PRO FOOTBALL : Finks Says Tagliabue Needs Work on PR

A year ago this week, Jim Finks, the pro football veteran who as president of the New Orleans Saints has run the franchise since the middle ‘80s, was apparently on his way to a bigger job--running the NFL.

On the last ballot, though, Paul Tagliabue edged him, putting Finks in a role as observer instead of manager.

His assessment Monday of the man who beat him:

--Tagliabue is doing an outstanding job on the issues.

--The commissioner has plenty to learn about public relations.

“We’re all impressed with the energy and ability that Paul has shown in trying circumstances,” Finks said. “He’s really getting his arm around the job.

“The one thing he has to learn he will learn--that everything a commissioner says is news. There’s no such thing as a throwaway line by an NFL commissioner.”

Finks was referring to, among other things, three recent Tagliabue remarks delivered in a spirit of optimism and openness.

The commissioner said that:

--The NFL’s owners could have a new collective bargaining agreement with the players before the season ends.

--The league could expand from 28 to, say, 30 teams in the absence of a collective bargaining agreement.

--It could expand to Canada someday.

Such comments have generated dismay and dissent, requiring Tagliabue to change or modify his original positions.

“Our Canadian friends were on my phone within an hour after they heard (Tagliabue),” Finks said, noting that the owners of Canadian Football League teams want their country’s largest cities to stay in their own league, not jump to the NFL.

As for pro football’s labor problem, the NFL’s owners say they haven’t talked at all to the players lately about a collective bargaining agreement. Most owners, moreover, don’t want to expand without one.

“Pete (Rozelle) was awfully gifted at seeming to say a lot while actually saying almost nothing,” Finks said, referring to Tagliabue’s public relations-minded predecessor.

“(Otherwise), I have been personally impressed by Paul’s fast start. The thing we like about him is that he is very responsive to league problems.”

Mike Buck played his college football at the University of Maine, which is hardly an NFL factory. But Buck is the Saints’ future, they’re saying here.

A rookie quarterback who stands 6 feet 3 and weighs 227, he apparently has the arm strength and accuracy the club needs to make a Super Bowl move someday.

“Mike is the first qualified young prospect the Saints have had since we’ve been here,” said Finks, the club president and a former NFL quarterback himself.

“But give him two years. I like to give any young quarterback a couple of years before you expect too much of him.”

So it will be at least that long before the Saints are a championship contender. With their present cast they can win games but not Super Bowls.

Six highly regarded teams might have seriously damaged their playoff chances Sunday by blowing their opening games.

Few NFL teams win division titles after losing on opening day.

That was notably true last season--and also the year before--when the six division champions each year all won the first week.

In fact, since the league’s 16-game schedule began in 1978, only 33 of 154 opening-day losers have made the playoffs.

Among Sunday’s losers were six preseason favorites: Minnesota, Philadelphia, Denver, Houston, San Diego and the Rams.

Among the winners were six teams that now have better chances: Washington, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Kansas City, the New York Giants and the Raiders.

On a day when the Chicago Bears’ defense made Coach Mike Ditka a 17-0 winner over Seattle, the NFL’s two run-and-shoot teams, Detroit and Houston, lost.

“You’ve still got to have a tight end to win in this league,” said Ditka, an old tight end himself. “The run and shoot will never make a believer of me until they win consistently.”

That is the Establishment view in the NFL. And in the first of 17 weeks of 1990 pro football, it seemed clear to all the old pros in the country that what beat Detroit and Houston was their tight end void.

There was considerable evidence Sunday, however, that it wasn’t that. It wasn’t the run-and-shoot machinery that broke down.

The more probable reasons:

--In Atlanta, where the Falcons won, 47-27, Coach Jerry Glanville was lucky to catch the Oilers on opening day, before they could sort out all the blocking variances of their run and shoot.

What’s more, any of the four Houston fumbles that moved Atlanta to its quick 24-0 lead could have happened--they have often happened on other days--in the I-formation, or the single wing or anything else.

When not fumbling, Houston quarterback Warren Moon led all of Sunday’s NFL passers with 397 yards and threw four times for touchdowns.

--In Detroit, where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won, 38-21, quarterback Vinny Testaverde finally played the game his admirers have been awaiting for four years.

One explanation is that the Buccaneers are finally teaming him with an extraordinary talent, former Charger runner-receiver Gary Anderson.

Testaverde and Anderson won by keeping the ball away from Detroit’s run and shoot in the last three quarters--holding possession for 30 minutes 49 seconds to Detroit’s 15:21--after quarterback Rodney Peete had marched the Lions 80 and 73 yards to a 14-7 lead in the first quarter.

For the New York Giants, beating the division-rival Philadelphia Eagles proved impossible last year, and also the year before.

After four big games by their quarterback, Randall Cunningham, the Eagles stood 4-0 in their last four against the Giants going into Sunday night’s rematch at East Rutherford, N.J.

But last week the Giants made an inspired move. When the Eagles unloaded backup quarterback Matt Cavanaugh and his $510,000 salary, the Giants promptly signed him.

They gained a prompt dividend on the $510,000, beating the Eagles this time, 27-20.

“If we wanted a spy, we could get one a lot cheaper than that,” Giant General Manager George Young protested.

Cheaper? Sure. But better?

The backup quarterback is the best informed agent on any club, bar the starter, maybe, and a few coaches.

“I’m not naive enough not to know (the Giants) would ask me some questions,” Cavanaugh said.

Cavanaugh is a 13-year pro. The moral for the Eagles, perhaps, is that it would be a good idea next time to dismiss experienced backups before training camp, not after.

Quote Dept.:

David Meggett, the Giants’ 178-pound running back, after his second long punt return in consecutive regular-season games had knocked the Eagles back in the third quarter, 20-10: “I don’t know if it was a turning point, but it put a heavy weight on those guys to carry.”

Lindy Infante, Green Bay coach, on how he got to the Packers: “If I didn’t have two good years as a Cleveland (assistant), I wouldn’t be here. Bernie (Kosar) is probably the reason I have the job.”

Agent Mike Moye after Miami lineman Cortez Kennedy signed with Seattle for a reported $6.5 million for five years, $2.5 million of it as a signing bonus: “(Kennedy) is the highest-paid rookie defensive back in the history of the game.”

Bill Walsh, NBC analyst, on Bear Coach Mike Ditka’s relationships with his players: “You can only be real severe when you know the (players) can do everything you ask. When they (can’t), you have to be real careful of affecting their confidence when shaking them up.”

Steve Kazor, the Bears’ tight end coach, on Ditka: “If I had a dollar for every time (Ditka) cussed me out, I wouldn’t be here. It would be like winning the Lotto.”

Dan Henning, San Diego coach, on the NFL: “Your lock on a job in this league is only as strong as a locksmith’s. A locksmith is a guy who comes in and cuts the lock.”

Don Shula, Miami coach, after running back Sammie Smith had gained 159 yards--behind the blocking of No. 1 draft choice Richmond Webb and No. 2 draft choice Keith Sims--as the Dolphins overcame New England, 27-24: “Our two rookies are going to be extremely good players. I wish that were the biggest of my worries.”