There's one born every minute, it seems.
Pro football leagues, that is.
Working on the premise there is always room for one more, a former United States Football League executive is attempting to bring the North American Football League to the U.S. in 1995.
Steve Ehrhart, who served as director of administration for the long-gone USFL and more recently as William Dunavant's right-hand man in Memphis' bid for an NFL expansion team, is chairman of a five-man executive council for the prenatal NAFL.
Nine days ago in St. Louis, Ehrhart met with representatives from 11 cities to measure interest and pocket depth. If successful, his venture would be a critical blow to the Canadian Football League's expansion plans in the United States.
That's because several of those cities -- Memphis, Oakland, St. Louis, San Antonio and New York -- have been prominently mentioned in the CFL's plans.
But Larry Ryckman, owner of the Calgary Stampeders and chairman of the CFL expansion committee, isn't worried. He said he thinks the movers and shakers of the new league want to get into the CFL forless than the $6 million expansion fee established for 1995.
"By the time we expand by four more teams, these guys will not even be out of the chute," Ryckman said. "We will be in eight U.S. cities, tying up the markets they're looking at.
"The expansion fee is not a problem for real players. This is a bunch of guys trying to get into pro sports cheap. We're no longer concerned about these guys."
The NAFL is an offshoot of the "A League," a concept introduced by former Minnesota Vikings executive Mike Lynn in which corporate sponsors would pay the bills. But Lynn didn't deliver and the concept disappeared. Enter the NAFL with its $1 million entry fee.
Pepper Rodgers, who also worked on Memphis' NFL expansion bid, said he thinks the $1 million fee makes more fiscal sense than the CFL's $6 million fee.
"Nobody here is going to do that [meet the CFL price]," Rodgers said. "We're hard and fast on that."
Rodgers nevertheless believes the CFL is still an option for Memphis. He contends the CFL needs cities like Memphis, St. Louis and San Antonio if it is to reach its goal of a lucrative network TV contract in the U.S. And, in fact, that's how the CFL views the situation.
Now it's a matter of whether the CFL lets new franchises in at $6 million or the $3 million that Baltimore owner Jim Speros paid last February.
Speros said there is "flexibility" in the price. "It's $6 million with terms," Speros said. "If you pay in cash, there's a discount. It's financed over three years, so it's actually closer to $5.4 million."
Speros said he doubts the NAFL has the finances to get off the ground.
"Owners like Larry Ryckman and Bill Comrie [of the British Columbia Lions] say don't panic and lower the price just because these guys say they're going to do something," Speros said. "We know how hard it is to do it. To start a league up, you need a substantial amount of money."
Remember the Alamo
Ryckman is interested in San Antonio, himself, at least as a point of reference in negotiations with the city of Calgary over his stadium lease.
He pays $1 million a year to use McMahon Stadium -- and gets no revenue from parking, advertising or concessions. Since bailing out the debt-ridden Stampeders three years ago, Ryckman has been attempting to get a better deal. His lease expired last April.
"I won't stay if I'm going to lose $1 million a year," he said. "The team is doing everything it can to be viable in the market. I'm at the end of my rope. If I took a team with Doug Flutie to San Antonio, or another market, they'd eat this up."
One hang-up. Ryckman said he was voted among the top four most influential businessman in Calgary on its 100th anniversary.
"How do I leave a city after that?" he asked. "I think we'll find a solution."
The Flutie phenomenon
Flutie already owns the CFL record for most passing yards in a season. Now he's working on the single-season rushing record for quarterbacks.
After five games, Flutie has rushed for 343 yards for Calgary. That pace -- 68.6 yards a game -- would give him 1,235 yards for 18 regular-season games. And that would break Tracy Ham's record of 1,096 yards set in 1990 for the Edmonton Eskimos.
Flutie has run for 104 yards against Winnipeg, 91 against Ottawa, and 82 against Baltimore. He's only 30 yards behind his season to tal of 373 rushing yards a year ago.
"It's almost like I have to run to get player of the week and get noticed," he said. "This year I'm not running any more, but I'm getting more yardage."
Not that it has diminished his passing game.
He's thrown for 1,606 yards (a 321.2 per-game average) and 13 touchdowns so far. His single-season passing record is 6,619 yards, set in 1991 for the B.C. Lions.
Sacked, twice
It was bad enough when Shreveport quarterback Terrence Jones was benched following the Pirates' third series in a 24-10 loss to Edmonton in Week 4. But the worst part was still to come.
Later that night, Jones was arrested on a drunken driving charge after hitting a police car as he attempted to leave Harris Casino. Jones was driving the wrong way on a one-way street when the policeman tried to stop him.
Police blotter II
Then there was the bar-room brawl that knocked Hamilton defensive end Steve Bates and cornerback Gary Wilkerson -- both starters -- out of Friday's game against Shreveport.
The two players were playing pool when a fight broke out. Bates took a cue ball to the head in the melee, then fell on his beer bottle and suffered a cut to his head.
Embattled Tiger-Cats coach John Gregory was reaching for silver linings when he said, "I've been asking myself what else can happen. Sometimes adversity makes you play better because it takes your mind off your problems."
Bottoming out
After two weeks of increases, CFL attendance took a dive in Week 4 to a season-low average of 17,498 a game. Opening-day crowds averaged a modest 19,192. That figure jumped to 21,760 in Week 2 and to 22,959 in Week 3.
Traditionally, the CFL suffers at the gate in the summer months, then gets its best crowds in the fall.
Miscellaneous
Toronto Argonaut Mike Clemons, a durable running back/kick returner at 5 feet 6, 170 pounds, missed his first game in three years Thursday night with a shoulder separation. . . . Ottawa is preparing to challenge Hamilton for the 1997 Grey Cup on the assumption Baltimore will get the 1996 game. . . . Shreveport was outscored in the second half, 73-25, in its first four games. . . . Ex-Ottawa head coach Ron Smeltzer is suing former Rough Riders owner Bernie Glieberman for the 1994 portion of his contract. Smeltzer was fired when Glieberman sold the Riders franchise and bought Shreveport's expansion team. Glieberman stopped payments when Smeltzer took an assistant's job with the Las Vegas Posse. . . . Toronto coach Bob O'Billovich became the fifth CFL coach to win 100 regular-season games (100-88-3) when the Argos dumped the Posse, 39-20, last week.