been met with the appointment of two members of their faction to the new search committee.

The two are Mike Lynn of Minnesota and Ken Behring of Seattle--whose disappointment with the original search committee started last March when, after Rozelle retired, the committee was recruited from the ranks of old-guard owners exclusively.

Lynn, conceivably, will provide a fifth committee vote for Finks, who was a Lynn associate on the Vikings in the 1970s. As a leader of the dissidents, Lynn was not against Finks but the methods of his selection.

So is Finks’ hiring a virtual certainty?

Victor Kiam, new owner of the New England Patriots, is among those who think so.

Though Kiam voted against him earlier this month, he said after Wednesday’s meeting: “I’d say Jim Finks is the odds-on favorite now. Keep in mind that he got 16 (of the required 19) votes last time.”

Other NFL associates are not that certain. They expressed some doubt that Finks will be named at the next election meeting, which is expected to be held in August.

For one thing, the new committee plans to recommend more than one candidate. It wants to givethe 28 owners at least three choices.

Furthermore, many dissidents have been lobbying for an extended search for candidates from outside of professional football.

Said a spokesman for Norman Braman of Philadelphia, a dissident leader who is on a long-planned visit with relatives in France: “What we really want is to take a good look at all possible (candidates) in all fields. We aren’t against Finks. We’re for making absolutely sure that there isn’t (a better candidate).”

Third, and perhaps more significant, it is unclear whether Davis will continue to support Finks.

Although the Raider owner was not available for comment after his appointment, he has a history of voting against his own self interest on key issues if league interests are, in his view, dominant.

Thus as a member of the competition committee in the 1970s, Davis voted to curtail bump-and-run defense despite the fact that his stand damaged the Raiders.

“This is best for the league,” he said then.

So Davis cannot be counted on to rubber stamp Finks. And without Davis’ support, Finks’ main boosters, Mara and Hunt, could be a committee minority.

“I don’t think anything is certain,” said Ralph Wilson of Buffalo, a member of the original committee.

Said Art Modell of Cleveland, a Finks’ supporter who was also a member of the first committee: “I can’t predict what will happen--but in all this time, in all these meetings, I haven’t heard another name.”

The dissidents discussed many names this week, but disbanded without proposing anyone.

“There’ll be no more bloc voting,” said Jerry Jones of Dallas, one of the dissidents.

There were, however, grumbles from some. They wanted equal representation on the search committee, with three old-guard voters instead of four.

They were simply outmaneuvered by Rozelle.

The man who is in his 30th year as commissioner appointed only two committees Wednesday, and Davis, his Raider antagonist in so many recent years, was on both.

Rozelle made Davis a member of both the search committee and the expanded international league committee.

The NFL owners voted, 27-1, to launch the international league under the direction of Tex Schramm, the former Dallas Cowboy president, in either 1990 or 1991.

The time-frame determination will be made, Rozelle said, by the new international committee--whose seven members are Davis, Kiam, Lynn, Braman, Hunt, Dan Rooney of Pittsburgh and Tom Benson of New Orleans.

Said Schramm: “We’re ready to go in both Europe and America with a 10-week, 12-team season starting next March.”

Davis hasn’t been on an NFL board for 12 years, since Rozelle kicked him off the competition committee in 1977 during the Raider lawsuit against the league.