League Officials

PHOENIX -- The NFL had a simple message for Howard Milstein and the city of Los Angeles yesterday: Show Us the Money.As commissioner Paul Tagliabue prepared to officially open the league meetings today with an upbeat report on the state of the league, two thorny issues -- the Washington Redskins' sale and expansion -- continue to remain unresolved.As usually happens in the NFL, money is at the root of both problems. The league failed to get a committee recommendation on either issue over the weekend, much less a consensus of the owners.

After being at odds for months, the United Way of Central Maryland and the Baltimore Urban League have settled their differences over the league's accounting practices.The United Way told Urban League officials yesterday that it would send the league an $84,000 check, the complete amount the funding organization had withheld since October because of disagreements between the two agencies.The dispute became public March 18. Roger L. Lyons, Urban League director, said United Way funds had too many strings attached.

The Baltimore Urban League agreed yesterday to seek a mediator to work out a compromise with the United Way, which has cut off contributions in a dispute over the league's accounting practices.Linda S. Thompson, chairwoman of the Baltimore Urban League, said the board agreed at an emergency meeting to propose to the United Way board that the two agencies jointly appoint a mediator.The mediator would seek to bring an end to a 4-year-old dispute between the agencies over whether -- and under what conditions -- the league will accept United Way funds, she said.

Major League Soccer's fans get their first broad indications tonight of whether the pro league they want so badly to succeed is apt to hit a sophomore swoon or continue the sport's boom.Five games constitute MLS' first full Saturday schedule, a change from last season that portends most spring and summer weekends to come in the league's second year.One of those games involves the Middle Atlantic's entry, D.C. United, visiting the Los Angeles Galaxy (10: 30 p.m. EST, HTS). That's the team United defeated, 3-2, in overtime last Oct. 20 to win the first MLS Cup before nearly 35,000 fans in a game-long, chilling downpour at Foxboro, Mass.

ATLANTA -- While the NFL is edging toward approving the move of the Browns to Baltimore in a few weeks, Maryland officials yesterday sued the league for $36 million.The NFL initially had scheduled this week's meetings here to vote on the Browns' application to move from Cleveland, but league officials and team owners said they needed more time to consider the issue. Many owners have indicated that they expect the move to be approved, and they set another meeting for Feb. 8 and 9 at which a vote is expected.

ATLANTA -- Amid signs of support within the NFL for a move of the Browns from Cleveland to Baltimore, league officials yesterday pledged a vote on the issue within weeks."

Cleveland Browns officials have had internal discussions about the possibility of acquiring the nickname Colts, a team source said, but it's unlikely they will be able to pry it away from the Indianapolis franchise or the NFL.If Browns owner Art Modell, who plans to move his team to Baltimore for the 1996 season, got permission to use the Colts name, NFL Properties, which has the rights to market and protect the names, colors and logos of the league's 30...

Cheers from thousands of American fans. Playing against other U.S. players in their home country. Television cameras capturing every shot.It has been a dream for many U.S. soccer players. And it becomes a reality tonight at 8.That's when D.C. United plays at the San Jose Clash in the inaugural game of Major League Soccer, which will be carried live by ESPN.This represents the first attempt to start a major outdoor pro league since the North American Soccer League folded 11 years ago."It's been a long time coming," said John Harkes, the D.C. United and U.S. national team midfielder.

With Dennis Rodman, Nick Van Exel and, to a lesser degree, Magic Johnson getting into highly publicized scrapes with NBA officials, and notables like Shawn Kemp drawing suspensions for fighting, one can only wonder what will happen when the league's postseason curtain rises tonight."

PALM BEACH, Fla. -- The silence was deafening.Major-league owners met in full session yesterday to discuss everything except the one-team rebellion that is threatening to upstage their plan to use replacement players, but the status of the Orioles' regular-season schedule and shortstop Cal Ripken's endangered consecutive games streak remained on everyone's unspoken agenda.Expansion was on the front burner for the second straight day of meetings at the Breakers Hotel, though it was no surprise that the Expansion Committee unanimously recommended Phoenix and Tampa/St.

The NBA would like yesterday's sentencing of former referee Tim Donaghy to 15 months in prison to put a cap on one of the most unsettling episodes in the league's history. But despite what league officials might wish, that's just not the case. There is still the matter of the results of the league's own investigation - the Pedowitz Report, named after former federal prosecutor Lawrence Pedowitz, who is conducting the probe - into how Donaghy managed to get away with providing inside information to gamblers and evade NBA detection for so long and whether there is any substance to concerns that games refereed by other officials were somehow compromised.

New York --On Tuesday morning, the czar of the NBA looked as close to sick as anyone had ever seen him. Staggering to the podium. Surrounded by league officials. Stripped of the arrogance and self-assuredness that normally accompany his every word. But to know David Stern is to know one thing above all else: Someone will pay dearly for this. You don't spend nearly a quarter-century transforming a league into a multibillion-dollar industry only to watch it potentially disintegrate amid an alleged gambling and point-shaving scandal involving a referee and do nothing.

Another NFL player - this time, the Ravens' B.J. Sams - got busted the other day, but don't worry about it leaving any taint on the league's reputation. When all is said and done, the NFL's image will remain pristine. Meet the league's most valuable employee, its executive vice president in charge of Teflon. There has to be someone with that title in the league offices, right? This has been the Year of the Knucklehead in America's favorite sports league, but its position remains utterly unchallenged, while every other sport pays for player misbehavior in dollars and credibility.

The Major Indoor Soccer League handed down the stiffest penalty in its history yesterday when it extended the suspension of Blast coach Tim Wittman for two more years and fined him an undisclosed amount. League officials had already suspended Wittman for the rest of this season two days after the March 18 incident at the end of a Blast-California Cougars game in Stockton, Calif. Wittman allegedly had physical contact with senior game referee Terry Mashino and penalty box attendant Rob Planette at game's end. Wittman was arrested on battery charges and then released on his own recognizance at the site that night.

The Major Indoor Soccer League has changed the format of its championship round to land a date on ESPN2. The round was scheduled to have a best-of-three format, but it will change to a home-and-home, two-game style. That will allow ESPN2 to televise the second and decisive game of the final round on Sunday, April 30, at 1 p.m. If the two teams split the first two games, the champion will be determined by a "golden goal" session at the end of Game 2. The higher-seeded team usually chooses to have Game 2 at home in case that overtime session is needed.

THERE ARE SOME Baltimore fans who believe the NFL has a conspiracy against the Ravens. It's not true, but the league doesn't do the Ravens any favors, either. It's all about image. The Ravens are a small-market team. They have an outspoken coach who has criticized officials, and their star player was once accused of double murder in Atlanta. The Ravens have the reputation of being big trash talkers, and if the Oakland Raiders are Public Enemy No. 1 in the NFL, the Ravens are 1a. So when the league announced that the Ravens were going to play in the first playoff game Saturday against the Tennessee Titans after playing in the last regular-season game Sunday night, Ravens coach Brian Billick wasn't surprised.

RAVENS OWNER ART Modell was watching Sunday night when New Orleans Saints receiver Joe Horn made a choreographed cell-phone call in the end zone to celebrate a touchdown. Modell expected a delivery truck to arrive at midfield within the next 30 minutes. "I was waiting for the pizza man to hand out one with cheese, and one with all the goodies. Why not? Anything can happen out there these days," Modell said, laughing. And then his laughter was replaced by silence. "It has become a three-ring circus out there," said Modell, who has owned the franchise for more than 40 years.

The Laurel Football Association has enrolled in the Maryland Football Association, ending a dispute with the Anne Arundel County recreation department over the falsification of player documents. In January, the county's Department of Recreation and Parks threw the association out of its league. County officials said association board members, coaches, parents and players repeatedly falsified documents over the past two seasons. The county blamed league officials. Laurel appealed the decision to the county Board of Appeals, was rebuffed and filed a second appeal with the recreation department.

In summing up the state of Major League Lacrosse, a league he helped start last year, the words of the usually long-winded Jake Steinfeld suddenly become quite concise. "Every day we're alive, we're getting a bit stronger," Steinfeld said. Those have been the words he has lived by. As chairman of Body by Jake Enterprises, Steinfeld has become a celebrity through his fitness business. He is still trying to make the same impact on lacrosse. As Steinfeld guides the MLL into its second season, league officials seem optimistic that the addition of several sponsors, a new television deal and a change in venue for two of the franchises, including the one in Baltimore, will translate into bigger numbers at the box office.

Danny Almonte, the budding Little League star who earned national prominence for his prowess on the mound, is not 12, but 14 years old, an official from the Dominican Republic confirmed yesterday. The revelation led Little League officials to strip the Rolando Paulino Little League All-Stars, from the Bronx, N.Y., of their third-place finish in the World Series and forfeit the team's wins and championships at the district, section, state and regional levels. "Clearly, adults have used Danny Almonte and his teammates in a most contemptible and despicable way," Stephen D. Keener, president and chief executive officer of Little League Baseball, said at a news conference in Williamsport, Pa. "We're clearly sad and angry that we were deceived.