Nfl Owners

Stephen J. Bisciotti's purchase of a minority share of the Ravens will easily be approved by the NFL owners, Bob Tisch, the co-owner of the New York Giants and a member of the powerful finance committee, predicted yesterday."

If Orioles owner Peter Angeles is able to make a successful bid for the Washington Redskins, he'll probably have to pay a record price for an NFL franchise.He'll also have to overcome two obstacles -- the fact that most NFL owners prefer to keep the team in the Cooke family, and the league's cross-ownership rule, which currently wouldn't permit the Orioles owner to own an NFL team.Since the owners changed the cross-ownership rule just last year to allow Wayne Huizenga of the Miami Dolphins and Paul Allen of the Seattle Seahawks into the league, stretching it again shouldn't be a problem if Angelos has the high bid.The bidding for the Redskins will likely top the $530 million price that Al Lerner recently paid to obtain the expansion Cleveland franchise.

PALM DESERT, Calif. -- NFL owners took a stand against instant replay and players' removing their helmets on the field yesterday.With Bill Parcells, the new czar of the New York Jets, and Al Davis, the longtime czar of the Oakland Raiders, providing the critical swing votes, the owners turned down a modified instant replay plan when 10 of them voted no. The vote was 20-10 in favor, but 23 votes were needed for the plan to pass.Once Parcells and Davis voted no, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who didn't want to be the eighth negative vote, joined the seven traditional replay opponents and also voted against the proposal.

ATLANTA -- Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell presented his case before NFL owners yesterday, and Cleveland Mayor Michael White continued to battle in the court of public opinion.Mr. White continued his very public campaign to convince NFL owners that they should block Mr. Modell's proposed move of the Browns to Baltimore, and Mr. Modell launched his behind-the-scenes battle to persuade them to approve the move by meeting with members of two committees last night.Although they stopped short of endorsing the Browns' move, several owners complimented Mr. Modell's presentation.

ATLANTA -- Cleveland Mayor Michael White continued to battle in the court of public opinion yesterday while Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell presented his case before NFL owners.Mr. White continued his very public campaign to convince NFL owners to block Mr. Modell's proposed move of the Browns to Baltimore while Mr. Modell launched his behind-the-scenes battle to persuade the owners to approve the move.Mr. White orchestrated several high-profile events, including the presentation of 2.2 million signatures on petitions to the league at the NFL owners meetings, while Mr. Modell did not make a public appearance before making a presentation to two committees.

Ralph Wilson, the owner of the Buffalo Bills, can't help laughing when he looks at the current state of the NFL."This whole thing has turned into a broad comedy," Wilson said. "Each day I wake up waiting to see who's going to throw the next pie."The latest pie was thrown by the Seattle Seahawks, who announced last week that they were moving to Los Angeles because of the seismic risk at the Kingdome even though Seattle hasn't had a serious earthquake in 30 years.Wilson and the rest of the NFL owners will spend the next three days debating franchise shifts and other NFL business, including whether to approve the Cleveland Browns' move to Baltimore.

CHICAGO -- Like everything else connected to Baltimore's 12-year drive to return to the NFL, the final three days of negotiations were full of anxious twists and turns that at times made it seem the city was destined for yet another disappointment.Although the deal the league ratified late Friday morning had essentially taken shape weeks earlier, it appeared on the verge of collapse as late as Wednesday night -- just a few hours after the negotiators had broken up for dinner thinking an agreement was at hand.

CHICAGO -- The NFL owners solved their Baltimore-Cleveland problem yesterday, but the way they did it may cause the league headaches in the future.By passing a resolution guaranteeing Cleveland a team by 1999, by letting Art Modell move without determining whether he passed the league guidelines and by lending Cleveland up to $48 million, the NFL may have set precedents that could come back to haunt the league.Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, who's always quick to spot a conspiracy against him by the league, made that point yesterday.

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."

Let's see, Cleveland sues us, we sue the NFL, what's left? Is there any reason for the NFL to sue Cleveland? That would complete the circle, wouldn't it?Ah, but why should the NFL bother? Cleveland's $300 million lawsuit against the Maryland Stadium Authority won't make it to court, just as the MSA's $36 million antitrust suit filed against the NFL yesterday won't make it to court, either.The suits are real enough, but inherently fraudulent. Nobody wants the money for which they're asking.

It probably was a coincidence that NFL owners decided to knock two years off their collective bargaining agreement with the players union on the same day No. 3 draft pick Matt Ryan agreed to a $72 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons, but that doesn't mean the two top football headlines of the week were unrelated. Quite the contrary, management has cited out-of-control rookie compensation as one of the main rationales for abandoning the current CBA in 2011, and Ryan's new deal - which guarantees him at least $34.75 million before he plays his first NFL game - conveniently illustrated the point.

NFL owners, meeting in Atlanta, voted unanimously yesterday to opt out of the collective bargaining agreement they signed with the players union in 2006. This would mean that the NFL would conduct its business with no changes for 2008 and 2009. There would be substantial changes in 2010. And since the deal would end in 2011 instead of 2013, there would have to be a new contract to avoid the possibility of a work stoppage then. As usual with labor situations, the big picture is complex and the details infinitely more so, so let's try to sum it up. Why has this happened?

Six popes and 11 U.S. presidents have trod history's stage in the same time, more than 60 years, that the NFL has had just three commissioners. And one could add that it also has been a whole lot easier to pick popes and presidents than the person who heads the most successful sports enterprise in America. Only Bert Bell, Pete Rozelle and Paul Tagliabue have been elected to pro football's highest office since 1946. Bell took command after a league coup that deposed Notre Dame "horseman" Elmer Layden.

Orlando, Fla. -- NFL owners, attending their annual meeting, continue to study placing a franchise in the Los Angeles area and yesterday doubled the size of their L.A. stadium working group to 11 members, plus commissioner Paul Tagliabue. Los Angeles, which has not had an NFL team since the Rams left for St. Louis after the 1994 season, first needs to come up with a suitable stadium. Efforts center on renovating the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum or new construction in Anaheim, Calif. In both cases, costs reportedly are projected in the $700 million to $800 million range.

The labor strife gripping the NFL is actually two separate disagreements. The one between the players and owners is making headlines because it involves the salary cap and could lead to wholesale lineup changes, but the disagreement between the rich and not-as-rich owners figures to be more important in the long run. It centers on what has to be the most dangerous phrase in sports, the one that football owners have studiously avoided while watching it...

WASHINGTON - Defense took another hit yesterday when NFL owners voted 27-5 to ban horse-collar tackles in the open field. The new rule, which will be unofficially known as the Roy Williams Rule, gained favor after a season in which the Dallas Cowboys safety was responsible for at least three serious injuries using that technique. Williams ended the season for Ravens running back Musa Smith and Tennessee wide receiver Tyrone Calico by grabbing them from behind by the back of the jersey and yanking the players down.

The finance committee of NFL owners received a report yesterday on the proposed sale of the Ravens but is not expected to take up the matter again until next month at the soonest, according to a league spokesman. The committee, meeting in New York, was briefed on the tentative agreement between Ravens owner Art Modell and new investor Stephen Bisciotti, said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. No action was taken and the deal is not on the agenda for next week's meeting of all NFL owners. "I think it will probably be early to mid-February before the league looks at it again," Aiello said.

Stephen J. Bisciotti's purchase of a minority share of the Ravens will easily be approved by the NFL owners, Bob Tisch, the co-owner of the New York Giants and a member of the powerful finance committee, predicted yesterday."

If Orioles owner Peter Angeles is able to make a successful bid for the Washington Redskins, he'll probably have to pay a record price for an NFL franchise.He'll also have to overcome two obstacles -- the fact that most NFL owners prefer to keep the team in the Cooke family, and the league's cross-ownership rule, which currently wouldn't permit the Orioles owner to own an NFL team.Since the owners changed the cross-ownership rule just last year to allow Wayne Huizenga of the Miami Dolphins and Paul Allen of the Seattle Seahawks into the league, stretching it again shouldn't be a problem if Angelos has the high bid.The bidding for the Redskins will likely top the $530 million price that Al Lerner recently paid to obtain the expansion Cleveland franchise.

PALM DESERT, Calif. -- NFL owners took a stand against instant replay and players' removing their helmets on the field yesterday.With Bill Parcells, the new czar of the New York Jets, and Al Davis, the longtime czar of the Oakland Raiders, providing the critical swing votes, the owners turned down a modified instant replay plan when 10 of them voted no. The vote was 20-10 in favor, but 23 votes were needed for the plan to pass.Once Parcells and Davis voted no, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who didn't want to be the eighth negative vote, joined the seven traditional replay opponents and also voted against the proposal.