I don't believe in ghosts and I don't believe in UFO's
Well I would if I actually ever saw one.That being said I can't say with
complete confidence that the following story is really true.If I actually
had the people involved admit to it then I would know I was right.Or if I
was actually at the scene of were this story took place.But I wasn't there
and no one is ever going to admit to it so after reading this story you will
have to make up your own mind of the truth.
In 1989 a blockbuster trade was made in the NFL.Herschel Walker of the
Dallas Cowboys was traded to the Minnesota Vikings for what ended up being
thirteen players.Five players were veterans and the other eight players were
draft picks. Very high draft picks,three of them were the Vikings next three number one draft picks The rest were either second or third round picks.Pretty good trade considering that most people thought that Walker was worth one first and one second round pick at most. So what happend, was the Viking management stupid or what?
Lets go back to March of 1989,six months before the trade was finalized.The
NFL has its annual meetings for the team owners to discuss the state of the
league. If you remember it was not a very good picture back then.The television ratings are down and the networks are saying that the next contract with the
league would be for less money, and the current contract expires after the
1989 season.One year to get the ratings up or else in other words.Also a
topic at theese meetings is, would Walker get traded here?It has been
rumored for months the Cowboys were shopping him but so far no deal.What
was the holdup? The Cowboys were the worst team in football the last
year,there was no reason to keep the leagues leading rusher when your team
was that bad.O yeah the Cowboys.Americas Team. The worst team in the
league.Do you think that that might be why the ratings are down? I mean all
those fans of the Cowboys probably just couldn't bear to watch,that had to
have some effect on ratings.Don't you think?
Well what if the networks gave the owners a chance to get a better t.v.
contract if they just did one 'little favor'?What if the networks top brass
told the owners that if they gave the Cowboys a real good deal on this
Walker trade,that they in turn would give the owners more money on the next
contract?The networks are gambling of course that the Cowboys would get good
enough right away so the ratings would go back up.
If you were a owner of a NFL team
What would you do?Before you answer lets look at it this way.You are a owner
of a team and you have been the owner for a long time.You or your father
lets say bought the team years ago for a pittance for what the team is worth
today.A smaller t.v. contract would hurt but not that much.What would hurt
you is if the public found out that the league was 'fixing' things so that
certain teams were better than others.
Of course you would say to the networks you were not interested in their
'help'Dallas get better scam.
But what if you are a owner that has invested millions of dollars in the
last few years in buying your team,and you owe a check to the bank at the
end of every month?your reaction just might be 'I need all the money I can.I
don't care what we have to do to get the networks to give us more money,I'll
do it'.
Well for the sake of argument lets say thats what was going on at theese
owners meetings in 1989.After the owners and the commissioner of the NFL
break out of the first behind closed door meetings the commissioner Pete
Rozelle makes a surprizing announcement.He tells the media that he is going
to retire as soon as a replacement can be found for him.When asked why he
wants to retire so suddenly he says its because he doesn't get along with
the newer owners in the league.
Aha! the newer owners he didn't get along with.But why?Well you see the
commissioner has to approve any trade before it is actually done, I think
that maybe the Vikings and the Cowboys were all ready to make a deal right
there in the first meeting but Rozelle said no way.He knew that the networks
have been pushing the league for a favorable deal to help the Cowboys get
better.And Rozelle and the older or 'Old Guard' owners as the media calls
them think it is too unethical to do.Rozelle as commissioner has all the
power in the world to stop any trade he doesn't like and he doesn't like
what the Vikings are giving up.The Viking and Cowboy management are both on
the side of the newer owners.Jerry Jones has just bought the Cowboys a month
earlier for 130million dollars.The Viking management,represented at the
meetings by GM Mike Lynn are on the side of the new owners because as a
small market team they need all the tv money they can get .Well the meetings
continue and at the end of them we find out that 1)Walker doesn't get traded
2)The league has formed a six man committee to find someone to take
Rozelle's place,and as soon as they get one Rozelle will step down.And 3)The
NFL is going to start a new international league called the World League of
American Football in 1991.
Remember #3,its important.
By the summer of 1989 the six man committee has found someone to take
Rozelle's place.The guy is Jim Finks the GM of the Saints.The media was a
little dumb founded as to why it took them so long to pick Finks because he
was such a obvious candidate
from the start.The media just doesn't know what is really going on here.No
one does.I myself didn't figure it out till five years later,when all the
paybacks kick in.Opps I'm getting ahead of the story.Sorry.The reason it
took so long to make Finks a candidate was because the six man committee was
made up of all 'Old Guard' owners.They were looking for a guy like Rozelle
that wont approve any shady trades to help Dallas,and Finks promises he
wont.The group of newer owners want a guy that will o.k. any trade that the
networks want as long as the owners get more money and they know Finks isn't
going to.Well Finks is the candidate and the owners have to vote him in,as
if it is in any doubt he will get voted in,or so says the media.SURPRISE!
Finks doesn't get enough votes,he needed 21 and only got 16.The 16 votes he
got were 'Old Guard'owners,the other no votes were from the new owner
group.Of course that means Jerry Jones and Mike Lynn,the two guys that have
the deal already, like the networks want but can't get a commissioner that
will o.k. it.
Well that is all about to change.The newer owners cry to the media that they
had no one on the six man committee to pick a new commissioner and they want
a say in such matters.Mike Lynn even lobbies to get himself on the committee
to get a new commissiner.I don't know if Mike Lynn was ever officially put
on the committee or not.It doesn't really matter.The newer owners have had
their say and its time to find a new candidate to take Rozelle's place.They
come up with a new name.Paul Tagliabue
At the time not many people knew who he was,especially compared to Jim Finks
but here he is ready to get voted in in early October1989.Of course he is
picked by the newer owners, and it is my guess that he has promised the
owners that he WILL approve the trade that the networks so desperately want
done.Oh bye the way Tagliabue's job for the NFL is legal liasion between the
league and ABC's Monday Night Football people.Thats right.The one guy in the
whole league that is closest to the networks is up for the job as
commissioner of the league.I'll bet that he was the first guy in the league
to hear the networks sales pitch on the help Dallas get better for more
money scam.Well Tagliabue gets the necessary votes of course and has been
commissioner ever since.
What was strange at the time also was that it wasn't Rozelle that introduced
Tagliabue to the media.Rozelle was already heading home.To hurt about
something to embrace Tagliabue as the new commissioner.Well someone had to
get up to the podium and introduce him.That somebody was Jerry Jones.
Six days after Tagliabue becomes commissioner a trade comes up.The long
awaited trade that sends Herschel Walker to another team.The Vikings Mike
Lynn trades the teams future for Walker, to Jerry Jones' Cowboys and Paul
Tagliabue approves it.SURPRIZE!
After the season is over the NFL and the networks have a new television
contract and its for more money. The owners rejoice,more money for them to
divide.Tagliabue is praised as a great negotiator.I say he had the new
contract in hand when he okayed the Walker trade.
Two years later the trade proves to be a disaster for the Vikings on the
field.The Vikings get worse and worse and the Cowboys get better and
better.The Viking fans want Mike Lynn fired.He ends up the commissioner of
the NFL's new league The World League of American Football,a plum job to get
at the time.Does this sound like a pay back for Lynn for giving away his
teams future to the Cowboys?Was this job as commissioner of the WALF
promised to Lynn way back in 1989?It was a good job to give to someone that
had made probably the biggest blunder of all times as far as trades
go.Unless of course you made the blunder on purpose.
Now what was the rest of Viking management thinking when they let Mike Lynn
destroy the team?Was there something in it for them?
Well don't we always play Super Bowls where it is warm?
How come the 1992 Super Bowl was played in Minnesota?
Another pay back maybe?The host city gets ten percent of the tickets to the
Super Bowl, not a bad chunck of change for a team that is thought of as
being cheap.
Well like I said at the start who really knows,maybe all this circumstantial
evidence is just one big coincidence.We will never really know.
