Berwanger’s Salary Demand Was Too Much

The NFL draft might be as illegal as bathtub moonshine, but you can’t say the last 55 years haven’t been a kick.

The April 26 incarnation could well be the last NFL draft as we know it, as a June 15 trial date looms in Minneapolis to determine the legality of restricted free agency and the annual NFL auction.

The first NFL draft was held Feb. 8, 1936, in part because Bert Bell, owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, was tired of the richer teams--New York Giants, Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers--getting all the good players.

Bell proposed that the team with the poorest record receive the first pick in a slotted selection of college players.

It so happened the Eagles had the worst record that year and selected with the first pick Jay Berwanger, the Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Chicago.

Typical of first picks, the halfback Berwanger played hard ball in contract negotiations. The Eagles, unable to sign him, traded Berwanger’s rights to Chicago.

George Halas, the Bears’ owner, had no luck either. Berwanger would not waver on his demands. Halas, stubborn himself, refused to pay the ridiculous sum and Berwanger went into the business world having never tested his considerable football talent.

Berwanger was asking for $10,000 per season.

Add Berwanger: Last year’s top pick, defensive lineman Russell Maryland, amicably agreed to a five-year, $7.9-million contract with the Dallas Cowboys.

No guarantees: The NFL moved the draft from the winter to the spring in 1976, figuring the extra time would allow teams to better evaluate talent and make more intelligent first-round selections.

The idea looked good on paper.

Under this format in 1987, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took Miami quarterback Vinny Testaverde with the first pick. In 1988, linebacker Aundray Bruce was the first player chosen by the Atlanta Falcons.

And then there’s Tony Mandarich to consider. The Green Bay Packers made him the second overall pick in 1989 and, three years later, Mandarich has yet to play up to his potential.

Trivia Time: Who holds the professional football record for most passing yardage in a career?

Timber!Singer Kenny Rogers has an an 18-hole golf course on his 1,200-acre farm northwest of Athens, Ga. Naturally, when the course is in your back yard, you make the ground rules.

Mike Purkey writes in Golf magazine that during a recent round, Rogers’ second shot at the par-four 15th came to rest against a Japanese maple tree.

“This tree may not be here tomorrow,” Rogers said.

Purkey writes that Rogers wasn’t kidding, noting that the singer once used a tree-spade device that can unearth and remove a 40-foot tree in 30 minutes.

“Hey, it’s his course. He can do whatever he wants,” Purkey writes.

Trivia answer: Ron Lancaster of the Canadian Football League. He threw for 50,535 yards in a 19-year career. The NFL record-holder is Fran Tarkenton with 47,003 career passing yards.

Quotebook: George Bell on phoning home after going from the Cubs to the White Sox: “I’ve got my 9-year-old on one extension and my 11-year-old on the other and I’m trying to explain that I’ve just been traded from Chicago to Chicago.”