Kiam Says to Expect Changes : NFL: Patriot owner makes a front-office appointment. Tagliabue requests that he hold off on any suspensions or firings in wake of harassment charges.

New England Patriot owner Victor Kiam, who Sunday promised “mammoth changes” in the club’s management in the wake of allegations by a female reporter that she was sexually harassed by players in the locker room, made one move almost immediately.

Bob Lobel of WBZ-TV in Boston said Kiam told reporters in the Foxboro Stadium press box Sunday that Bob Romano will become the club’s vice president of finance and team operations, a new position. Romano is a top executive with Remington Products, Kiam’s Connecticut-based shaver company.

The status of Patriot General Manager Patrick Sullivan was unclear, although Kiam said: “I never told him he was dismissed.”

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, appearing on NBC-TV, said he had talked with Kiam and told him not to suspend or fire anyone in the Patriots’ organization until the league conducts a complete investigation.

Tagliabue said a special counsel would be appointed today to “investigate this fully, clearly and objectively.”

Despite making the Romano appointment, Kiam said: “There will be no changes now until the resolution (of the investigation).

“But there’s got to be a different setup in the way we handle flow of information. Until the investigation proves whatever it does prove, then some decision will be made in the instance of any individual who failed to live up to . . . reasonable attention to what was a very serious issue.”

Sullivan said he would cooperate with the investigation. Sullivan, 37, has been the Patriots’ general manager since 1983. His father, Bill Sullivan Jr., was awarded the franchise in 1959.

Kiam bought the Patriots from Sullivan in October, 1988, and Patrick Sullivan stayed on as general manager. Romano aided Kiam in purchasing the Patriots.

Appearing on NBC, CBS and ESPN Sunday, Kiam said he was misled “by my own people” about the incident, and he again offered his apologies to Boston Herald reporter Lisa Olson.

Olson claims that on Sept. 17 several Patriot players made lewd comments while she was conducting postgame interviews in the locker room. Kiam first brushed aside the comments, saying “it was a flyspeck in the ocean.”

A Patriot player, Zeke Mowatt, reportedly was fined $2,000 in connection with the incident.

Olson, who also appeared on television Sunday, said Kiam’s apology “was a start.”

Kiam placed full-page advertisements Sunday in Boston and New York newspapers. The ads said that “There’s no excuse for what happened in the locker room.” Kiam also asserted, “I never called Lisa Olson a (derogatory remark).”

After the incident received national attention, Kiam was reported to have called Olson a “classic bitch” in the locker room after a game Sept. 23.

Kiam denied he used those words, and the newspaper ads quoted three university officials who say they stood next to Kiam and did not hear him use those words about Olson.

Kiam said he was upset he didn’t find out about the Sept. 17 incident until the following Saturday.

However, Kiam said, “He (Sullivan) had very good arguments to why he hadn’t done it,” including a statement that he had been talking with the Boston Herald to resolve the situation before telling the owner.

Kiam said on NBC, the controversy “is a grievous injury to a lovely young lady. Lisa Olson is a lady. Lisa Olson was assigned a responsibility. She was carrying out her responsibility. The statements that I made were based on information forwarded to me from personnel of the Patriots.”

Kiam had accused Olson of misconduct in other NFL locker rooms, such as following a player into the shower area. Kiam said Sunday that person was not Olson.

The Boston chapter of the National Organization of Women has condemned the actions of the Patriots and of Kiam and suggested that women boycott products made by Remington.

Kiam said he issued an apology to Olson last week “before any boycott was mentioned.”

Kiam said he faxed her an apology last Tuesday, and later met with her. “What was wrong--and let me tell you this, in life this is so important--what was wrong was that we didn’t communicate,” he said.

Olson said the players involved in the incident should be identified. But when asked by NBC’s Bob Costas to do so herself, she said she could not, saying, “I didn’t look up.”

Olson said the incident went beyond “boys will be boys, it was premeditated. It was the most disgusting, humiliating thing I’ve ever gone through in my life.”

Robert Sales, executive sports editor of the paper, said he would discuss a possible reassignment for Olson, leaving the decision to her.

“Unfortunately, the facts of life as far as the Patriots are concerned are Lisa Olson has become the story. I will ask Lisa how she feels about covering guys who have brutalized her,” Sales said Sunday. “Switching her to the Celtics is an option. We will decide that at the proper time.”