Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 26, 1993 TAG: 9312260025
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVE GOLDBERG ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Guess what?
The world didn't end. The year ended with even more dollars in the offing for the league - a new television contract with a new network, Fox, taking the NFC from CBS in a package that will bring the NFL $4.42 billion over the next four years, an increase of about 20 percent.
And that's not counting the $280 million coming when groups representing Jacksonville, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C., pay the franchise fees that will enable them to become the NFL's 29th and 30th teams in 1995.
This was the season that some owners had been dreading for years, the season that most players with more than five years in the NFL were free to sign with any team.
Dozens took advantage - led by Reggie White, who jumped from Philadelphia to Green Bay for a package that paid him an average of $4.5 million over three years, $7 million this year, before next year's salary cap.
But it hardly showed on the field, except perhaps in more ragged play by teams that lost players and absorbed new ones.
As the regular season wound down, there was only one surprise among the contenders for the Super Bowl title won by Dallas 52-17 over Buffalo last season. And that was an old newcomer, the New York Giants, who won NFL titles in the 1986 and 1990 seasons but faded to 14-18 in two seasons under Ray Handley. They rebounded under new coach Dan Reeves to become the first team to clinch a playoff spot this year.
The Giants were competing for the NFC East Division title with the Cowboys, who lost their first two games during Emmitt Smith's holdout, then won seven in a row. They trail the Giants by a game heading toward a showdown Jan. 2 at Giants Stadium.
The other leading contender in the NFC was the same as usual - San Francisco, where Steve Young was combining with Jerry Rice and John Taylor to work the same offensive miracles Joe Montana used to perform.
Montana, meanwhile, was in Kansas City, traded after recovering from an elbow injury that kept him out for nearly two seasons and cost him his starting job. He had the Chiefs vying for the top slot in the AFC with Buffalo and Houston, which recovered from a 1-4 start despite a series of injuries and the suicide of defensive tackle Jeff Alm.
The season's major landmark belonged to Miami coach Don Shula, whose Dolphins beat Philadelphia 19-14 on Nov. 14 to give him his NFL-record 326th victory, one more than George Halas.
Despite playing without quarterback Dan Marino, who tore an Achilles' tendon Oct. 10 in a game against Cleveland, the Dolphins won two more games to improve their record to 9-2 before losing three in a row at home.
One of those victories was an unforgettable 16-14 Thanksgiving Day triumph in the snow in Dallas. Miami got a chance to kick the winning field goal after the Cowboys' Leon Lett mistakenly touched a live ball after a missed field-goal attempt.
But unforgettable games were few in a season in which the norm seemed to be 9-6 and 18-12 games settled entirely by field-goal kickers - San Diego's John Carney kicked six field goals in each of the Chargers' first two victories, but the team scored no touchdowns.
One reason for that was injuries to Marino, Philadelphia's Randall Cunningham and other quarterbacks. The Eagles had won four in a row when Cunningham and wide receiver Fred Barnett went out with injuries, then promptly lost six in a row.
Yet, in this strange season, they remained in marginal contention for a playoff berth with a 6-8 record with two weeks to go. So did Atlanta, also at 6-8 after starting 0-5, then winning five of seven when Deion Sanders returned from the baseball field to revitalize the defense.
Another reason for the decline in offense?
Some football people believed lack of cohesion caused by free agency also caused problems. Green Bay, which signed more free agents than most teams, was erratic, although the Packers were in playoff contention.
Expansion caused more problems.
The owners decided quickly on Charlotte, which will take the field in 1995 as the Carolina Panthers.
But the other favorite, St. Louis, ran into trouble when it changed ownership groups just before the Oct. 25 meeting to pick the teams. So the owners put off the choice for five weeks and by the time they re-convened, there was a consensus for Jacksonville - to be known as the Jaguars - over St. Louis, Baltimore and Memphis.
"The feeling was that the Southeast is a tremendous area for growth," said NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue.
Then, as the season ended, came a major coup for the NFL.
Fox Network, which previously had not been involved extensively in sports, outbid CBS for the lucrative NFC television package, agreeing to pay $1.58 billion over four years, about $100 million a year more than CBS.
That left CBS trying and failing to take the AFC package from NBC, and the outcome was a 20 percent jump in revenue for the NFL at a time when many in the league believed it was about to take a 25 percent cut.
In turn, that increased the inaugural salary cap for 1994 by an estimated $6 million to $8 million a year, allowing teams to re-sign some of the veterans they thought they'd lose, plus add free agents.
Keywords:
YEAR 1993
by CNB