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Black Franchise Move Fizzling'By MARTY BELLFour weeks ago a report out of the Boston Rec-ord-American sneaked into little hidden filler boxes in many papers around the country. The uncredited story claimed that Sammy Davis, Harry Belafonte, Jim Brown, John Mackey and a group of prominent black businessmen were bidding for a NFL franchise to be housed in Memphis and called the Memphis Kings in honor of the Reverend Martin Luther King.After this initial blurb the story was not mentioned again in the press. None of the local sports-writers picked it up and looked into it any further. And yet the announcement is very significant and raises some important questions about the league and the nation.A black-owned sports franchise has been spoken about for years in this country but none has gotten any serious consideration from any of the official people who can make it a reality. The sports-writers, who re usually so active in arousing the public’s emotions concerning new or moved teams have not dealt actively with the idea. I finally traced the original story to Pat Horne who covers the Pats for the Record-American. But he was sitting on his scoop and refused to reveal anything. Instead of throwing a very public issue outto the public and building the needed vocal support,he is selfishly sitting on it until a definitive move is made and he becomes a prophet.BUT THE WHOLE STORY must be made public now. The first question that must be asked ofcourse is whether or not the National Football League is looking to expand. I went to the Commissioner’s office with this question and a representative of Mr. Rozelle repeated his boss’ statement that was made when Mayor Lindsay first approached him about the new N. Y. franchise. Yes, the league does expect to expand in this decade; 32 teams is the logical number for balance. But no, there is no timetable and none has been discussed at league meetings. The commissioner wants to see the present set up stablized before any new moves are made.The representative also said that he read the same report which I had but that the office hadroundTheLoopTALK OF the NFL these days is former Texas Christian University Quarterback Kent Nix. Nix came off the bench in the Chicago Bears first regular season game to throw a touchdown pass that beat Pittsburgh, 17-15.Then he REALLY surprised everybody. He came on the field in the fourth quarter and threw touchdown passes of 36 and 19 yarls to Dick(jordon and beat none other than the Minnesota Vikings, 20-17.Ironically, both Pittsburgh and Minnesota had traded Nix. Look out (ireen Bay Packers! The Packers also traded away Kent. Chicago plays (ireen Bay, Nov. 17.“What would be great,” said Nix, “is to beat all three of the teams that released me.Chicago’s starting quarterback, Jack Con-cannon, told Kent, “All you throw is touchdown passes. 1 can’t stand showoffs.”♦ * *BALTIMORE COLT insiders tell us JohnnyInitas’ arm is fine. They say it isn’t what it wasin his prime but that it’s as good as it has been the* last few years.Another oldtimer, (ieorge Blanda, answered people who keep asking him why he doesn’t coach.“I’m not interested right now,” said George.“Hell, I’m too old for coaching. I’ll be 45 nextSeptember. Who wants tobea 45-year-old coach.”♦ ♦ *Cincinnati's 20-17 setback to (ireen Bay Sundaywas costly in more ways than one. Bengal safetyKen Dyer suffered a spinal injury which a team physician said apparently paralyzed Dyer from the neck down. In all probability, Dyer will never play football again. Also, Cincinnati lost star quarterback Virgil Carter in the game when he sustained a shoulder separation.* * *What’s happening up at Pittsburgh? The Steelers are looking like the toughest team around as far as defense in concerned. They’ve allowed only three touchdowns to be scored against them in the first three games. Pittsburgh had a 2-1-0 reading, including two in a row now, after Sunday’s win over San Diego.fr * 4Okay Cowboy fans, remember Jim O’Brien?He s the Baltimore field goal kicker who providedthe difference for the Colts in the Super Bowl.Well sir, O'Brien is off to a rapid start thisseason. He booted field goals of 42, 11 and 50yards against New England Sunday in Baltimore's23-3 win. He has now hit nine consecutive three-point attempts.♦ * *Speaking of field goal kickers, New Orleans’ Charlie Durkee must be feeling pretty good this week. He Kicked a 37-yard field goal in the last nine second of play to give his team a 13-13 deadlock with Houston Sunday. Houston, you mayrecall, had released Durkee ear lier in the season.not officially been approached as of yet.Searching out who was involved, I found both Mr. Davis’ and Mr. Belafonte’s offices denying the rumor and I was finally led to Rommie Loudd, the director of Player Personnel for the New England Patriots.Mr. Loudd is a former defensive backfield coach and a very knowledgeable and respected football man.HE WOULDN’T DENY the rumors but said that he was not at liberty to tell just who might be involved at this time.‘‘About a year ago,” he said, “I was interested in putting together an All-Star game in Memphis to honor Martin Luther King’s birthday, but the game never got off the ground.”“Since then there have been other projects mentioned. We have talked sports with Mrs. Coretta King who patents his name and she is very interested. In fact she did lend his name to thePenn Relays which are now the Martin Luther King relays.”The move and all that will come with it is very vital to the nation. This will be the most widely known black owned and operated business in the country. The glamour industries already have seen the Negro Ensemble Company in New York and Melvin Van Peebles is producing his own films,but neither gets the coverage or recognition that football automatically demands.A BLACK FRANCHISE will not just be confined to the local following that embraces most league teams. Blacks all over the country will become avid rooters. Blacks on other teams will want to see the team do well. Those black players who are dissatisfied with their present situations (and even some whoare satisfied) will want to be traded to the new club.And so if this team is going to become a reality it is going to have to be done right. The first step in the right direction is to forget Memphis right now. The club should be housed in large urban center where the audience that it wants will be able to see it and where it will get the proper press coverage to be accessible to a national following.The two NFL games that were played in Mem phis this pre-season drew only 22,474 (Atlanta -Denver) and 28,082 (Jets-New England). And the lack of proper coverage throughout the career of a Hank Aaron in Milwaukee and Atlanta shows what small town press does to sports.On the other hand, the Whitney Young Memorial game in Yankee stadium sold out the 67,000 high priced seats for (irambling and Morgan State to a largely black audience. The Urban League, who promoted the game, said that they had requests for at least 10,000 more seats. And in just four years the game has gained national recognition and a large built-in following.
Newspaper Details
Bryan Sunday Eagle
Bryan, Texas, US
Fri, Oct 08, 1971
Page 33
Full Page
Clipped by
Stefan F.
NA, 23 Jan 2020
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