THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 12, 1995 TAG: 9512120046
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
PERK UP YOUR ears, Norfolk.
Listen to what Fox Broadcasting's John Madden has to say about the Canadian Football League and Norfolk's place in it. The man who coached the Oakland Raiders for 10 seasons - he was given the job at age 32 - says the time is right for another league to challenge the National Football League for the hearts and minds of this country's football fans.
``That entity could be the Canadian Football League,'' said Madden, who helped Home Box Office put together a corking good documentary about a league that had the gall to go head to head against the well-established NFL three decades ago. ``Rebels With a Cause: The Story of the American Football League'' premieres tonight on HBO at 9:45.
Might the Canadian Football League, which in recent years widened its scope to include U.S. cities, be the AFL of the 1990s? ``The timing is perfect for a new league to establish itself as a successful rival to the NFL,'' said Madden. ``There is a major television network (CBS) without a professional football contract and wide open to all possibilities.''
With the transfer of the Shreveport, La., CFL franchise to Norfolk, the team intends to play its games in Foreman Field, if the stadium's landlord, Old Dominion University, approves. Foreman Field was built during the Great Depression of the 1930s as a make-work project. Is this a suitable showcase for a league hoping to divert the fans' attention from the glitzy, glamorous NFL?
After listening to Madden reminisce about the size and deplorable conditions of the playpens that were home to the AFL teams in the league's early years, Foreman Field looks pretty good right now. Before the Oilers had the Astrodome in Houston, they had Jepperson Stadium. Oakland played at Frank Youell Field, Buffalo in old War Memorial Stadium.
HBO's producers called them ``antiquated and inadequate.'' Sound familiar, Norfolk?
``We played in some stadiums that looked as if they were built with an erector set,'' said Madden. ``But the American Football League played and stayed and endured.''
And an upstart league such as the CFL could do the same against the popular, well-financed, television-rich NFL, said Madden. All it takes, said the man regarded by many as the best football analyst on TV, is patience and cash.
You'll need a lot of both, he said.
When the AFL started, its franchises were owned by oil, mining and hotel tycoons with deep pockets. Madden tells the story of multi-millionaire H.L. Hunt, who bought an AFL franchise in Dallas (now the Kansas City Chiefs) as a playtoy for his son, Lamar.
``The old man was reminded early on that Lamar was losing a million dollars a year with the Dallas Texans. `At that rate,' he said, `It will take Lamar 150 years to break me.' The AFL owners let it be known they were here to stay no matter how high the losses. When the money in one pocket ran out, they reached into another pocket.''
The lesson on HBO tonight: It takes a handful of super wealthy, gutsy owners like the Hunts and Hiltons to make a professional football league succeed. After challenging the NFL on and off the field, in the courts, and competing with the old league for talented college players since 1961, the AFL eventually merged its teams with the older league in 1966.
Madden wonders if the CFL has the owners willing to spend and spend until the league establishes itself in the United States and secures the big, fat television contract it needs to prosper. The CFL is one up on the AFL in one department.
The CFL teams wear sharper uniforms.
The AFL was almost laughed out of Denver when the team showed up there with ghastly brown and gold parallel stripes on their stockings. ``In the HBO special,'' said Madden, ``you'll see the team burn those stockings one by one.'' by CNB