Staubach Appeals to Bush : Ex-Grid Star Fears Eastern Is Doomed

Pro football Hall of Famer Roger Staubach has expressed concern to President Bush about the Eastern Airlines strike and bankruptcy reorganization, warning that continued sales of Eastern assets could bring the airline’s eventual demise.

In a letter to Bush dated Aug. 1, the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback asked that a meeting be set up as soon as possible between representatives of the Eastern pilots union and Roger Porter, Bush’s domestic policy adviser.

Staubach wrote that his interest in the Eastern situation stemmed from his personal relationships with many striking Eastern pilots. He said that group includes the best man at his wedding, football teammates and classmates at the U.S. Naval Academy, where Staubach also was a quarterback.

From his conversations with those friends and from “all other accounts,” Staubach wrote, “it is obvious that the Eastern situation is far more than a traditional labor-management dispute. It goes to the very root of the free enterprise system within our country.”

Eastern spokesman Robin Matell in Miami said he had no comment on Staubach’s letter or speculation that the former football player might get involved in making a buyout offer for the company.

Staubach, who runs a commercial real estate company in Dallas, did not immediately return a call seeking comment today. It was not immediately clear whether Staubach’s interest in Eastern could extend to a possible bid for the crippled airline.

Another sports figure, former Baseball Commissioner Peter V. Ueberroth, made a buyout bid for Eastern in partnership with the unions in early April. But the takeover agreement between Ueberroth and Frank Lorenzo, chairman of Eastern’s parent Texas Air Corp., later fell apart over the unions’ demand that Lorenzo be removed from daily control of the airline.