Seven Times Four Equals One

It was the best-kept secret in sport -- outside of, possibly, Sandy Koufax's unlisted phone number. For twelve weeks, behind a continuing barrage of public name-calling, the U.S.'s two warring pro-football leagues had been quietly negotiating a peace. Last week came the announcement: the National and American leagues had agreed to 1) kiss and make up, 2) hold a common player draft, 3) stage an annual "world-championship" play-off game starting next winter, and 4) merge in 1970 into a single, 28-team league.

The pax porcidermis was inevitable. It had been ever since 1964, when the struggling, six-year-old A.F.L. suddenly became solvent, thanks to a $36 million TV contract with NBC. The A.F.L. promptly plunged into a dollar war with the older (by 40 years) N.F.L. over the services of graduating college stars. The fight, as they say in the Pentagon, "escalated."

"Financial Suicide." Untried rookies collected up to $600,000 in bonuses-infuriating established stars, who began playing out their options so they could jump to the other league for more money. "What can you do," asked A.F.L. Commissioner Al Davis, "when a kid who doesn't know beans about pro football but makes twice as much money as you do tells you to go to hell?" Club owners began to panic. "We were getting near financial suicide," says N.F.L. Commissioner Pete Rozelle. And fans grew disgusted. "The whole sport," says Rozelle, "was beginning to look pretty shabby."

The job of repolishing pro football's image falls to ex-Public Relations Man Rozelle. Under the terms of the peace pact, he is now the commissioner of both leagues, at a salary of $85,000 per year. Davis will probably return to coaching. He got the job in the first place, says an A.F.L. spokesman, "mainly to be sure that we didn't lose our shirts in the merger deal."

As things turned out, the A.F.L. may not have lost its shirt, but it certainly lost a few buttons. The junior league must pay an "indemnity" of $18 million to the N.F.L.--$10 million of which goes to the New York Giants and San Francisco Forty-Niners in return for agreeing to share their territory peacefully with two A.F.L. teams (the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders). Four new franchises will be granted before 1970, and the result will be a combined "National Football League" of 28 teams in 27 cities, divided into two 14-team conferences, each with two seven-team divisions. The reason for all that division? "Imagine," sighs an N.F.L. official, "how it would feel to finish last out of 28 teams. The worst that can happen this way is seventh out of seven."

"Sellout!" Naturally, not everybody is overjoyed at the merger--notably David ("Sonny") Werblin, owner of the A.F.L.'s New York Jets, who is furious at having to pay the indemnity (his share: $2,000,000) to his cross-town N.F.L. rivals, the Giants. "Sellout!" screamed Werblin, who has sold 43,000 season tickets for 1966.

Then there are the college prospects and the established stars who are playing out their options: the common draft and a no-poaching rule will eliminate huge bonuses and salaries. "There's a good chance that action will be taken in the courts," says Chicago Attorney Arthur Morse, who negotiated big bonus contracts for Chicago Bears Linebacker Dick Butkus ($100,000) and Green Bay Packers Fullback Jim Grabowski ($250,000). Players might claim that the league was limiting their right to choose the place and price of their employment. To head off such an action, league officials are lobbying for legislation that would exempt pro football from federal antitrust laws.

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