NFL to look at some major issues
2009 Super Bowl site on agenda at meeting
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
By Jeff Duncan
Staff writer
WASHINGTON -- Traditionally, the NFL spring meeting is about as newsworthy as a local PTA meeting.

Usually, the event is nothing more than mop-up duty on business issues that were tabled at the league's major annual meeting in March. It's about tying loose ends rather than generating headlines.

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But that's not the case this year. Several major issues will be discussed and voted on during the two-day meeting, which opens today at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Dupont Circle.

Among them:

-- The host site for Super Bowl XLIII in 2009 will be chosen. Organizing committees for the finalists -- Atlanta, Houston, South Florida and Tampa, Fla. -- will make presentations Wednesday. A vote will be taken later that day.

r Owners will whittle the sites for a Los Angeles stadium to two or three finalists today. NFL owners will review term sheets for the competing sites: The Los Angeles Coliseum, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., and a new stadium site in Anaheim. The league hopes to identify a site in the fall.

r The finance committee, chaired by Saints owner Tom Benson, will issue a report on the proposed sale of the Minnesota Vikings, for a reported $625 million. New Jersey real estate developer Zygi Wilf is expected to be approved as majority owner.

-- The competition committee will propose a rule change prohibiting so-called "horse collar" tackles, such as the one by Dallas Cowboys safety Roy Williams that injured Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens late last season.

Owners also will receive reports on the new television agreements with ESPN and NBC and an update on the G-3 stadium financing program, which allows teams to borrow money to renovate or build stadiums.

All proposals require a three-fourths majority vote, 24 of 32 owners, to be approved.

Benson, along with executive/owner Rita Benson LeBlanc, will represent the Saints at the meeting, team spokesman Greg Bensel said. Nothing is on the agenda, but Benson is expected to update Commissioner Paul Tagliabue privately on the progress -- or lack thereof -- of negotiations with the state on a long-term contract.