WHAT DOES THE N.F.L. STAND for? That's a question pro football fans are asking in Cleveland, Houston, Chicago, Tampa, Phoenix, Seattle and Cincinnati--all cities whose professional football teams are threatening to leave. It's the same question once asked by fans in Los Angeles, Baltimore, St. Louis, Oakland and New York--all cities whose teams did abandon them in the 1980s and '90s. No Fixed Location? No Fan Loyalty? National Flux League?
What does the N.F.L. stand for? Could it be...greed? How else do you explain the Arizona Cardinals making eyes at Los Angeles just seven years after they moved from St. Louis to Phoenix? How else do you explain Al Davis moving his Raiders back to Oakland after he cost the N.F.L. $50 million in legal fees and damages by moving them to Los Angeles? How else do you explain Art Modell betraying the most loyal fans in pro football by taking his Browns from Cleveland to Baltimore? How else do you explain the blood on the hands of the Baltimoreans who are giving Modell a $200 million stadium in order to replace the Colts, who were spirited away 11 years ago in moving vans bound for Indianapolis? "Baltimore Browns?" wrote columnist Michael Olesker of the Baltimore Sun. "Come on, call 'em The Revenge and make those lowlifes...read the name in the newspapers the rest of their miserable lives and be reminded of what they've brought to a business that once claimed to have some honor."
Despite assurances from Commissioner Paul Tagliabue that the N.F.L. is merely going through some "growing pains," the league is in the midst of a crisis that may reduce it to a television sport played in boutique stadiums in smaller markets. Luxury boxes and personal-seat licenses (the fee patrons must pay for the right to buy season tickets) have thrown loyalty and history for a loss--unless you're a fan who longs for the N.F.L. days of the Staten Island Stapletons and Decatur Staleys. Consider that if the Chicago Bears (who actually began in Decatur, Illinois) move to Gary, Indiana, as they're threatening to, the N.F.L. will have two more teams playing in the state of Indiana than it has in the decidedly major cities of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Cities all over the N.F.L. map are being subjected to what Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont said last week are "the extortionate demands of insatiable owners."
Leahy serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on antitrust, business rights and competition, which last week convened a hearing to explore ways to protect fans and cities from franchise hopping. "If you take a look at the camera banks outside, they outnumber Whitewater and Bosnia," said Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. True, but the real spectacle outside the hearing room in the Dirksen building was the 200-member Dawg Pound. These avid Browns fans lined up along the wall in the hallway dressed in their team colors and various canine guises. When Tagliabue passed by, they implored him to Save the Browns. "Paul," begged one of man's best friends, "don't let Modell take our team away."