Sport: And the Strike Goes On

Some singing, some fishing, finally some talking

Six weeks into the National Football League strike, the players were still fixed in their five-point stance, and the owners had to be coerced even to huddle.

Tweaked by the National Labor Relations Board, which scheduled a Nov. 15 hearing on a preliminary finding that the league has failed to bargain in good faith, management at least agreed to reopen negotiations over last weekend. But the owners seemed no more disposed than ever to grant the union's five demands: substantially increased salaries, performance bonuses, elimination of wage inequities position to position, veterans' protection from economy cuts, and a guaranteed share in television revenue.

One week after throwing up his hands and going home, Private Mediator Sam Kagel, 73, summoned Jack Donlan, 47, of the management council, and Ed Garvey, 42, of the Players Association, back to the table to "reexamine and reassess." No one was acting hopeful. A "credible" season, as first defined by Commissioner Pete Rozelle, was understood to be no fewer than twelve games. In an unshattered year, the number is 16. But a twelve-game season with two weeks of abbreviated playoffs leading to the Super Bowl on Jan. 30 (a date Rozelle and the owners claim is logistically unalterable) would require play to resume this weekend. So the next question may be whether a ten-game season is credible enough. Or, as owners, players and fans are beginning to wonder, Is the season over?

To which Garvey replies, "Nonsense." For one thing, he says, there is nothing holy about the Super Bowl date. He would simply pick up the regular schedule at the third game, where everyone left off, and play it out, perhaps shifting a few games from icy cities as winter stiffens. Is that possible? "This league stopped barnstorming 40 years ago," snaps Rozelle, who usually tries not to snap in the service of the owners. "Is Buffalo going to use Birmingham for six games? Is Green Bay going to use Memphis? The clubs, in my opinion, would have to offer refunds to season-ticket holders who contracted to watch games in October and November that would be played in January and February." Besides, he doubts that the TV networks would reprogram to oblige the N.F.L.

With its prearranged $150 million line of bank credit untouched as yet, the 28 owners have subsisted on so far unrefunded season-ticket revenue (plus handsome interest) and TV money, some of which will have to be paid back next year. The networks normally pay off in five chunks, $20 million on account in March, followed by four installments of $75.5 million each on the first days of September, October, November and December. The March and September paydays were met. But only half the October payment arrived, and no more is coming.