Global Warming on NFL's Agenda

By MIKE PENNER

Aug. 10, 1990 12 AM PT

WEST BERLIN — Today Berlin, tomorrow the world?

That’s pretty much the gist of the idea behind a new NFL property called the World League of American Football. Note the careful sequencing of the words in the title. They could have called it the World Football League, but that name was already taken and run into the ground by Gary Davidson in 1975--10 years before the United States Football League also divided and fell.

The carcasses of failed football leagues litter the landscape, a beautiful sight in the eyes of the NFL.

WFL, USFL, RIP. Upstart football leagues have shorter life spans than your average American car, only with not quite the same trade-in value.

But the World League firmly believes it has a chance, mainly because it has the NFL’s endorsement. The NFL wants the World League to survive. Its interest in the matter is vested. Twenty-six NFL owners are shareholders in the World League corporation--seven sit on the board of directors--and all of them are planning to share players with the new league.

As it stared a new decade in the face, the NFL kept two items high on its wish list. It wanted a minor league system and it wanted to test the international market. At the same time, Tex Schramm happened to be job-hunting, a victim of the Jerry Jones takeover of the Dallas Cowboys.

So, where do you go once you’re had it with America’s Team?

How about a World League?

With Schramm as president and CEO, the World League stands ready to serve as NFL errand boy in the spring of 1991. Twelve franchises--you can call them developmental squads--will begin to feed the NFL from such exotic locales as Barcelona, Milan, London, Frankfurt, Montreal and Mexico City.

Since the NFL is also mulling expansion of its own turf, the World League will determine if such NFL hopefuls as Sacramento, Orlando, San Antonio and Birmingham can first cut it at an entry-level position.

It’s a great toy and by next March 23, right around Easter, the package will be unwrapped, ready for business.

“We’re right on schedule,” says Billy Hicks, the World League’s European Coordinator.

And just what does a European Coordinator coordinate? “Right now, I am the Europe office,” Hicks says. “I’m talking to the press, to stadium directors, to government officials, to potential employees. I’m our point man over here.”

Hicks is in West Berlin, with the Rams and the Kansas City Chiefs, because he knows it’s a good place to get his point across. Last weekend, he was in London for the Raiders-Saints exhibition.

So you like this American football? Have I got a league for you . . . .

Recently, Hicks has been trying to defuse a flap caused by an article in the July 24 issue of Financial World magazine. The story paints a rosy picture for the World League’s future, but it also unfortunately pictured an artist’s rendering of potential World League team logos.

Are you ready for the Frankfurt Panzers, with a charging tank on the side of the helmet?

Or the Mexico City Zorros, with a masked Frito Bandito for a mascot?

Hicks wasn’t.

“The next day, the phone was ringing off the hook,” Hicks said. “For obvious reasons, the people in Frankfurt do not want to be known as the Panzers. The World League hasn’t named any teams yet. Financial World was just playing around, but nowhere in the article does it say that the names weren’t real.”

The name game is irresistible, Hicks has to admit. “I’ve done it myself, sitting up late in the night, throwing out names,” he says. “The London Fogs. Someone wanted us to put a team in China and call it the Peking Toms. It’s fun.”

And much healthier than another World League possibility: Naming teams after corporate sponsors or owners.

“If the corporate tie-in is strong enough, we might name some teams that way,” Hicks says. “For instance, you could have, say, the New York Trumps.”

Heaven help us.

London was an obvious choice for one of the first four European franchises; Paul Tagliabue says there might be an NFL franchise in London by the year 2000. But Barcelona, Frankfurt and Milan? Why no Paris, Rome or Madrid?

According to Hicks, the World League “went for trend-setting cities,” cities with “a predisposition to American football and things or ideas American.” Barcelona is an art and fashion center and is playing host to the 1992 Olympics. Hicks calls it “a hot city.”

Milan has been playing American football longer than any other European locale. And Frankfurt has the location (central), the money (it is the financial capital of Germany) and the fan support (400,000 American military employees within a 90-mile radius).

“We picked the epicenters of the American football movement in Europe,” Hicks says.

Rosters will be stocked from a talent pool consisting of NFL and Canadian Football League players, collegians eligible for the NFL draft and any gems uncovered by “Operation Discovery,” which is basically the World League version of “Star Search,” a wide-scale tryout open to anyone. You won’t see Curt Warner playing in the World League, but you might see Gaston Green--any young player needing more experience or refining.

According to the grand plan, the World League will serve the NFL the same way the Caribbean and Venezuelan winter leagues serve the major leagues. Finishing school in shoulder pads. With the league championship game scheduled for June 9, players will have more than a month to heal before NFL training camps open.

After that, the World League will look into more expansion. Hicks ticks off the names: Moscow. Tokyo. Helsinki. Amsterdam. Australia. New Zealand. Honolulu.

“I told Tex, ‘You go to Honolulu and you’ll need another European Coordinator,’ ” Hicks jokes. “I’ll be the equipment manager for the Honolulu team.”

In the meantime, Hicks has to attend to some damage control and get the name of that graphics editor at Financial World.

The Frankfurt Panzers?

Tanks a lot.