Fans Must Ask: Would We Buy a Used Team From This Man?

So, the once-proud drifter that is the NFL has returned to our front door.

Pockets out. Hat in hand. Smelling like a three-days-dead salmon.

So he wants a big hug, does he?

Sorry. We know his kind.

Al Davis asked us for a big hug once too.

Today we have Ken Behring. Real estate developer, automobile investor and further proof that an NFL team can be owned by a person with the physical and mental makeup of a jelly doughnut.

He comes here clutching a team freshly swiped from Seattle, a city that was once pro football’s finest. Not that he would know.

When the Seahawks were making the playoffs, setting attendance records and making the league consider noise rules during the mid-1980s, Behring was somewhere building houses that all look alike and collecting expensive old cars.

Since buying the team before the 1988 season, this big-money guy has led them to five losing seasons in eight years.

So now he’s here. Holding something hot. Looking for a fence.

He disgusts us.

But we will invite him inside.

Because we aren’t stupid.

His team, after all, means local jobs. It means local income. It means good local entertainment.

Pro football has become our national pastime. And look at some of the people the Seahawks will bring to town with them this fall.

The Green Bay Packers will come to the Los Angeles area for the first time in five years. The former Seahawks also play host to the Buffalo Bills in their first visit here in four years.

Then there are the AFC West teams we love to hate--the Kansas City Chiefs, Denver Broncos, San Diego Chargers.

And, of course, that bunch from Oakland. Think of the mayhem.

And that’s only in the parking lot.

Football is back, and for that, we should cheer.

Just not for this team, whatever it will be called.

Not until it earns it.

Cheer instead for the wonders of Packer quarterback Brett Favre, for the resilience of Bill quarterback Jim Kelly, for the miracle that is an 88-yard touchdown pass play from somebody to anybody.

We should think of this team as we think of a new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical in town.

Enjoy the costumes, tap to the music, soak in the scenery.

Just don’t put any theater posters on your wall, or T-shirts in your drawer.

Just don’t fall in love.

Because the show will move. It always does.

This is what the NFL has become.

The cherished family heirloom is now peddled off wooden slabs at discount clubs.

We will watch the former Seahawks. But the entire time, our fingers will be on the remote.

“The whole thing is crashing,” said Roger Headrick, chief executive officer of the Minnesota Vikings. “We are disenfranchising ourselves from our fans.

“The owners have got to say, ‘Look, what are we doing? We’re killing our game.’ ”

There have been five franchise moves in the last year. Four of them were in direct violation of league guidelines.

Then there is Behring, who violates those guidelines twice.

Not only does his successful franchise not have the right to move under old league rules, he is also supposed to receive league permission to enter the Los Angeles market under a recently passed proposal.

A proposal that Behring approved.

Yet his team will be kicking off in the Southland next fall because if Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said he had “no position” on the Browns’ leaving Cleveland, why would he possibly discover courage with something less traditional?

Los Angeles is an expansion market, not a relocation market. Look at the success of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, and the failure of Al Davis’ Mighty Dogs.

Los Angeles has no problem waiting three or four years for that expansion to happen, judging from the tepid response to a no-football fall this year.

But now we are being fed something entirely different. Hopefully, we have not lost our taste.

The former Seahawks have mostly nice guys in the locker room, and great folks in the front office, including publicity and community services departments that may be the league’s best.

But Los Angeles may never love this team.

Because Los Angeles will never trust Ken Behring.

And as blameless as the players and coaches are in this move, Los Angeles will cut them no slack.

When quarterback Rick Mirer has his first bad game--he had about 16 of them last year--he will hear boos.

When receiver Joey Galloway drops a pass, he will be ridiculed.

When venerable defensive back Eugene Robinson is beaten, we will notice.

Coach Dennis Erickson has been put in the unenviable position of turning an 8-8 team into a big winner. Now.

Bad enough that Behring is bringing some other city’s team into our home. How dare he make a mess!

That said, pro football is back, and we should be happy. Bloody, bloody football.