Los Angeles Officials Walk Right Into League’s Trap

The NFL, steeped in the rich tradition of ripping off fans interested in personally viewing its game--e.g. regular ticket prices for exhibition games, exorbitant expansion fees--could not be more pleased with the progress in Los Angeles.

Concerned ever so briefly that the citizens of Los Angeles might be different from football-starved fans in Baltimore, St. Louis and Houston, NFL officials are now confident that the second-largest market will eventually come groveling for football and be willing to pay whatever it takes to get it back.

Los Angeles-area politicians and businessmen, who have rallied around the Coliseum, obliged the NFL by putting on a dog-and-pony show for the owners in New Orleans earlier this week. The Los Angeles delegates--in some cases awed by walking the same corridors as Jerry Jones and Paul Tagliabue--were in a rush to impress the NFL brass with the city’s show of unity and its enthusiastic desire to woo the NFL’s favor.

In such a rush to take advantage of the political unity that was born of deals made in accepting the new arena adjacent to the convention center was the L.A. delegation that it went to New Orleans unprepared to explain how the project would be funded.

Instead of waiting for the NFL to come begging for Los Angeles, the city walked into the NFL’s trap. Politicians and businessmen hung on Pat Bowlen and Bob Kraft and Carmen Policy’s every positive word about the prospects for football again in Los Angeles, and yes sir, they said, whatever we can do to make it happen.

NFL owners, who made Carolina and Jacksonville pay dearly for the privilege of buying personal seat licenses and overpriced tickets, puffed up the L.A. delegation with praise for the “professional presentation,” thereby beginning the teasing process: You do this, and we just might return football to Los Angeles.

Privately, they scoffed at the presentation because it was all show with no substance--no hint of ownership, no talk of public money, no way to generate all the money the NFL will need to return to Los Angeles.

The NFL is in no hurry to return to Los Angeles. It will get what it wants, which will be a record payday. It took 13 years, but Baltimore responded with free cash. It took 11 years, raised and dashed expansion expectations and the building of a new stadium in St. Louis on speculation, and then the Rams still wanted more money.

Cleveland will get its team in 1999 because that city went to war when the Browns left, but as feisty as the Clevelanders were, they are now having to sell luxury boxes and PSLs--three years before the construction of a stadium--to complete the deal with the NFL.

The owners are richer today than ever. New stadium deals in St. Louis, Carolina, Oakland and Jacksonville have already improved their shared-revenue take.

Completed deals for new stadiums in Tampa, Washington, Baltimore and Nashville and an approved stadium expansion in San Diego will pad the coffers in the next few years, and if get-rich schemes in Cincinnati, Detroit, Seattle, Chicago, Denver and New England pan out, Georgia Frontiere can go on one grand shopping spree.

A new TV deal will be struck early next year, and because CBS will reenter the negotiations, the competition will be so intense that no one will dare suggest lower fees because there is no franchise in Los Angeles.

When Peter O’Malley, Dodger owner, expressed interest in building a stadium and owning an NFL franchise, the NFL appeared very interested, but privately there was great concern. Would the NFL be able to exact a $200-million expansion fee from O’Malley if O’Malley were allowed to run unchecked and appear as a hero for bringing football back to Los Angeles?

Ideally, the NFL would like O’Malley, R.D. Hubbard of Hollywood Park and anyone else who appears powerful to compete for the opportunity to bring football back. Then they can award a franchise to the entity willing to pay the most without complaint.

The NFL wants the people of Los Angeles to get excited about football because it will encourage O’Malley and others to work on a new stadium. They want the people to get excited so the corporations step forward later to buy the luxury boxes and club seats.

The NFL has no interest in the Coliseum project. The owners, who are less sophisticated than the NFL’s front office in charge of team movement and not very easily managed, have already dismissed the Coliseum project.

The NFL front office will continue to offer encouragement, though, because that takes care of several things:

--The NFL cannot be considered racist for dismissing the Coliseum because of its neighborhood.

--The NFL can start to whet the appetite of politicians, prospective owners and fans who might see the merit of football returning to L.A.

--There is a hope someone, such as O’Malley again, will emerge as hero from the ashes after the Coliseum project goes up in flames, stronger than ever and now the winner of all that political support that had been there for the Coliseum.

The NFL continues to say football will return to Los Angeles when a new stadium is built--a new stadium that will produce streams of revenue via luxury boxes and club seats for whoever owns the team. A Super Bowl would enhance the chances of a stadium being built, providing the financial mechanism with an owner marketing the Super Bowl in their PSL and luxury box campaign.

But the NFL has already passed out Super Bowls through 2001 and no one is talking Los Angeles in 2002. Los Angeles is supposed to become frustrated and even irritated, like the folks in Baltimore and St. Louis, who to this day dislike Tagliabue. But the strategy works. The people get mad, but they pay . . . whatever it takes.

The NFL is just starting to work in Los Angeles.

EXTRA POINTS

--Dallas running back Emmitt Smith’s longest run this season is 18 yards. That’s the lowest mark among the top 14 rushers in the NFC, and 15 of the top 16 AFC rushers have runs longer than Smith’s.

--Detroit running back Barry Sanders has gone six consecutive games without hitting the 100-yard mark.

--The NFC East was expected to be one of the league’s weakest divisions, but since Sept. 22, the five teams are 15-2 in games against non-division opponents.

--A Philadelphia radio station conducted a nickname contest for quarterback Ty Detmer. The winner? “Pocket Rocky.”

--Two weeks into Cleveland’s new stadium campaign, 75 of the 108 luxury suites have been sold to Cleveland corporations.

--Archie Manning has interviewed agents Leigh Steinberg, Marvin Demoff and Tom Condon in the event his son, Peyton, chooses to try the NFL draft after this season.

NFL TROUBLES

Curtis Whitley, who started all 24 games at center for Carolina in its 1 1/2-year history, has thrown the Panthers’ offensive line off track by being suspended for four games because of an alcohol problem.

Whitley, who has a history of such problems going back to his days at Clemson and with the San Diego Chargers, checked into an alcohol treatment center.

In a 1995 interview with the Charlotte Observer, Whitley said, “Drinking has been my evil for years. Everything that has happened to me that has been bad, it’s always been the same scenario. Alcohol has always been there.”

The Panthers, 5-3 and aiming for the playoffs, will now shift around three of their offensive linemen to adjust to Whitley’s loss.

Whitley, suspended without pay, will lose $164,704 of his $700,000 base salary this season.

San Francisco fullback William Floyd was arrested at 2:40 a.m. for suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol on a freeway in San Jose two days before the team’s game with Houston last weekend.

Floyd started for the first time in a year--since injuring his knee--against the Oilers and was horrible. He rushed three times for minus-four yards, and became embroiled in a sideline shouting match with Coach George Seifert. After being benched, he sat alone with arms folded, sulking.

It was later revealed that he was also charged with having a loaded handgun in the trunk of his car when stopped for the suspected drunk driving.

No run-ins with the law for 49er quarterback Steve Young, but how many times can he be hit in the head before, a la Roger Staubach, he calls it quits?

Last week he suffered his fourth major concussion in 10 years, then underwent medical testing to determine the cumulative effective.

“It came out pretty good,” Young said. “It shows what kind of wear and tear your brain’s taking, whether you should be playing football or not. I seemed to pass that one OK. They feel pretty good about it.”

Ram Lawrence Phillips’ field troubles continue. He gained 83 yards last weekend, but needed to carry the ball 31 times to do that. His 2.7-yard average took a hit when he tried to run the ball in from the one-yard line four times--against one of the worst defenses in the league at Baltimore. He failed to score, and later was replaced by journeyman Harold Green, who did score from a yard out.

Chicago tailback Rashaan Salaam continues as one of this season’s great disappointments. He’s averaging 2.8 yards a run, and although coaches don’t think he is fully recovered from a leg injury, they also wonder if his concerns about fumbling have slowed him down.

Salaam had nine fumbles last season and one in his first game this season, and when it comes to the most critical times of holding onto the ball, Salaam has gone nowhere.

Inside the Bears’ 20-yard line, Salaam has averaged 0.8 yards in five carries. Within the opponents’ 20-yard line, he has averaged 0.6 yards in nine carries.

There are problems ahead for the Green Bay Packers, who will be without their two starting wide receivers because of injuries.

“If this had happened my first year and I had lost Sterling Sharpe [now retired] I would have been lost,” quarterback Brett Favre said. “But I’m to the point now where I can kind of deal with it.”

Robert Brooks is out for the year because of a knee injury, and Antonio Freeman will be sidelined at least four weeks because of a broken left arm. Terry Mickens, who has been sidelined with a hip injury, will start on one side, Don Beebe on the other.

Tampa Bay, trying to make a move to the big time, gave Dallas wide receiver Alvin Harper $10.6 million for four years last season. But Charlie Williams, the team’s wide receivers coach, said Harper has been passed on the depth chart by journeyman Robb Thomas and Karl Williams, a free-agent rookie from Texas A&M; Kingsville.

LOOKING GOOD

Washington quarterback Gus Frerotte worked out a deal with a local restaurant to feed his offensive teammates every time they win. So far the Redskins are 7-1.

“We lose, we don’t eat out,” Frerotte said. “I don’t think they expected us to win seven straight. But we’ll be there again Monday night.”

New England quarterback Drew Bledsoe threw two interceptions in the first game against Miami, but has thrown only two in the last seven games.

“His jersey recognition has improved,” Coach Bill Parcells said.