Buffalo, Detroit Owners Fined

Ralph Wilson, owner of the Buffalo Bills, ripped into NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue on Thursday for “pompous lectures” and a $50,000 fine for complaints that bad officiating cost his team a game against the New England Patriots.

Wilson wasn’t alone in his criticism of officials. William Clay Ford Sr., whose Detroit Lions benefited from the coin-toss fiasco, will be similarly punished for his remarks.

Wilson, 80, said in a written statement: “The commissioner, lecturing to me as if I were a novice instead of one who has been involved in football infinitely longer than he has, contends that criticizing a call has ‘destructive and corrosive effects on the game.’ “What is more destructive and corrosive--errant calls in front of millions of viewers, or my statements of opinion?”

Ford was faxed a letter notifying him of the NFL’s intention to fine his club $50,000 for his comments after officials apparently botched a coin toss before overtime in the Lions’ victory over Pittsburgh.

“The officials screwed everything else up,” Ford said. “Why shouldn’t we think they screwed that up too?”

Lion spokesman Bill Keenist acknowledged the letter had been received, but said the club would have no comment.

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Samuel Grossman, a 69-year-old Arizona hotelier, self-made real estate magnate and sometime author, has offered to buy the Washington Redskins and Jack Kent Cooke Stadium for a combined $600 million, which may be the largest bid yet for the franchise, the Washington Post reported. . . . Redskin running back Terry Allen will be upgraded to probable for Sunday’s game against the San Diego Chargers.

Complaints by Green Bay Packer Coach Mike Holmgren about the noise at the Minneapolis Metrodome could lead to a decibel decrease at the Minnesota Viking home games. In a letter to the NFL, Holmgren deplored the huge speakers near the visitors’ bench and referee Phil Luckett’s refusal to quiet the crowd in the fourth quarter of the Packers’ 28-14 loss two weeks ago.

Pollution and other problems with the proposed site for a football stadium are casting doubt on the plan that the New England Patriots will start playing in Hartford, Conn., in 2001. Gov. John G. Rowland, however, said that 2001 is not a hard deadline. The Patriots’ owner, Robert Kraft, also owns Foxboro Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. The team said a delay in the opening of a Hartford stadium would not present insurmountable problems.