‘Red October’ Author In Hunt for Rams : Football: Best-selling writer Tom Clancy, a Baltimore-born football fan, is willing to spend millions in helping the effort to put an NFL team back in his hometown.

His bid for Patriot games fell short, but author Tom Clancy is still in the hunt for a blue-and-gold October--and September, November and December, for that matter.

Had former New England Patriots owner James Orthwein not kept his promise to give local investors the first chance to buy his team, Clancy might not be pursuing the Rams today.

But the Patriots were sold to Foxboro Stadium owner Robert Kraft for $155 million in January, even though Clancy’s group reportedly offered several million more to buy the team and move it to Hartford, Conn.

“It’s a shame from my point of view because it was a sweetheart deal,” said Clancy, who has reached the top of the New York Times bestseller list with all seven of his novels. “But (Orthwein) is an honorable man and did the honorable thing . . . damn!”

You can feel the passion for football in Clancy’s voice. He’s a minority owner of the Baltimore Orioles, but baseball hasn’t quenched his thirst for sports.

That’s why Clancy has joined Oriole owner Peter Angelos in an effort to purchase a minority interest in the Rams and move them to Baltimore. The group also is negotiating with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“Football is my first love,” said Clancy, who was born in Baltimore the same year (1947) the Colts began play in the NFL. “I didn’t miss a Colts game growing up, and I wasn’t real pleased when they left (for Indianapolis in 1984). I had just gotten my dad’s season tickets.”

As a fourth-grader, Clancy used to attend the same Mass at St. Matthew’s Catholic Church as Hall-of-Fame Colt quarterback Johnny Unitas. He still has vivid memories of watching the storied 1958 NFL championship game on television, when Alan Ameche scored on a goal-line plunge to give the Colts a 23-17 overtime victory over the New York Giants.

“It was 40 degrees and overcast that day in Baltimore,” Clancy said. “I remember it well.”

He’s willing to pay millions to create more football memories by luring an NFL team to Baltimore, where a new $160-million stadium in Camden Yards and, Clancy believes, unparalleled support awaits.

Asked if an NFL team would be successful in Baltimore, Clancy replied: “Does the sun rise in the East? These people want football. Baltimore has always been a good football town. Robert Irsay (Colt owner who moved the team) destroyed that, but enlightened management shouldn’t have any trouble selling the place out.”

Clancy, whose credits include techno-thrillers such as “The Hunt for Red October,” “Patriot Games” and “Red Storm Rising,” didn’t play football as a youth.

“I wasn’t big enough,” he said. “And I was a crummy baseball player, too.”

But like so many Baltimore fans, Clancy, 47, developed a fierce loyalty to the Colts and a strong attachment to football, bonds that continue to motivate him.

With the commercial success of his novels, several of which were made into movies, Clancy has all the money he could ever want. But he won’t be truly happy until the NFL returns to Baltimore.

“I don’t ever want to be satisfied with anything,” said Clancy, whose next book, “Debt of Honor,” is due out in August. “If you’re not trying to move forward, do better, you’re dead. Progress is based on dissatisfaction, so from that standpoint, I’m somewhat dissatisfied.”

So is Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke, who believes an NFL team in Baltimore would impinge on his plans to build a new stadium in Laurel, Md., about 20 miles south of Baltimore.

Cooke has said he needs the corporate support of both Baltimore and Washington to fill 300 luxury suites proposed in the Laurel stadium, but Clancy believes the Redskin owner is targeting the wrong market.

“I once said I’d rather sell my children to Gypsies than let them be Redskin fans,” Clancy said. “That’s pretty much how people here feel. For them, the Redskins don’t exist. For Cooke’s own business purposes, I think he’s making a mistake. He has a lot more fans in Virginia than he does in Maryland.”

Clancy and Angelos expect Cooke to lobby against Baltimore as a relocation site, and if such a move isn’t approved by three-fourths of NFL owners, an ugly legal battle, such as the one Al Davis fought to move his Raiders from Oakland to Los Angeles, could ensue.

But to Clancy, neither Cooke nor the NFL poses a clear and present danger.

“Peter Angelos is one of the premier trial attorneys in the U.S.,” Clancy said. “If anyone wants to drag him into court, that’s like dragging a tiger out of a cage. It’s a low-percentage move.”