Canadian Football League

Two days after the Canadian Football League suspended the Las Vegas Posse franchise, it postponed the dispersal draft that will assign player contracts.Originally scheduled today, the draft has been pushed back to Tuesday. In a release announcing the delay, the league said certain teams required more time to study Las Vegas' 59-player roster.But befitting the turmoil the league has gone through this off-season, there was rampant speculation yesterday that negotiations to put the Posse in Jackson, Miss.

Canadian Football League owners gave tentative approval yesterday to new ownership groups for the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Las Vegas Posse, clearing the way for a North-South divisional alignment sooner than expected.At league meetings in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the owners voted to approve the transfer of Ottawa's 119-year-old franchise to Chicago businessman Horn Chen for $3 million in Canadian currency.Bruce Firestone, who owned the Rough Riders for only one season but built up massive debt, has filed for bankruptcy.

The Canadian Football League's board of governors approved expansion teams for Memphis, Tenn., and Birmingham, Ala., yesterday, but put off a decision on the fate of three ailing franchises.The league set a Feb. 15 deadline to resolve crises with the Las Vegas Posse and Ottawa Rough Riders, both of whom are searching for new owners, and the Sacramento Gold Miners, who are looking for a new home.Although there were reports this week that the Posse would be relocated either to Los Angeles or Jackson, Miss.

Havre de Grace.--It's a truism that Baltimore's a great sports town, and a corollary thereto that the city is suffering great deprivation these days without any so-called big-league teams of its own in action.But while it's fair to say that the departures of the Colts to the Irsaydome and the Orioles to the picket lines have pinched municipal tax revenues and cost a few local people their jobs, the overall impact has been a lot softer than the economic-development party line suggests. In fact, though they usually won't say so in public, a lot of people think the city's better off.It's better off psychologically, too. Big-league sports these days represent much of what's most repugnant about American life in the 1990s.

In the final analysis, no name was better than a new name for Jim Speros.In the end, a one-year tradition outweighed the merits of a fresh start.Yell to your heart's delight, Baltimore. The appropriate cheer at yesterday's name-the-team news conference at Memorial Stadium was C-O-L-T-S.Saying he had lost the battle but won the war over the Colts name, Speros announced he has chosen Baltimore Football Club as the official -- and only -- designation for his Canadian Football League team."It would be very awkward to walk into the stadium and have fans chant one name and you have another," Speros said after putting to rest the team's eight-month identity crisis.

When the Canadian Football League concluded its two days of meetings in Baltimore yesterday, team owners were able to measure progress in small steps.The aim of the meetings was to solidify the rapidly changing structure of the league."This year is a year for stabilizing," said Bill Comrie, owner of the B.C. Lions.In addition to addressing the major problems, there were also these developments:* The league made no decision on future expansion, but did establish a Team Services division to assist new franchises.

From Canada: Thanks, CFLsYour first year of football "Canadian style" must have certainly been a memorable experience for the city and the people of Baltimore.As witnessed by your presence in our fall classic, the Grey Cup, your football team and management have done your city proud. Your presence has added renewed interest, dimension and vitality to the Canadian Football League.I speak as an individual, but I am certain that my thoughts are reflected by many Canadians who are pleased to have the Baltimore [CFLs]

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- How can you tell you're at the Grey Cup, the Canadian Football League's human-sized championship, and not at the Super Bowl, the NFL's bloated and almost unbearably self-important championship?You can tell when you're at a player/media interview breakfast and you notice that the players are waiting patiently behind you in the buffet line. (I'm having trouble envisioning Deion Sanders waiting for me while I pick through the kiwi fruit and ladle syrup on my pancakes.

Calgary, Alberta -- A snapshot from the 1993 Grey Cup:I am up in the nosebleed seats of Calgary's McMahon Stadium, surrounded by 50,000 locals and out-of-towners -- most of them toque to boots in polar ice-cap gear. The crowd is cranked up for the Grey Cup, the Canadian Football League's championship -- a.k.a. Canada's national drunk. The crowd wobbles upright and sings ''O Canada'' with abnormal fervor, Canadians being a reserved lot. Then the announcer cheerily encourages fans to salute the CFL's new American franchises in a rendition of the ''Star Spangled Banner.

While Baltimore's Canadian Football League franchise is busy making last-minute preparations for Sunday's Grey Cup game, Baltimore's newest semipro football team will be trying to chase down a Mason-Dixon League title.The Baltimore Renegades, a team that formed in late August after the Baltimore Bears disbanded, have overcome obstacles -- on and off the field -- and their final hurdle will come at 7 tomorrow night when they take on the North Carolina Charlotte Blast for the league championship at Lansdowne High School.