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Al Davis
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Watergate was a robbery. "Monicagate" was a series of assignations. I
don’t know if what has gone down at 280 Park Ave. could be referred to as some sort
of "gate," but I do know this: I don’t like it.
I don’t like the idea of an "executive compensation fund" having been
created for the purpose of enriching Paul Tagliabue and other NFL panjandrums.
Tagliabue’s salary is $5 million per year. If the league believes he should be
further rewarded, it should grant him a raise. This business about the NFL’s finance
committee surreptitiously — I didn’t know about it, did you? — establishing
a fund reportedly worth near $100 million to benefit its executives smacks of, at the
least, a sharp practice.
Should Tagliabue have supped from this fund, in my thinking he has diminished himself
and his office.
The matter of the compensation fund was the subject of a recent Atlanta meeting of the
league’s executive committee, summoned by Al Davis, which is his right as the steward
of the Oakland Raiders. Davis showed up in Atlanta accompanied by five attorneys and
wearing a dark pin-striped suit rather than his customary white exercise outfits, which
suggested, I suppose, that fun and games were not what Al had in mind.
Davis’ thrust, as it was detailed by Joseph Alioto, one of his attorneys, was that
"fraud and corruption" exist in the NFL’s highest chambers. To support this
argument, Davis’ interests presented a 60-page document during a meeting that lasted
five hours, with Davis given 90 minutes to present his case.
Before he went to Georgia, Davis was aware his brief would not be favorably received by
his fellow warlords. As he had expected, the committee rallied behind Tagliabue, voting
28-0 (with Davis and Jerry Jones of Dallas abstaining and Seattle absent at the time of
the balloting) not to pursue a formal investigation of Davis’ charges.
Not every owner, however, agreed that Davis’ allegations were totally without
merit.
"I would say there was criticism, yes," Jones said, "but wrongdoing,
no."
Might the NFL do well to institute a better system of checks and balances on its
executives?
"I wouldn’t use that term," Jones said. "I prefer to say that the
process should be fixed. There is no process that is not flawed."
Within six weeks, the executive committee, made up of each club’s ranking officer,
is to gather again at a site to be selected to take what a source termed "corrective
action" concerning the process to which Jones was referring.
Right here, I want to applaud Davis’ action. Every league — no, every
organization — should have someone like him who is unafraid to cry out concerning
possible misdeeds. Because it was Davis who acted, however, the stance he assumed in
Atlanta was largely dismissed by the media.
The Los Angeles Times, to cite one publication, made note (about three days
late) of what the allegations were, then reported that it was Davis who made them.
"Oh," said the Times. The newspaper’s implication seemed to be
that Davis is some sort of a loon and that anything he would champion should be regarded
as mere foolishness.
The Times would do well to review Davis’ history in this game. His actions
unanimously have been supported by the courts, including his shift of the Raiders from
Oakland to Los Angeles. For that, Davis is owed a great debt by the other members of the
ownership lodge; he gave them, in effect, the "franchise free agency" that has
profited them mightily.
In 1980, NFL franchises were valued at about $20 million apiece. Today, some are valued
at as much as $1 billion, which is 1,000 times a million, for those of you who are
arithmetically challenged.
Editor's note: Jerry Magee has covered pro football for the San Diego Union-Tribune
since 1961 and for PFW since its inception since 1967. |
