Now He’s NFL Agent for Hollywood Park

Agent Leigh Steinberg is the first to admit there were no winners from his Save the Rams campaign. They moved to St. Louis, where they still haven’t been saved.

But while he was unable to prevent an NFL team from leaving the L.A. territory, that doesn’t mean he won’t be successful in bringing one here.

Steinberg said this week he is close to presenting the NFL with a group of local investors that would own and operate an expansion team for a proposed new stadium at Hollywood Park.

“I don’t want to be seen as the person who stopped the Coliseum from getting pro football,” Steinberg said. “I’ve said all along that the Coliseum is a tremendous benefit for Los Angeles and ought to be given every chance to do it.

“But we have waited and waited. If we continue to wait, our window of opportunity is going to close and it’s going to be a long time before the NFL returns to Los Angeles.

“The reality is, someone has to take charge.”

Steinberg prefers Hollywood Park over other potential sites such as South Park and Dodger Stadium because it’s the only one that could guarantee a new stadium in time for the 2000 or 2001 seasons.

Steinberg wouldn’t identify the investors, preferring to introduce them to the NFL first.

Then he’s out of it. They’ll be on their own to fight the inevitable battles with other sites, including the politically connected Coliseum, and win over those NFL owners, perhaps the majority, who either don’t want expansion or don’t care about Los Angeles or both.

Steinberg won’t invest. As an agent for some of the league’s richest quarterbacks, such as Steve Young and Troy Aikman, experience tells him he’d rather sit across the table from owners than become one of them.

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Ava Shah wears a No. 33 Abdul-Jabbar jersey to work every Friday. . . .

So sue her. . . .

“That name doesn’t belong to any one man,” Karim Abdul-Jabbar’s mother says of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s lawsuit. “It belongs to the religion.” . . .

Furthermore, she says Karim doesn’t wear No. 33 because it was the former Laker center’s number. . . .

“He wears it because it was Tony Dorsett’s number,” she says. . . .

Not even Dennis Rodman could rattle NBA referee Violet Palmer, which came as no surprise to Shah. . . .

All of Shah’s children, including Karim, have worked for Palmer during summers at Rancho Cienega Park in the Crenshaw district. . . .

“They called her ‘Super Trooper,’ ” Shah said. “Nobody messed with Violet, not even grown men.” . . .

Eastern bias was evident when only four Western teams earned berths in the NCAA women’s soccer tournament. . . .

One of them wasn’t USC, which, despite a 16-3-1 record, was the only top 25 team not invited. . . .

The UCLA men’s soccer team can be assured of joining the Bruin women in postseason play by beating Stanford for the conference championship Sunday at Spaulding Field. . . .

Houston Aero Coach Dave Tippett doesn’t want his players crashing the net when they play the Long Beach Ice Dogs at the Long Beach Arena on Friday and Saturday. . . .

If Ice Dog goalie Jamie Storr is injured, that will delay his return to the Kings. . . .

That, in turn, would delay King backup Frederic Chabot’s return to the Aeros. . . .

E-Two: Steve Lavin has declared himself a corporation, but not a nonprofit one. . . .

The Dodgers are the nonprofit corporation. . . .

It’s probably not a coincidence that the Dodgers leaked a story about their financial losses a few days after Mike Piazza’s agent gave them a February deadline to negotiate a new deal. . . .

That probably also will be their excuse if they don’t make a serious effort to sign free agents Brady Anderson or Kenny Lofton. . . .

Or maybe they’re considering that long-rumored trade that would send Ismael Valdes to the Angels for Jim Edmonds. . . .

On Saturday night in Anaheim, the Assn. of Professional Ballplayers of America will hold its 73rd annual banquet. . . .

The idea for the organization emerged in 1924 during a session among 12 ballplayers at Dinty Moore’s saloon on 7th Street in Los Angeles. . . .

It has raised millions of dollars for ill and indigent veterans of organized baseball at all levels, including players, managers, coaches, scouts, trainers and umpires. . . .

There’s no truth to the rumor that this year’s recipients are the Dodgers.

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While wondering if Peter O’Malley could get an advance from Rupert Murdoch, I was thinking: I bet Mike Ditka wishes some days he was back in the studio, Rodman really shouldn’t comment about someone else’s hair, Rod Milburn came along in track and field about a decade too late.