Scorecard

LET'S MAKE A DEAL

With incursions by the USFL presumably the NFL's most pressing problem, the league's owners gathered in Honolulu last week for their annual meetings. Paul Zimmerman reports from Hawaii:

The war party turned into a rummage sale. Proposals for a master plan for dealing with the USFL, e.g., moving up the draft to February or holding a supplemental draft of USFL players, were tabled until the next NFL meetings, in May. Instead, in rapid-fire order:

?The Cowboys were sold on Monday.

?The Broncos were sold on Tuesday.

?The fact that the Chargers are for sale was leaked to the newspapers that same day. In a press conference on Thursday in San Diego, owner Gene Klein confirmed the report, though no buyer has surfaced.

Thus, in the space of one week, two franchises were sold, and a third was made available. What's going on?

"Since the merger agreement in 1966 only four teams had been sold, before this week," commissioner Pete Rozelle said in Honolulu. "Sure, I prefer stability. I love people like the Maras, the Rooneys and the Halases. But if you're looking for a trend here, I'm not sure you can find one. Clint Murchison had to sell the Cowboys because he's sick. Gene Klein said he wasn't enjoying being an owner anymore. And it appears that Edgar Kaiser sold the Broncos for profit. That's not really a trend."

Others disagree.

"It's a seller's market," said Viking vice-president Mike Lynn, "but that'll end soon. Last season someone told me he was interested in buying an NFL franchise. I said, 'Wait till 1987. They'll be going for bargain prices.' Now I'd move that up to '85 or '86."