Speros

In a move that could end the expensive fight for the Colts name, Baltimore CFLs owner Jim Speros has initiated talks with the NFL aimed at producing an out-of-court settlement before the case goes to trial.Speros made some offers to the rival league last week, and his attorneys are in communication with the NFL, he said. He declined to discuss his offers in detail, but acknowledged a settlement may leave his team unable to use the Colts name."I am not looking forward to going to court again, and do not think it would come out favorably," Speros said.

Maybe there is a TV Santa Claus. CBS Sports televised the Baltimore Ravens against the Cleveland Browns on Christmas Eve, and the network didn't force local viewers to endure Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf in the booth. Happy holidays to you, too, Sean McManus, former Baltimore resident and current president of CBS Sports. Thanks for having a little mercy on us. I'm not saying the broadcast team CBS gave us, Spero Dedes and Rich Gannon, was great guns. But it was better than we have been getting lately on the home of “Hawaii Five-O” and the 10,000 other prime-time shows I saw endless promos for on Saturday afternoon.

Jim Speros, the owner of Baltimore's CFL team, said he has abandoned hopes of getting his trademark case against the NFL heard in Maryland and will decide in the next 10 days whether to drop the matter altogether.Speros wants to name his team the Baltimore CFL Colts, harking back to the days when the NFL Colts played in Baltimore. But the NFL and its now-Indianapolis Colts say they own the name.A Baltimore-based federal judge turned down his request to hear the matter and ordered it merged with a court action initiated by the NFL in Indianapolis.

Pro football Ex-Stallions owner Speros gets Virginia team in UFL Virginia businessman Jim Speros, who was founding owner of the Baltimore Stallions of the Canadian Football League, is the owner of a provisional Tidewater franchise of the United Football League that will begin play next year, the league announced Monday. Former Washington Redskins quarterback Doug Williams will be the general manager. The franchise, which will be based in Norfolk, will be the UFL's sixth, joining the Florida Tuskers, Hartford Colonials, Las Vegas Locomotives, Omaha Nighthawks and Sacramento Mountain Lions.

Baltimore Stallions owner Jim Speros is on the move, although he doesn't know where.The possibilities are plentiful. Speros, who likely will have to move the Stallions, since the Cleveland Browns expect to relocate to Baltimore next year, already is looking into Houston as a new home. With the announcement that the Houston Oilers are moving to Nashville, Tenn., Speros plans to go to Texas again soon to confer with Astrodome officials and an investment group he met with last week."With the NFL officially leaving, I want to explore the possibility of moving there further," Speros said.

Unsuccessful in his bid to solicit state funds from Gov. William Donald Schaefer's administration for the renovation of Memorial Stadium, Baltimore Canadian Football League owner Jim Speros will try anew with Gov. Parris N. Glendening.Speros said he has hired lobbyists to encourage legislation on two financial fronts that would enhance the operation of his football team.Attorneys John Stierhoff and Jerry Evans, from the Annapolis firm of Dukes, Evans, Rozner, Brown and Stierhoff, will seek legislation to provide state funds for the stadium and workmen's compensation for the players.

Maybe they can, if you're filled with compassion, be charged off as rookie mistakes, errors made by a man who has never headed a football franchise and still is feeling his way. Fortunately, the playing dimensions in the Canadian Football League are longer and wider because Jim Speros has certainly needed the extra space to ramble about while explaining what is quickly evolving into a convoluted plan of operation.He has, to complete the analogy, been all over the field. Enthusiasm, unfortunately, could change to disenchantment.

Here is a way to settle this thing: Let the Stallions and Browns play one game in early January at Memorial Stadium. Call it the Irsay Bowl. Give the first 25,000 fans in the door a free rubber chicken and a coupon for $2 off the price of a permanent seat license.The stakes? Losing team has to leave town.But wait. We can't do that, can we? The Stallions might win. (Ham or Testaverde? Pringle or Hoard? Matthews or Belichick? Think about it.) And that would be a problem. Because with all due respect to the Stallions' loyal following, the vast majority of Baltimore's fans would take a mediocre NFL team over a championship CFL team.

Jim Speros, owner of the Baltimore Football Club, should know soon whether state funds will be used to help renovate 41-year-old Memorial Stadium.After meeting with Gov. Parris N. Glendening and Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke in Annapolis this week, he said he expects to receive state support."

Saying his Canadian Football League franchise would be "irreparably injured" by the loss of the Colts name, Baltimore owner Jim Speros yesterday appealed the preliminary injunction handed down by a U.S. District judge in Indianapolis.Speros' attorneys asked the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago to stay the injunction issued by Judge Larry J. McKinney last Monday. They also sought an expedited appeal in an effort to get the name restored for next Thursday's CFL opener in Toronto against the Argonauts.

Speros J. Leanos, a retired wholesale wine and spirits salesman, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease March 4 at the Edenwald retirement community in Towson, where he had lived for the past 10 years. He was 92. Born in Yonkers, N.Y., and raised in Annapolis, he was a 1934 Annapolis High School graduate. As a young man, he worked at Jim's Corner, his parents' confectionery store and restaurant on West Street. He was also an A&P grocery store stock boy. He served in an Army infantry unit during World War II. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was one of eight survivors when his company was overrun by the enemy at Vielsalm, Belgium.

On Monday, January 31, 2005, PAULINE JAMES LEANOS GRIFFITHS, 80, at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, MD. Beloved wife of John E. Griffiths. Survived by her sisters, Virginia Elliott of Norfolk, VA, Virginia Elizabeth Alexopulos and Helen Snyder of Annapolis, and her brothers Speros Leanos of Baltimore, MD, Constantine "Gus" Leanos of Annapolis, and the late Fotios Leanos. She was also important and inspirational role in the lives of her nine nephews and two nieces. Visitation will be held on Tuesday, February 1 from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. at the John M. Taylor Funeral Home.

On January 14, 2004 SPERO FOTIES, father of Karen, brother of Angero Sikalis and Helen Proakis, also survived by many nieces and nephews. Predeceased by brothers George and Steve Foties. Family will receive friends Sunday from 6 to 9 P.M. at CHARLES ZEILER FUNERAL HOME, INC., 6224 Eastern Ave., where Trisaghion Services will be held at 6 P.M. Funeral services will be held Monday 11 A.M. at St. Nicolas Greek Orthodox Church, 520 S. Ponca Street. Interment Oak lawn Cemetery. Arrangements byBRADLEY-ASHTON-MATTHEWS FUNERAL HOME, INC .

He's being pursued by creditors in two countries who claim his failed companies haven't paid their bills. But that's no reason for Jim Speros not to share a little money-making wisdom with friends.The former owner of the Baltimore Stallions, 1995 champions of the Canadian Football League, is holding an invitation-only workshop on his latest "bold new venture."In a letter dated Feb. 11 and sent to former Stallions supporters -- he calls them "team members" -- Speros does not specify what his latest venture is. But, he says, "Here's a hint: the information superhighway is the next great wave of opportunity in this country -- and we have an incredible way to take full advantage of it -- for you and me!"

It may be a new area code for Jim Speros, but the owner of the Montreal Alouettes finds himself in a familiar controversy this week.Upset that he hasn't received a $1.375 million loan promised when he moved the Baltimore Stallions to Montreal this season, Speros threatened to pull his Canadian Football League team out of the city with more than half the season remaining.Last night, however, he admitted the ultimatum he issued was a ploy to force the hand of the political leaders who had agreed last March to give him a three-year, no-interest loan.

Opinion: The Ravens need to lose the tape of that "caw" they played over (and over and over) the public address system Saturday night. If they insist on persisting, they should at least sell aspirin at the concession stands.Fact: "That rookie stuff is behind me," said Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis after one exhibition game.Opinion: Luis Polonia got picked off too often to have any credibility, but his parting shot about the Orioles' selfishness was right on target. It was nice to hear someone in uniform say it.Fact: Ted Marchibroda's career record is 71-67.

Baltimore's Canadian Football League team picked up its first tab last night for the loss of its name in Indianapolis federal court.Jim Speros, owner of the expansion team, estimated he was forced to store $30,000 worth of merchandise with the Colts' insignia for the exhibition game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers."

Jim Speros moved another piece into place for his prospective Canadian Football League team in Baltimore yesterday, when he signed veteran coach Don Matthews to a three-year contract with options for three more years.Matthews will be formally introduced today in a news conference."I don't think I could find a better coach," said Speros, a Virginia businessman who is trying to bring a CFL expansion team to Memorial Stadium for the 1994 season."I had a lot of guys who wanted the job. Matthews was a step above everybody I interviewed."

In a scene lifted straight from Baltimore's 1994 introduction to the Canadian Football League, Jim Speros will roll out the red carpet tonight at Montreal's Olympic Stadium.Stepping onto it will be local politicians, football heroes from the city's storied past, and, of course, the intrepid CFL owner himself.All this pomp and circumstance will herald the return of the CFL to Montreal after a nine-year absence. What's more, it also completes the awkward transition for Speros from owner of the Grey Cup champion Baltimore Stallions to owner of the reincarnated Montreal Alouettes.

Alleging that Maryland officials and the NFL conspired to betray him, Baltimore Stallions owner Jim Speros sent his lawyer into federal court yesterday and said he will continue battling to keep his lease on Memorial Stadium.Speros, who bitterly moved his football team to Montreal after Art Modell's NFL franchise agreed to come to Baltimore, claims in court papers that Maryland offi cials engaged in "unfulfilled promises, misconduct [and] illegal and conspiratorial acts" to bring in a new team.