Like so many people, I had a special relationship with former NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, himself a special man.
It wasn’t easy because I covered the Oakland Raiders and was close to Al Davis, whose differences with the NFL and Rozelle are well known. I also covered the San Francisco 49ers, and had a good relationship with owner Eddie DeBartolo, who had his issues with Rozelle, and vice versa.
If that wasn’t enough, I really liked the USFL and was friends with Gene Upshaw, the NFLPA president then executive director.
But Pete was a rare person who could rise above differences and find common ground, some basic humanity, on which to maintain honest interaction, regardless of the persistent noise and disruption.
Our country could use a Pete Rozelle right now.
On Wednesday, I was rummaging through our archives in search of something worthy of a Throwback Thursday post and came upon an open letter to Rozelle I did exactly 42 years ago today (July 18, 1982).
In it, I admonished Rozelle for uncharacteristically disappearing as concerns mounted about an NFL under siege on multiple fronts.
Here is that letter. Later I will share some personal moments between myself and Rozelle.
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Is Raiders' Pressure Getting to Rozelle?
By Frank Cooney Examiner staff writer
To Pete Rozelle, Commissioner, National Football League:
I understand life at the office is so hectic these days that you don’t have time to chat anymore. Too bad, because there is so much to discuss. The league has more intriguing plots than the afternoon soaps.
When your director of information, Dick Maxwell, said you granted only two interviews in the last two weeks, it was gratifying to know that they were both with Bay Area folks. Shows you haven’t forgotten your roots. (Oh yeah, USF, where you started in the sports business, is in hot water with the NCAA again.)
By the way, Howard Cosell was very disappointed when you turned down a chance to speak up on ABC-TV with him. And execs at CBS felt jilted when you refused their offer of free air time.
Such disappointment is compounded because accessibility used to be one of your most impressive traits. Remember when you would phone during the NFL meetings in Hawaii just to see how USF was doing in the NCAA playoffs? Ah, but those were better days for the league and the school.
Bet (oops, sorry about that word) you have been kept awake nights thinking about all the league's problems—negotiations, or lack of same, with the players association; drug use in the league, the specter of the new United States Football League starting business; and, as always, Al Davis and the Raiders.
By the way, Pete, should we call them the Los Angeles Raiders or the Oakland Raiders? You hinted a week ago that the league was getting ready to take some action to counter Davis' contract to play the 1982 season in the Los Angeles Coliseum. Haven’t heard a word since then.
SOME FOLKS, like my boss, who is wondering why we can't have a simple conversation with you, have suggested that because of all the league's problems that you are becoming paranoid of the press. How silly. Right?
There also have been questions as to whether the owners want the league to continue its expensive pursuit of the Oakland Raiders. You already said that the owners agreed unanimously (minus Davis, of course) at the March league meeting in Phoenix to exhaust all means.
But after losing the anti-trust trial, for which the demands for damages total more than $200 million, we were curious if the owners were still so gung-ho.
Especially after reading in the Dallas Morning News that the owners first voted 17-10 in Phoenix to settle with Davis if the anti-trust suit was lost, but you talked things over until the vote came out to your liking.
You’ll be glad to hear that our poll of the owners, conducted with the help of other journalists who are also awaiting your return call, showed that the majority of clubs still strongly back you against Davis.
EXECUTIVES FROM 10 teams said flatly they were on your side because they feared the repercussions of allowing a move. Five others were reported to side with you, although such word came through PR departments. Eight either had no comment or could not be reached.
But four owners, including a couple who have had lease problems recently, were not exactiy wholeheartedly behind you. And about that 17-10 vote, or even a straw poll — nobody seems to remember such a thing. So much for rumors from Dallas. In fact Bill Walsh, the head coach of the 49ers who had so many unpleasant things to say about the league last season, confirmed that there was no such vote. Said Walsh, who was assigned by team owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr. to sit in on the executive sessions: '1 don't remember any 17-10 vote one way or the other on the subject of the Raiders. But I don't remember a unanimous vote, either."
And you might be interested in DeBartolo's comments because his was one of the 10 votes to pursue the Oakland Raiders’ case.
Said DeBartolo: "I think the general feeling of most of the owners is that the league could suffer great harm if we simply allow the Raiders to move. You might ask if, after losing round one of the anti-trust case, we are now throwing good money after bad. But I believe if we have the slightest chance to win this thing that we should go after it."
Another NFC team owner, who refused to be named, said that of all the problems, the Oakland Raiders’ situation was by far the most dangerous to the league:
"The problem with the players association is a tough one but, like management everywhere, we have to face this every few years. I hope we don't have a strike, but if we do, well work it out and survive. Baseball did. And while cocaine is a serious problem, it's main impact is on our image. We've survived drug problems before. That won’t destroy the league, either. The USFL? There's no point in worrying about that now. Maybe it will go away like the WFL. Or maybe we can co-exist.”
But if the Raiders are allowed to move, there's no telling what the next crazy owner will take it in his head to do. Sign a college junior, like Herschel Walker … move the team to Phoenix because his wife has hay fever.
"First we have to beat this Raider case, then we have to rewrite our constitution so it isn't so vulnerable. We tried to rewrite it a few years ago, but obviously, we didn't do too well. It's antiquated in approach, and today's judges are too liberal to support it. Sure, the bill we have pending in Congress will help avoid some anti-trust conflicts, but that's like using a band-aid to cure cancer."
Enough of that stuff. Hey, read any good magazines lately? Like the August "Sport"? How about that Q & A with Davis?
He says you wanted to save Los Angeles for your very own expansion team. Is that right? And he says you have deployed the league's gambling security force as a "personal gestapo" that is used "unfairly on owners and players." Is that right?
And how about that letter that NFLPA president Gene Upshaw sent to Denver quarterback Craig Morton. It seems that Uppy threatened old Craig with bodily harm for speaking out against the union. Will the league allow such threats? Will Uppy be fined?
One more thing. There have been some misguided rumors lately that you will retire if the Raiders win their case. There are vague references to something you said before Super Bowl XV which allegedly implied such a thing. We keep setting them straight, however.
Here is what you said on that January 1981 day when asked if you would retire if the league lost its anti-trust case: "I don't know if I would stay or not. I would have to see if I still enjoyed what I was doing."
Well, hope you are enjoying what you are doing whatever it is. Please get in touch ASAP and let's chat. Otherwise, see you this season ... if there is one.
As Always ...
Image of that story:
A few months later, amidst a players strike, with more Raiders success in the courts and the specter of the USFL looming large, we met at a hotel bar for a drink. Pete struck his usual pose, sitting backward on a tilted chair, cigarette burning and drink in hand.
“Get my letter?” I asked, to which he just laughed.
"Lots of things happening and they all need immediate attention,” he said. “Not complaining. It’s the job. I miss some of the fun, like those late-night calls about USF basketball.”
Rozelle was THE former PR department for the University of San Francisco, and the Dons were flying high in the late ‘70s. I covered and traveled with the team. Rozelle would phone my paper, find out where I was staying and call me, often well after midnight.
But our business relationship was not always amiable.
In the late 1970s, Rozelle told fans in Minneapolis that the team and region would not ignore the need for a new stadium “in perpetuity.” At the owner's meeting the next month, I asked, several different ways, if he would tell the same thing to Raiders fans.
After my third version of the question, Rozelle barked, “Frank, if you have any more of Al’s questions, then ask them after the press conference so we don’t waste everybody’s time.”
I was fuming. When Pete left the podium, I was charging at him up the center aisle. Executive assistant Joe Browne jumped between us, saying “boys, boys let’s go in the other room and discuss this.”
There we were in a bar again with Rozelle backward on a tilted chair, a cigarette and a drink.
“Yea, I shouldn’t have said that,” he offered.
“Little late now,” I countered.
“I’ll apologize at tomorrow’s press conference,” he said. And he did, for all the good it did.
Rozelle retired in March of 1989 and I didn’t see him again until we were both at a Super Bowl. Joe Browne, the same guy who held us apart at that owner’s meeting, summoned me to the hotel lobby to meet with Rozelle.
“You guys should probably get together,” Browne said, then left us to talk.
Pete did not look well. This time, there was no tilted chair, no drink, and he had given up cigarettes. We sat and talked about, well, lots of things, including Al. We stood and hugged it out as if that would be the last time we talked.
And it was.
Pete died of brain cancer Dec. 7, 1996. He was 70.
Great article/Letter!!
Frank:
Your OPEN LETTER TO ROZELLE was outstanding and brought back many, many great memories!
NinersJDub