NFL MEETINGS : Vote Is Scheduled Today on Moving Super Bowl XXVII

Commissioner Paul Tagliabue has recommended a California site for the 1993 Super Bowl and drew a distinction between two ongoing civil rights controversies in Los Angeles and Phoenix.

Tagliabue, reporting to the NFL’s club owners Monday, says he favors taking the game out of Phoenix because Arizona “has become a national civil rights battleground” after its citizens voted against an annual Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

“I don’t see that emerging in Los Angeles,” he said.

Outlining the league’s position, Tagliabue said it deplores the Los Angeles incident, in which a black motorist was beaten when the police caught him, but regards it as a Los Angeles issue.

By contrast, he views the Phoenix controversy as a national issue.

“We’re not saying anything negative about Arizona,” Tagliabue said. “We’ll still hold league meetings in Arizona. But our showcase game shouldn’t be a political target. We should remove it from political controversy.”

Tagliabue’s role in this instance is merely advisory. The 28 club owners will make the final decision this afternoon. A year ago, they awarded Super Bowl XXVII to Phoenix for Jan. 31, 1993. And Phoenix is still theoretically in the running with both the Los Angeles area, which wants the game in the Rose Bowl, and San Diego.

“We’re disappointed in (Tagliabue’s) position,” said Joe Rhein, the Phoenix Cardinals’ vice president. “We may have only a slim chance to change it, but we have to seize it.”

Mayor Tom Bradley will head the delegation that makes the Los Angeles area case today.

A two-team expansion of the NFL is possible in 1993, Tagliabue said, regardless of whether the players and owners have signed a collective bargaining agreement by then.

He listed four or five things as more important than a labor agreement in expansion planning. All were fiscally related, TV revenue sharing among them.

The argument over how long to wait for the Super Bowl--one week after the conference title games or two--seems to be temporarily moot.

TV and scheduling commitments have dictated a two-week break before the Minneapolis Super Bowl next Jan. 26 and a one-week wait before Super Bowl XXVII on Jan. 31, 1993.

A date has not been set for the 1994 Super Bowl in Atlanta, which will follow a 16-game, 18-week regular season. With a two-week break, the season would either have to start in August or end in February.

This year it will start Sept. 1. There will be 16 games in 17 weeks.

Next year there will be 16 games in 18 weeks starting Sept. 6.

Bob Tisch, the New York financier whose purchase of a 50% interest in the New York Giants was approved this week, said he told the other club owners that as a club executive, he would not become involved in any NFL broadcast matters.

Tisch’s company, Loews Corp., owns 22.9% of CBS, where his brother Laurence is the chief executive officer.