One Way Or Another, St. Louis Will Get NFL Team Again

PHILADELPHIA - One way or another, it appears that St. Louis will be getting an NFL team again.

If the league's owners don't give a thumbs up to St. Louis in two weeks when they name their two new expansion cities, league sources say it's almost a foregone conclusion that New England Patriots owner James Orthwein will move his franchise there.

With the NFL currently trying to negotiate a new TV deal, the last thing it needs now is to be without a franchise in one of the country's largest television markets. Which is why NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue has been lobbying hard for St. Louis to get one of the two new teams.

If St. Louis gets an expansion team, Orthwein likely will follow through on plans to sell the Patriots to a group that would keep the team in New England.

Until last month, Orthwein, a St. Louis native and the second-largest stockholder in the St. Louis-based Anheuser Busch beer empire, had been the chief investor in St. Louis's expansion group. His involvement seemed to make St. Louis a lock to get one of the two new teams.

But Orthwein put St. Louis's expansion hopes in serious jeopardy last month when he abruptly dropped out because of differences with the group's No. 2 investor, Jerry Clinton.

"Before Orthwein dropped out, St. Louis was all but a certainty to get an expansion team," said one NFL owner. "Now that he's gone, however, there are some very serious questions about their financial capabilities."

Clinton and partner Fran Murray have spent the last few weeks searching for new investors to replace Orthwein that the NFL owners will find acceptable.

According to league sources, they have lined up two. One of them is said to be Philadelphia businessman Myles Tanenbaum, former owner of the Philadelphia Stars of the United States Football League. Tanenbaum also is an investor in a Murray-led group that is trying to buy the Patriots from Orthwein and move them to Hartford, Conn.

According to a source close to Orthwein, he would prefer to sell the Patriots and have St. Louis get an expansion team. But if St. Louis gets snubbed, Orthwein will get most of the blame. The only way for him to make things right would be to relocate the Patriots there.

"If St. Louis doesn't get a (expansion) franchise, Orthwein won't be able to get off an airplane in that city," said a league source. "Nobody would buy Budweiser. It would be a public-relations nightmare. He can't possibly let that happen, and he knows it."

Orthwein has put the sale of the Patriots on hold until after the league makes its expansion announcement on Oct. 25.

Right now, St. Louis's hopes for an expansion franchise rest with Tagliabue. He knows that the best way - the only way - to prevent Orthwein from moving the Patriots out of New England is to put an expansion team in St. Louis.

But whether he can convince the owners to do that remains to be seen. The Great Persuader, he ain't.

The league's expansion and finance committees, which will make the recommendation to the owners, met Wednesday in Dallas.

One owner who could present a very big problem for Tagliabue's St. Louis push is the Eagles' Norman Braman. Braman, who is on the expansion committee, is said to favor Baltimore and Jacksonville, Fla.

But it's unclear how much influence Braman still has with his fellow owners since his failed attempt earlier this year to block the settlement agreement between the players and owners.

Turf talk

The controversy over the danger of artificial turf is heating up again. The unusually large amount of early-season knee injuries has prompted many players to make angry pleas for its abolishment. But the NFL continues to insist that artificial turf is no more dangerous than grass.

"We're not disputing that there are certain problems associated with turf that are not associated with grass," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "You get more abrasions. It might be hotter in a warmer climate. It's harder on players' legs. Those types of things.

"But the issue is really the quality of the playing surface. In some cases, a good artificial turf is better than a frozen grass field. Unfortunately, we've had plenty of serious injuries over the years on grass. But nobody ever says it was the grass's fault."

The NFL says its studies indicate that there has been no significant difference in the number of serious injuries on turf as opposed to natural grass. But the NFL Players Association begs to differ.

"Mike Duberstein (the NFLPA's director of research) did a study based on published injury information a couple of years ago that showed that there was one more significant injury per game on turf than grass," said Doug Allen, the NFLPA's assistant executive director.

The league's new collective-bargaining agreement gives the players a larger say in league issues than they've ever had in the past. The players will have one voting representative on the league's powerful competition committee. There also will be a joint committee on player safety and welfare. Allen said artificial turf will be that still-unformed committee's top priority.

"We can't discuss this intelligently and arrive at common-ground solutions until we have more hard data," Allen said. "Our first job is going to be to get it as quickly as we can from an objective source. I don't mean our research department or theirs. I mean a third party.

"There's a whole range of possible solutions. Tearing up all the turf. Having a moratorium on new turf. Having maintenance standards on the turf that exists.

"I think it's something we're going to be able to address and make real progress on in the offseason."

Around the league

-- With the trading deadline less than a week away, many teams are trying to unload unwanted players. The Falcons, who traded away cornerback Bruce Pickens and running back Eric Dickerson on Tuesday, also are shopping cornerback Melvin Jenkins. Chicago is trying to get rid of William Perry. Other players with "for sale" signs on them include Kansas City DE Leonard Griffin, Los Angeles Rams RB Cleveland Gary and Pittsburgh DE Kenny Davidson.

-- Chiefs general manager Carl Peterson insists he's not concerned about Joe Montana's health. The 37-year-old Montana already has missed two of the Chiefs' first five games because of wrist and hamstring injuries. "When we made the trade, we didn't expect him to play 60 minutes for 16 regular-season games in 1993," Peterson said. "That's not a revelation. How many quarterbacks played 16 games for 60 minutes in '92?" Well, since you asked, just one - the man Montana replaced, Dave Krieg.

-- Trading away Boomer Esiason was not one of Cincinnati general manager Mike Brown's smarter moves. But at least he made sure to get a conditional draft pick for him. If Boomer finishes with a quarterback rating of 89 or higher and makes at least eight starts or takes half the Jets' snaps, the Bengals will get a second-rounder for him. Esiason currently leads the AFC in passing with a 99.4 rating.

This and that

-- How bad are things going for Phoenix coach Joe Bugel? Well, last week his weekly radio show was preempted for a talk show about the signing of A.C. Green by the Suns.

-- Houston's players and coaches have a combined 30 weekly television and radio shows. Warren Moon has seven himself and Buddy Ryan four. Bucky Richardson, the club's No. 3 quarterback, has his own radio show.

-- Here's an incentive bonus you don't see in very many contracts. Bears fullback Bob Christian gets a $10,000 bonus if he refrains from bow hunting.

Facts and figures

-- The liberalization of intentional grounding hasn't had much of an effect so far on sack totals. Last year, the league averaged 5.09 sacks per game. This year, it's 4.71. Twelve players already have at least five sacks. New Orleans, which led the league in sacks last year with 57, already has 21 in five games.

-- The Redskins have lost four in a row for the first time since 1981, when rookie Coach Joe Gibbs lost five in a row.