Banner Graphic, Volume 5, Number 283, Greencastle, Putnam County, 31 January 1975 — Page 12
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Rozelle Rule controversy escalates to
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The continuing legal attack against pro football and its methods of binding a player to one team escalates Monday when the National Football League’s controversial Rozelle Rule goes on trial in federal court here.
‘...if the abolitionists got their way’ SPORTS OF THE TIMES THE FLESH MARKET By RED SMITH (c) 1975 New York Times News Service New York -- At 10 A.M.precisely, Pete Rozelle took his stance at the front of the room and addressed a microphone in patently reasonable terms: “Order in the court! ” With those words the supreme being of professional football opened the National Football League’s annual auction of human flesh, the draft of college boys which Judge William P. Schweikert of the United States District Court has ruled patently unreasonable and illegal. In spite of the court’s finding, not to say in defiance of it, the roping and branding of educated livestock went on in the New York Hilton Tuesday as usual, if not more so. More than ever before, it turned out to be a spectator sport accompanied by cheers’ boos and catcalls just as though the New York Giants were losing another. Rozelle looked patently reasonable in a sincere suit with a tie of regimental stripes. Behind him was an electric scoreboard showing which team was laying claim to which immortal soul in w'hat order, with a digital clock ticking off the minutes allowed each slaver to make a choice. In front of the commissioner, representatives of 26 teams sat at 26 desks, each connected by telephone to his home office where decisions would be made. Beyond the desks, fenced off by long tables covered with green baize and set end-to-end, were several hundred spectators. Most of them were young, all wore expressions so avid they gave the impression of panting, and two or three wore neckties. The first of 442 bodies to be claimed, Rozelle announced, would be selected by the Atlanta Falcons. The words were hardly out of his mouth when he was handed a slip with a name inked in. “The Falcons,” he said, “select Steve Bartkowski, University of California.” It was the most dramatic line in the whole show, and it laid an egg. Every listener had known all along that Atlanta would go for the big quarterback from Berkeley. “Next choice,” Rozelle said, “the Dallas Cowboys, from the New York Giants.” Four minutes later the Cowboys picked Randy White, a defensive end from Maryland. Somebody announced that he would be employed as a linebacker. Behind the green baize tables, the cognoscenti nodded knowingly. After the Baltimore Colts picked Ken Huff, a North Carolina, Rozelle told the press: “Steve Bartkowski is on the way to New York. He will be available for interviews about 12:30. ” The Chicago Bears chose Walter Payton, running back from Jackson State, and a man in the front row booed. He wore glasses and a yellow shirt open at the throat and his lap was loaded with documents. He identified himself as a Chicago businessman in New York for a convention. He was disappointed that the Bears had not grabbed a lineman. As the traffic in people went on, the gallery grew more and more crowded, more and more vocal. Each name brought gasps, hoots, small animal sounds. The crowd grew tense as the New York Jets got their turn, 12th in line. “Gentlemen,” Rozelle said, “We have a trade on this pick. The Jets have traded this pick for Billy Newsome, defensive end of New Orleans.” There were small noises suggesting disgust. The Saints used the turn to put the irons on Ohio State’s offensive tackle, Kurt Schumacher. It took two hours and five minutes to complete the first round. By then the bulging gallery had shoved the green tables out into the main arena and a cop was breasting the tide. The tide was cheering, for now' the Giants, having traded their first-round turn for Craig Morton, were getting into the act. Vic Del Guercio, the Giants’ director of special projects, clutched a red telephone, the hot line to Pleasantville, N.Y., where the club’s best brains were whirring. They whirred for 7 minutes, 35 seconds. Then: “The Giants select Allen Simpson, offensive tackle, Colorado State.” An unknown. Horrified silence. Then hoots, howls, boos. Jim Kensil, the league’s executive director, laid hold of the mike. He was patently disapproving. “I'd like to remind the fans in the back that they booed Tom Mullen last year.” The guard from Southwest Missouri State is a good one. Bartkowski arrived, a beautiful hunk of man with a lush blond hairdo, a symphonv in blue - blue jacket, shirt, tie and eyes. He sat with great hands clasped between knees and said it felt great to be number one. “Off and on I dreamed of it a couple of times,” he confessed. He said he didn’t understand “all the details” of Judge Schweikert’s decision but “it seems to me pro football would fall apart if there wasn’t a draft.” A history buff from Long Island nodded. “When they put it up to Nat Turner,” he said, “he said the cotton fields would go to seed if the abolitionists got their way.”
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The trial, before U.S. District Court Judge Earl R. Lawson, is on a suit brought by the NFL Players Association. It seeks to have the Rozelle Rule declared a violation of antitrust laws because it allegedly prevents a player from freely negotiating
his services. The rule, named after league commissioner Pete Rozelle, states that any team signing a player who has become a free agent must compensate that player’s former team. It already has been declared illegal and a violation of antitrust laws by a federal judge in the Joe Kapp case in San Francisco. However, this suit, brought originally by former Baltimore Colt John Mackey and now car-
Perfect execution brings 117-115 win In-bounds play lifts Knicks over Hawks
By The Associated Press “It was perfect,” said Red Holtzman of the New York Knicks. “It was awful,” noted Cotton Fitzsimmons of the Atlanta Hawks. The coaches expressed obvious reactions after watching what happened in their National Basketball Association game Thursday night. The Knicks executed a play to perfection at the last second, setting up a basket by John Gianelli that beat the stunned Hawks 117-115 in an exquisitely close contest. With time running out, Gianelli slipped behind a screen and tossed in a layup at the wic —— Continued from page IB and the 138 -Hwt on the grey mat, with crossovers if one group finishes before the others. Ten minutes after the completion of the first round the second will begin, with the lunch break scheduled tentatively for 11:30-12:30. The consolation round will begin at 1 p.m., with just one mat employed, with the championship round to start somewhere in the vicinity of 2 o’clock, possibly earlier with a number of pins in the consolation matches. Brazil and West Vigo both will pose outside shots at the title on the basis of a few strong wrestlers apiece, while Clinton has been hurt recently by the loss of three grapplers through ineligibility. The Wildcats Still have, however, 145 pounder Kent Kirkman, who will bring in with him a 13-0-1 record and number one seeding in his division. An interesting matchup may well develop there in the championship round if Sullivan's Don Hall (11-2) can get by Greencastle’S Lee Pingleton, last year’s WIC champ at 138 who this year carries a 7-2 record. Both of Hall’s losses this year have come to Kirkman, but Greencastle fans are hoping that no score will be settled on that account Saturday. One more returning WIC champion besides Pingleton will be on the mats this year, he also having moved up a weight class That’s Shaun Cahill of Schulte, this year’s number one seed at 112 with a 13-1 slate. Cahill was also last year’s Greencastie sectional champ at 105, as was 119 pounder Tamar of West Vigo, but last year this Viking wrestled at 98, Grapplers who last year took second in the conference meet and are back for an improvement of one place are Boling of Greencastle, Doug Roman of Schulte (number one seed at 126 with an 11-1 record), McFarlin of Brazil at 155, Akers of West Vigo and Riley of Clinton. Admission price to the action at McAnally is SI.OO for one session (morning or afternoon) or $1.50 for both sessions. “If we get help from another team we should be able to repeat,” concluded Layton. “We’re going to go in and just wrestle."
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rying the name of 16 present and former players, is different in scope from the Kapp case. The Kapp case basically was an attack on the NFL’s standard player contract, but it also resulted in the ruling against the Rozelle Rule, a decision which the league is appealing. The Mackey case is aimed at the Rozelle Rule. That rule is part'of the NFL’s constitution and bylaws. It was on the books before Rozelle be-
buzzer. “It went perfectly,” said Gianelli. “We have used the play before, but it never developed that well before tonight.” In the night’s other NBA games, the Houston Rockets stopped the Detroit Pistons 10388 and the Buffalo Braves whipped the Cleveland Cavaliers 9791. In the American Basketball Association, the Denver Nuggets beat the Spirits of St. Louis 123-111 and the San Antdnio Spurs ripped the Utah Stars 118102. Gianelli’s winning basket erased a brilliant Atlanta comeback that had seen the Hawks overcome an 18-point
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came commissioner, but he invoked it and it took on his name. It works this way: A player becomes a free agent by playing out his “option” year, which is one year beyond the length of his contract. When that year is over, he may negotiate with other NFL teams for his services. If one of the teams signs him to a contract, it must compensate the player’s former club. If the teams don’t agree
deficit with 9:25 left in the third quarter. Atlanta went ahead late in the game before the Knicks reeled off six straight points on two free throws, a basket by Phil Jackson and a 20-foot jumper by Walt Frazier. The Hawks came back with a six-point flurry by Mike Sojourner and Tom Henderson, who sank a pair of driving layups in the final 40 seconds to tie the game at 115-115. The Knicks, whipping the Hawks for the fourth straight time this year, then called time out to set up the last-second play. Frazier dropped a long inbounds pass from midcourt to Gianelli, who was all alone
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district court trial
on the compensation, Rozelle makes the decision. He has done so four times in 14 years. The players’ association contends the rule kills a player’s chance to make his services available on the market because the team that signs him doesn’t know who the commissioner will take in exchange. The suit asks the court to permanently enjoin the league from using the rule and to pay damages to the 16 plantiffs who
after slipping around a screen. He went high in the air and laid the shot in for the victory. Rockets 103, Pistons 88 Rudy Tomjanovich scored 30 points and young centers Kevin Kunnert and Steve Hawes cleared the boards to lead Houston over Detroit. The victory was Houston’s fourth in five games. Braves 97, Cavaliers 91 Bob McAdoo maintained his league-leading scoring pace with 37 points, sparking Buffalo over Cleveland. Nuggets 123, Spirits 111 Mack Calvin and Ralph Simpson scored 28 points each to spark Denver past St. Louis.
filed it. Rozelle and team owners have said previously that elimination of the Rozelle Rule could destroy the NFL. They say the richest teams would win buy the best players, ruining the league’s balance and thus destroying its broad base of support. They say the league’s setup Is aimed at improving weaker teams; for example, teams draft college players and pick up players on waivers in the reverse order of the standings. A players association spokesman said it’s unreasonable to assume the rich teams would get all the talent. He said many players want to play for a particular team or in a particular town for reasons other than money. For instance, he said a player might not want to play tor a coach he
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considers racist; he might not want to be tied to a team he consideres tight with salaries; he might not want to Stay where he’s playing behind an All-Pro. This suit was filed in May 1972 by the players association and Mackey as a class action, but was reduced to 16 plaintiffs after the league opposed the class-action status. Plaintiffs now include Alan Page and Nate Wright of Minnesota, Ken Bowman of Green Bay, Marlin Briscoe of Miami, John Williams and Bill Curry of Los Angeles, Dan Conners of Oakland, Tom Keating of Kansas City, Gene Washington of Denver, Charlie West of Detroit, and retired plavers Ocie Austin,Dick Gordon, Kermir Alexander, John Henderson, Clint Jones and Mackey. The trial could be lengthy, with up to 75 witnesses called.