A defiant NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue promised Monday there will be a draft in 1993 regardless of the state of labor relations. Tagliabue also reiterated his belief that a settlement ”can be reached” in the upcoming Freeman McNeil case seeking free agency.
The draft is protected under the expired collective-bargaining agreement only through April 26-27. The NFL Players Association has cited the expiration as incentive for owners to settle on a new labor agreement before they are faced with the potential chaos of no draft in 1993.
But Tagliabue called the draft ”reasonable under any legal standard”
and scoffed at the notion that owners are worried that a unilateral decision to continue the draft would invite more lawsuits.
Asked if he were suggesting a unilateral continuation of the draft in 1993, Tagliabue answered: ”I`m doing more than suggesting that. I`m saying that, yes, we`re going to have a draft in 1993.”
Although the league is mired in court cases without a bargaining agreement, Tagliabue and league lawyer Frank Rothman seemed confident of ultimately prevailing in the arena in which they are most familiar, the courtroom.
Former lawyer Tagliabue said the recent Supreme Court decision against the league in a pension case and the recent District Court decision against the league on price-fixing the practice squads will not affect a decision to continue the draft.
Of the practice squad case, Tagliabue said: ”I think we`ll win that case on appeal. The district court decision is very poorly grounded.”
Rothman was equally confident about arguing the league`s case against free agency in the McNeil trial June 15 in Minneapolis. Football has a more restrictive form of free agency than either baseball or basketball.
”Basketball doesn`t have free agency. A cap is just another way of limiting movement,” Rothman said. ”You be the judge of what`s happening in baseball.”
Rothman said he is determined to educate a Minneapolis jury to the dangers of free agency, even though the jury will consist of people who saw the Minnesota Twins win a World Series with the help of free agents. ”You ask them about Jack Morris,” Rothman said. ”He`s gone now.”
Morris played one year in Minnesota as a free agent, was MVP in the World Series, then signed as a free agent with Toronto.
”If that`s the kind of sports you want, where your players go every 20 minutes to another team . . . that`s not the sports I grew up with,” Rothman said. ”You`ve got to look at sports for more than one year.”
– An offer by St. Louis businessman James Busch Orthwein to buy Victor Kiam`s 51 percent of the New England Patriots will not affect Walter Payton`s interest in the St. Louis expansion effort.
Payton is part of the prospective St. Louis ownership group led by Orthwein and includes Patriots minority owner Fran Murray. Kiam owes Murray $38 million and has been forced to sell the club. Orthwein`s intent is to help Murray avoid litigation and then sell the Pats so the St. Louis expansion effort can proceed.
– Tagliabue tried to brush aside questions on the Martin Luther King holiday issue in Arizona, which cost Phoenix the 1993 Super Bowl. Unlike the the NBA, which has refused to hold league meetings in the state, the NFL made a distinction between the Super Bowl and league meetings.
”We`re not boycotting Arizona. We have a team here. We`ve had league meetings in Arizona for 26 years. The issue on the Super Bowl was whether we should play the league`s premier annual event in a place where it could easily be overwhelmed by a political controversy,” Tagliabue said.
The 1996 Super Bowl is tentatively scheduled for Phoenix, but the state still has not added a paid King holiday. Tagliabue refused to speculate on that game.
– Three rules proposals by the Bears have garnered support, says New Orleans General Manager Jim Finks, chairman of the Competition Committee.
The Bears want a distinction made between flagrant pass interference and incidental pass interference, with the penalty for the latter reduced to 10 yards. They also want a clarification of intentional grounding and want to adopt the college rule on coin flips, which allows teams to defer decisions until the second half.
– Dominating discussions is the proposal to extend the television contract two years through 1995 at a reduced rate. If the owners don`t vote yes, it will be a slap at Tagliabue, who is supporting it. At issue is a reduction in 1993 revenue of approximately $7 million per club. Leveraged clubs already have spent that money.
