NFL Fines Patriots in Harassment Case : Pro football: Kiam, the club and three players are told to pay a total of $72,500.

The National Football League fined the New England Patriots $72,500 Tuesday for sexual harassment of Boston Herald sportswriter Lisa Olson, penalizing the club $50,000 and three players a total of $22,500.

Although he suspended no one, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said the players were guilty of harassing Olson Sept. 17 and that the club “appeared to condone the misconduct.”

The principals all refused to speak for the record but one source said that others in the league concluded quickly that the fines were surprisingly modest. In TV revenue alone, the Patriots are averaging $30 million annually, and NFL players’ salaries average $400,000.

Tagliabue said he was dividing the $72,500 in fines as follows:

--Victor K. Kiam II, club owner, $25,000.

--Zeke Mowatt, Patriot tight end, $12,500.

--Michael Timpson, cornerback, $5,000.

--Robert Perryman, a Patriot running back last September, now with the Dallas Cowboys, $5,000.

In addition, the club has been assessed $25,000 to provide a wider range of print and videotape materials for NFL personnel advising “responsible dealings with the media.”

Among the players, Mowatt’s fine was the largest, Tagliabue said, because “his conduct involved both verbal and demonstrative actions” when “two or three players . . . paused and ‘modeled’ themselves briefly (near Olson).”

The quotes are from special counsel Philip Heymann’s 60-page report, which Tagliabue endorsed.

“We believe Olson’s account,” Heymann, a Harvard law school professor, said in his report.

Mowatt’s account, he added, “is not credible.”

Continuing, Heymann, who in the 1970s was a Watergate prosecutor, said: “Nine of the (70) people interviewed saw (Mowatt) walk toward (Olson in the locker room). . . .

“Other players were laughing (and shouting) in the background. . . . (There was) a good deal of responsive banter. One player estimated that at least 10 players were involved in (the) joking concerning (Olson’s) presence down by the shower. . . .

“No one tried to bring the humiliating activity around Lisa Olson to a stop. Neither players nor management personnel said or did anything (to stop it).”

Heymann was unavailable for comment. So were Kiam, Olson, Tagliabue and the players. Prepared statements by all were faxed to the press.

A Patriot spokesman said that Kiam, who reportedly has threatened to fire some of his employees in connection with the charges and the investigation, will have “no more comments today, tomorrow or next week.”

In his one-paragraph statement, Kiam said: “The Patriots will certainly abide by (Tagliabue’s) judgments. We regret that the incident occurred. The team and I previously expressed our apologies and we repeat them once again.”

Said Olson: “My satisfaction with the investigation and subsequent sanctions is surpassed only by my wish the disgraceful incident had never occurred in the first place.”

Tagliabue, in a letter to Kiam, said: “This entire episode was distasteful, unnecessary and damaging to the league and others. . . . There was a serious lack of direction, control and supervision by the Patriots. . . .

“(Heymann’s) report is thorough and balanced. . . . The Patriots’ organization and its players have learned a hard lesson.”

The Assn. for Women in Sports Media, in a statement by its president, Michele Himmelberg of the Orange County Register, said: “(The) penalties should send a clear message to every coach and athlete: Sexual harassment will not be tolerated in the NFL.”

Members of the association, however, as well as many male reporters throughout the country, were reportedly disturbed by the comparatively small fines.

But in her statement, Himmelberg said: “AWSM is less concerned (with the size of) the penalties than we are with the message they deliver.”

Heymann said in his report, which included many pages of earthy locker-room dialogue, that the harassment incident began when Olson sought to interview Maurice Hurst after a Patriot practice.

“Olson (was) crouching directly in front of Hurst ‘like a baseball catcher,’ in the words of one player. At some point, Olson sat down on the floor while in that location.

“In both instances, Olson was keeping her back to the general locker-room population.

“A number of players commented to each other that Olson was crouching or sitting on the floor rather than standing or sitting on the bench.”

That started it all, according to the report, which continues: “When (Patriot publicist) James Oldham arrived in the locker room and saw Olson seated on the floor, he approached her and whispered, ‘Stand up, Lisa,’ because he thought it was inappropriate for her to sit on the floor.

“She then moved to the bench and sat to the right of Hurst (and) continued the interview facing Hurst (and) the shower room entryway. There was no room on the bench on the other side of Hurst, facing away from the showers.

“At least 22 players saw (her there). A number of them commented (on) her presence near the . . . shower entry.”

The harassment followed.