Is No News Good News?

NEW ORLEANS — The NFL likes to confine Commissioner Paul Tagliabue’s Super Bowl address to a snappy hour to prevent snoring reporters from drowning him out.

Thirty-five minutes into Friday’s annual tap-dance routine, which included Tagliabue gobbledygook on questions about San Francisco’s stadium situation, New England’s stadium situation, San Diego’s stadium situation, the league’s stance on no champagne in the Super Bowl winner’s locker room, the Dallas Cowboys’ image and declining attendance around the league, a snappy hour was looking like a lifetime.

But then someone wanted to know where Los Angeles fits into the expansion “mix.”

Charged with the obligation of being objective and not tainting anyone’s double talk, Tagliabue’s response:

“Well, obviously Los Angeles would be one part of the mix. Cleveland would be another part of the mix.

“We have not just a commitment to have the Browns back on the field by 1999, but now we have the reality as of this week with Mayor [Michael] White announcing all the goals have been met and the Cleveland Browns will be in a new stadium on the lakefront playing as the Browns in Cleveland in 1999. So that, plus the Los Angeles situation, requires us to look at expansion among other things.

“The popularity of our league, the interest in NFL football in a number of other markets both in the United States and outside of the United States, makes the timing now, particularly as we approach our television negotiations, which will structure our television revenues for the seasons 1998 through 2001, I think we need to look ahead at expansion in the context of all those things.”

Later he was asked about Canada’s chances for expansion.

“As I said earlier, the time is upon us to take the hard look at expansion to 32 teams,” Tagliabue said, while mentioning Toronto and Vancouver as potential expansion sites. “That’s a part of what we’ll be studying in depth for the rest of the year.”

He was asked about the prospect of a team like the Indianapolis Colts moving, and he said, “We have to take a hard look at expansion to deal among other things with Cleveland and Los Angeles,” and he said the league is concerned about stability, although he would not rule out an existing team moving to Cleveland to fill that football void.

Rick Welch, chairman of the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Commission, listened to Tagliabue and gushed, “I thought his remarks were pretty positive.”

Two people listening to the same remarks and hearing two entirely different things.

“Say ‘very’ positive,” said Welch.

Name something he didn’t put a positive spin on.

“Well, that’s probably a fairly good point,” Welch said. “But this is his press conference. Vis-a-vis L.A., I still think he was pretty positive, working on expansion, on a timetable for expansion and addressing moving a team to Los Angeles.”

What timetable did you hear?

“I didn’t hear a timetable for L.A., a specific timetable for L.A.,” Welch acknowledged.

How about a specific timetable for expansion?

“No,” Welch said.

And what did he say about the way in which they are addressing Los Angeles?

“He didn’t comment on specifics,” Welch said.

So where’s this encouragement coming from in regards to Los Angeles?

“I’m encouraged on his remarks in regards to expansion,” Welch said. “Given the process they’ve been talking about with expansion, I think he was relatively bullish.”

The kind of things Tagliabue said at his news conference were the same things he was saying for years at previous news conferences about St. Louis and Baltimore as they kept waiting for the league to come back in the form of expansion. Eventually, they had to steal existing franchises.

Tagliabue didn’t attend a game in Baltimore last season because those people are still angry about the way he used and abused them during the NFL’s lengthy expansion process. Tagliabue’s spin on why he couldn’t make it from New York to Baltimore throughout the 20-week exhibition and regular-season schedule: “I was on the West Coast a lot and just couldn’t get there.”

If he was on the West Coast, he wasn’t in Los Angeles watching football.

“I’m feeling good about what’s happening, not just because of his remarks, but the overall process of what’s happening in Los Angeles,” Welch said. Like many others, he has donated hours and hours of his time trying to put together an enticing proposition centered on a new football stadium built within the Coliseum.

“There’s not a news flash coming out of his press conference,” Welch said, “but we’ve made strong relationships with NFL officials, strong progress on a financing plan, and the commissioner said positive things about expansion, which bode well for the process of bringing a team to Los Angeles.”

Well said by a strong advocate of Los Angeles, but when it comes to expansion, Tagliabue doesn’t even have a vote. It is going to take 23 owners to approve expansion, and many of them are in no mood to expand after the success of Carolina and Jacksonville, who they believe received too many favorable advantages allowing for immediate success.

It cost the owners of Jacksonville and Carolina $200 million each in expansion and TV fees to buy their way into the league, more money to rebuild a stadium in Jacksonville and more money yet to build a new facility in Charlotte.

There is no new stadium in Los Angeles, something Cleveland has already financed and is ready to build. And there’s no identifiable owner in Los Angeles.

“What I got out of the questions and answers with the commissioner was that he’s looking seriously at going up to 32 teams, but not only looking at L.A. and Cleveland, but with Canadian teams and other cities,” said Pat Lynch, Coliseum general manager. “I don’t know if L.A. escapes with any kind of warm feelings that we will be part of the expansion process, and I didn’t leave thinking the owners are ready to expand.

“I think it’s wait and see what happens with Cleveland. If Cleveland gets expansion, then I think our chances are very good. It’s nothing to get excited about now, but the fact they are even talking expansion is positive.”

The NFL is expected to inform Cleveland late this year whether it will fill the football void with an existing team moving there or through expansion.

In the meantime, Los Angeles representatives are working with NFL officials on a Coliseum package. Their presentation to NFL owners last October was a major disappointment, but they insist they have made tremendous progress. The owners will be expecting another update in March at their annual meetings.

Lynch said a dozen Los Angeles-area officials were expected to attend the commissioner’s Super Bowl party Friday night to work the room and make contact with NFL owners.

“Our excitement right now is the fact that the NFL is looking solely at the Coliseum now,” Lynch said. “That is what is making us work that much harder.”

Do the people of Los Angeles care if the NFL returns? If so, will they spend the money to make it happen?

In assembling a financing package for the Coliseum, both Welch and Lynch acknowledge it’s going to require public funds to work.

“I think we can do it with an achievable number that will sell to the public,” Welch said. “It’s going to require public money. Will the public accept, if properly educated, the contribution and investment of some public money? Absolutely.”

Just a suggestion, but when it comes time to educating the people in Los Angeles, that might be the ideal time for Tagliabue to take that trip to Baltimore.

A DIE-HARD

Green Bay receiver Don Beebe played for the Buffalo Bills and lost four Super Bowls, but he refuses to give the NFC credit for producing the better teams.

“I don’t believe that for a second,” Beebe said.

“I never thought we’d ever lose one of those Super Bowls, even the fourth one. I was more confident in the fourth one than I was going into the first one. We just gave the games away.”

IN QUOTATIONS

Green Bay Coach Mike Holmgren on New England Coach Bill Parcells: “He’s larger than life.”

Parcells’ reply after glancing down at his belly: “I know I’m larger than a lot of things. I don’t think life is one of them.”

Jerry Stiller, who plays the role of Vince Lombardi in TV commercials, will miss the Super Bowl because he has a role in a New York play.

“Vince would understand,” Stiller said. “He’d say, ‘Go be an actor.’ ”

GIVE IT UP

Denver cornerback Randy Hilliard lives two blocks from the Superdome, and from the third floor of his home you can see the New Orleans landmark and site of Super Bowl XXXI.

“Since I’ve gotten back from Denver, I haven’t even gone up there,” Hilliard said. “No, check that. I went up there once, but I would not look out the window. Just wouldn’t. It’s off limits until after the Super Bowl. Until then, I’m trying to stay away from it.”

The Broncos were heavy favorites to be playing in that building Sunday but were upset by Jacksonville, which lost to New England.

“I’m hurt, my family’s hurt, the team’s hurt, I know Denver’s hurt,” Hilliard said. “The thing about it is, you look at the team who made it, New England, and it is the team that you beat two years in a row at their place. Not only did you beat them, you stomped them. Two years in a row. But they’re in the Super Bowl and you’re not.”

BEST ANONYMOUS QUOTE

After hearing of Dick Vermeil’s hiring as Ram coach after a 15-year hiatus, an NFL executive, who didn’t want his name used, said, “That guy who does those Vince Lombardi commercials has a shot too.”

*

* FATALITY

A halftime performer is killed in practice bungee jump in Superdome. C10

* XXXII

The Rose Bowl is ready and able to handle next year’s game if San Diego’s bid falls apart. C12