Canadian Football League

The hardest part of Canadian football to take is the season.To avoid the Edmonton winter, they are butting heads in the Baltimore summer.Will players stand for this? More important, will fans?The introduction of the Canadian Football League to Baltimore threatens to break the National Football League monopoly on professional football in this country.That is what is so interesting about the Baltimore CFLs, unless you also happen to like the game.The NFL was given every opportunity not to allow this to happen.

To the average American, there are three great unknowns left: space, the ocean bottom and Canada.There are TV series on space and the ocean, an indication of our interest, but nothing yet on Canada.Things may be about to change. Just as China awakened American interest during the 1970s with Ping-Pong diplomacy, Canada may be turning to a sports offensive to let Americans know there is something between Minnesota and the north pole besides snow.The sport of choice is football. Suddenly American cities find themselves sort of a part of Canada because the Canadian Football League has expanded to their towns.

The Baltimore CFL Colts were quick to capitalize on the newest trend in the Canadian Football League: American-born players who want to come home to the States.Quarterback Tracy Ham took less money to play in Baltimore than he could have had with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Linebackers O. J. Brigance and Ken Benson came to es- cape Canada's heavy tax rate. And defensive back Ken Watson just wanted to play in the U.S.The Colts have lured five U.S.-born free agents from Canadian teams so far. Of 18 American-born free agents in the CFL this year, eight have signed with U.S. expansion teams, one with the NFL Buffalo Bills, and four stayed in Canada.

What the National Football League now demonstrates, beyond any reasonable doubt, is that it is a monopoly and engaging in restraint of trade.The definitive proof has been made available, in writing, as it tries to claim rights to the name Baltimore Colts. Such an attempt is illegal, monopolistic and violates every rule associated with fair business practices.Obviously, the NFL wizards of buffoonery are ignorant of the facts as they exist. The team was given the name Colts in 1947 while playing in another league.

Gov. William Donald Schaefer emerged from a 30-minute tour of Memorial Stadium yesterday with an unspecified pledge of support for Jim Speros' Canadian Football League venture here.Schaefer said he was agreeable to a state loan that would assist stadium renovations undertaken by Speros, owner of the Baltimore CFL Colts, who launch their inaugural season this summer.Speros is asking for $1.25 million to complete the projected $2.5 million face lift in time for the team's first home exhibition game June 29."

Congress must enact Waxman smoking billAt a recent figure skating exhibition at the Baltimore Arena, the cheering started before a single skater hit the ice: A loud cheer erupted when the building's "smoke-free" policy was announced.It is clear that the tide has finally turned in the long battle for nonsmokers' rights.The time has come to enact a proposal by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., known as the Smoke-Free Environment Act.This bill would provide much needed protection for nonsmokers in public buildings by requiring nonresidential buildings regularly entered by 10 or more people to either ban indoor smoking or restrict it to separately ventilated rooms.

How much importance is attached to Baltimore's entry into the Canadian Football League can be measured via the comments of the commissioner, one Larry Smith, who says the reaction was so overwhelming that representatives from 22 other cities called almost immediately to inquire about the criteria for making application and gaining acceptance.So Baltimore now, in reality, has become an attention-getting billboard for the CFL, a catalyst to its future growth. What happens to the Baltimore (CFL)

The Americanization of the Canadian Football League isn't likely to end with its recent expansion into the United States.When the CFL governors hold their annual meeting this week in Sacramento, Calif., they will pry open a can of controversy guaranteed to raise eyebrows and temperatures north of the border.From all indications, the league is poised to significantly modify the import rule that limits American participation on Canadian rosters once its collective bargaining agreement expires after the 1994 season.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke clashed angrily with City Council President Mary Pat Clarke yesterday when she offered a Monday morning quarterback's view of his deal to entice a professional football team back to Baltimore.In what could foreshadow the mayoral race next year, Mrs. Clarke accused the mayor of practically giving Memorial Stadium to the Canadian Football League without getting any concessions for the city. Mr. Schmoke shrugged off the criticism as cheap "political shots.""Even the most nonprofit of groups -- Head Start programs -- pay $6,000 or $7,000 a year to rent our schools and educate our kids," Mrs. Clarke said during the heated Board of Estimates meeting.

City Council President Mary Pat Clarke skirmished with Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke today, accusing him of practically giving Memorial Stadium to the Canadian Football League without getting any concessions for the city."