Last Thursday, exactly nine months after pro football returned to Baltimore, it rolled back into Memphis.
The Canadian Football League was the midwife in this rebirth, proving conclusively that if the CFL can invade the home of John Unitas, it can invade the home of Elvis, too.
While there are still details left to be wrapped up -- a messy little characteristic of CFL expansion, it seems -- there is reason to believe the longer, wider, faster league has finally gotten a U.S. match for Baltimore.
Better yet, it got an influential power broker who should help pull in other cities. In Fred Smith, the founder of Federal Express and the owner of Memphis' newest football team, the CFL got instant credibility.
"When I came to Baltimore, I was not Fred Smith," said CFLs owner Jim Speros. "Memphis has what it takes to be successful.
It's got the
venue, an ownership group and the market. It's a football hotbed that waited 20 years for an NFL team that never came. Those people were tired of false hope."
Memphis has the 62,000-seat Liberty Bowl, a history of supporting football (averaging 38,000 for the USFL Showboats), and Pepper Rodgers. Rodgers will serve as the managing general partner under Smith. The one-time UCLA coach is as glib as he is persistent -- and he's been trying to bring the NFL to Memphis ever since the USFL folded in 1986.
Somewhere around last November, he recognized it as a futile exercise.
"We had been in the final four twice with the other league," Rodgers said. "The first time they gave franchises to Tampa and Seattle, and Memphis and Phoenix were left out.
"The next go-round, we held four preseason games, gave them big checks, made them happy, and then one day they said our stadium was not fan friendly. We didn't get one vote [in the NFL expansion process last fall].
"You'd like Cindy Crawford to go out with you, but she's not the only woman around. There are a lot of nice-looking women out there."
So Memphis turned the page, looked at something called the "A League," and finally settled on the CFL, at a franchise fee believed to be $3 million.
Memphis will formally get the franchise after selling 20,000 season tickets. Interestingly, it was a figure the Memphis people established, not one set by the league.
When he puts his new organization together, Rodgers said he not only will look at what Baltimore did right, but what the other U.S. cities did wrong.
"You have to look at the good and look at the bad," he said. "You notice that people who win and do right . . . have a system."
Following the lead of Baltimore, where Speros hired veteran CFL coach Don Matthews to run the show, Rodgers said he's looking for a coach with CFL experience. He expects to match Baltimore's attendance figures -- the CFLs averaged 37,348 during the regular season -- and he has already ruled out one name for the new team.
"It's not going to be Hound Dogs," he said.
Window shopping
Last Wednesday, Speros huddled with CFL commissioner Larry Smith and potential investor Bill Berkley, an entrepreneur from Connecticut.
The conversation was about putting a CFL team in Hartford as soon as next year, with long-range plans for a dome complex, Speros said.
The football facility would house UConn's football team and the CFL team, making it a more palatable and profitable sell for legislators. In the short term, Speros said, the Hartford team would tentatively play at the Yale Bowl.
By week's end, Speros was envisioning a U.S. division in the CFL composed of Baltimore, Memphis, Oakland, San Antonio, Orlando, Birmingham, Hartford and Shreveport.
A vote for Baltimore
Adam Rita, coach of the Ottawa Rough Riders, said Baltimore should win today's Eastern final against Winnipeg.
"In the CFL, there are four or five big plays a game," Rita said. "If Baltimore makes four or five, they'll blow them out. If they make three, they should win."
Not so fond farewell
Although no one is saying it, Damon Allen's ill-timed pass for an interception on the B.C. Lions' goal line that cost Edmonton a West semifinal loss last week seems certain to be his last for the Eskimos.
A free agent, Allen has fallen in disfavor -- not unlike Baltimore quarterback Tracy Ham a few years ago -- and appears likely to play in the U.S. next year.
Allen was picked off with Edmonton driving for the clinching touchdown, and Kent Austin moved the Lions in for a 27-yard Lui Passaglia field goal to win, 24-23.
Said Edmonton coach Ron Lancaster: "The throw was late. You throw late in the flat, it's usually intercepted. If you're going to ZTC throw that ball, be careful with it. Either you know you're going to complete it or you throw it in the stands."
What made it worse was that Allen audibled on the play.
Audibles
Calgary has beaten B.C. 14 of their last 15 games. The Stampeders haven't lost to B.C. since Doug Flutie signed with Calgary in 1992. They play today in the West final. . . . This is the first time injury-prone quarterback Matt Dunigan has been healthy in three postseasons with Winnipeg. . . . Tim Hortons Donuts has contributed $150,000 to the corporate fund to keep the Tiger-Cats in Hamilton. . . . Shreveport got offensive tackle Freddie Childress and defensive back Anthony Shelton on loan from Winnipeg, and is now angling to keep Childress.