Beware of NFL Owners Behring Gifts

I’d like to clear something up for Ken Behring, who thinks Seattle fans dislike him because he’s “a rich California developer.” The truth is, Ken, they despise you because you’re a vulgar, deceitful profiteer. The Pacific Northwest rejected you because you lack integrity, a quality most Seahawk fans came to expect from the Nordstrom family.

Your desire to strike a deal with Disney is smart, though. They’ve had remarkable success turning verminous rodents into lovable heroes.

G.A. WARNER

Studio City

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Will somebody explain the L.A. media’s excitement over the Seattle Seahawks’ proposed move to Southern California? This is a horrible team with a horrible owner. What in the world would make you think that people in L.A., Pasadena or Anaheim would support this team?

If the Rams, who had the tradition and nearly 50 years in the area, and the Raiders, with three Super Bowl rings and a major hooligan following, couldn’t make it, why would you think the Seahawks would?

I don’t know anyone who missed the Rams or Raiders this season. I don’t know anyone who knows anyone who would follow this team under whatever name it played. The people in L.A. want their own team! We are more than willing to wait for one.

GENO M. APICELLA

Los Angeles

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As a Seahawk fan since the team’s inception and an L.A. resident for the last eight years, I am totally disgusted that the team is trying to move to Southern California. Ken “Over” Behring, a man who did his best to destroy a classy organization, has forgotten that the Seahawks really belong to Seattle. If they do indeed move here, the people of the Southland should boycott the franchise. No moral person would buy a car if they knew it was stolen. The same applies to football teams.

MARK TURNER

North Hollywood

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Ken, if you’re so concerned about earthquakes, why move to L.A.? Are you nuts? I left L.A. and I’m here to set you straight.

In L.A., there are crack addicts on every corner who will kill you for pocket lint. Because of budget cutbacks, there are no qualified teachers left in the schools, no qualified policemen keeping the peace or experienced doctors in hospitals. They’ve moved on to greener pastures.

Ken, L.A. is so bad, even Al Davis left. Why don’t you consider a safer place to move your franchise--like Bosnia?

HERB GOODE

Burien, Wash.

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Mike Downey is wrong. You can play without the transient mercenaries of the Non-Faithful League. But he is right about one thing. A lot of us are now saying, “The Seahawks? Who needs the Seahawks?”

TODD SANDERS

Riverside

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If Dick Riordan and John Ferraro allow Behring to pull this one off, a proper name for the team would be the Los Angeles Gulls--not as in sea gulls, but in gullible.

PAUL GUZMAN

Santa Fe Springs

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Let’s call our new team the Los Angeles Dodgers, complete with blue helmets and the familiar white interlocking “LA” logo on the sides. Give Raul Mondesi a tryout at tailback.

STUART WEISS

Los Angeles

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If the team moves to Orange County, call it the Orange County Bankrupts.

If the team moves to Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Traitors.

The most appropriate name, considering the reports that the mayor of Seattle called Behring, begging him to stay, and Behring did not return his call:

The Los Angeles Agents.

ALLEN LEVY

Chapman

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After watching Behring operate here for the last eight or nine years and seeing great football towns like Cleveland and L.A. lose their teams, I have washed my hands of the NFL. Paul Tagliabue has no authority over the sport he is entrusted with, and no one--the owners, the fans and cities like yours--has the backbone to say, “No. Enough is enough.”

I won’t miss the football team Behring brought to Seattle. To the memories of the real Seahawks (Largent, Warner, Krieg, Zorn and others), I bid a sad farewell. To Ken Behring, I say, ‘Get lost.’ And to you, Los Angeles, as you welcome him with open arms, I say, ‘Don’t be fooled by his charm, if for some weird reason you see it that way. He will stick it to you whenever and however he can.’ Good luck in dealing with the quintessential slime of slime.

MARK FIFE

Gig Harbor, Wash.

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Since moving to Seattle from L.A. in 1988, I’ve seen a proud Seahawk franchise become a rundown shell of what it once was on the field, largely through poor front-office moves on the part of ownership.

I submit to Southland fans that your suspicions about this man--Mr. Ken Behring--are well founded. Just look at what he has accomplished in the seven or eight years of ownership. Nothing good, that’s for sure.

You folks would be well advised to bide your time for Peter O’Malley to step forward with a new franchise or live to regret letting this Behring inside your gates.

J.R. SMITH

Redmond, Wash.

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If the Seattle Seahawks actually do sign an agreement with Anaheim, it will be a slap in the face to Los Angeles football fans!

Anaheim is more than 30 miles from Los Angeles and in another county altogether. The Rams had total chutzpah calling themselves the “Los Angeles Rams” after moving there, and the Seahawks would be no different if they do.

Los Angeles needs a professional football team, playing in Los Angeles! The Coliseum, the Rose Bowl or Dodger Stadium, for example. Not a distant suburb with little relationship to the city.

DON WEINMAN

Culver City

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Behring is erring.

DAVID PAGE

Ventura