The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 139

fiJjmft 1 rfQ" THE TAMPA TRIBUNE Friday, August 14, 1987 Section Collinsworth decries NFL problems TL Just listening to what is going on now, management has numbers that are below what we had the last time, and the union has numbers that are astronomical. On the last day, (Aug. 31) at 11:59, they are going to start presenting a couple of numbers, and then there probably is going to be a strike. It's just stupid. Cris Collinsworth uglier.

I don't pretend to be a lawyer. I have had 20 hours in law school (at the University of Cincinnati), but it just seems to me that football and professional sports in general are enough in the national interest, and so many people work hard all week, come home, sit in front of the TV, have a Coca-Cola or whatever, (and) they want and watch a ball game. "Although we are well-paid people, those things ought to be resolved behind the scenes. You can't take the business end away from professional athletics. It is a multibillion-dollar corporation, and it is always going to be around, but I see no reason that the fans have to go through that stuff.

I just feel like as the deadline (Aug. 31) approaches and you can't get it settled, let somebody else settle it and let's get on with the game." Bengal Pro Bowl tackle Anthony Munoz and No. 1 draft pick Jason Buck, a Brigham Young defensive end, are unsigned. "It (players not signing) is happening all over the league," Collinsworth said. "It's crazy.

The thing I think has to be done is the whole system has to change. The signing process is so out of control that nobody puts their numbers on the table until three or four weeks into training camp. Management said it isn't going to do it, and management knows the agents aren't going to do it. It has gotten out of control, and the football fans are tired of reading about it." Collinsworth said players don't want to hold out, but it is their only option. He would like to see football adopt baseball's arbitration plan and allow unsigned players to come to camp.

"Let's get on with it and play ball," Collinsworth said. "I'd like to see the same thing done with the collective bargaining agreement. I don't think anybody is going to get ripped that bad one side or the other. Just listening to what is going on now, management has numbers that are below what we had the last time, and the union has numbers that are astronomical. On the last day, (Aug.

31) at 11:59, they are going to start presenting a couple of numbers, and then there probably is going to be a strike. It's just stupid. I wish they would come up with a law that says if you don't get it done by a certain time, let somebody else do it." On the field, the explosive Bengals offense features Collinsworth, Eddie Brown, James Brooks and Rodney Holman on the end of Boomer Esiason's passes, and Brooks running the ball. Collinsworth caught 62 passes, Brown 58, Brooks 54 and Holman 40 last year, but Collinsworth, Brown and Holman are not scheduled to start Saturday night. Ira Hillary and Mike Martin are battling for a roster Bucs' secondary prepares for Bengals 7C By JIM SELMAN Assistant Sports Editor TAMPA High profile Cincinnati Bengals receiver Cris Collinsworth wishes all National Football League contract negotiations could be removed from the public eye.

Many of his peers would agree. Collinsworth is talking about individual contract negotiations as well as the collective bargaining agreement negotiations now under way between management and the union. Collinsworth says fans are fed up with reading about it. "I worry about the system as a whole and what it is coming to," said Collinsworth, the former Florida Gator All-American receiver who expects to play about a quarter when the Bengals and the Bucs open the exhibition season Saturday night at Tampa Stadium. "The only way the players really got an offer at all (from management) the last time (in 1982) was to actually go on strike.

The last offer was well below what we had before we had to go on strike. In order for us to at least get a decent offer, we had to prove that we would go on strike, and then once it gets into that, it just gets spot and will be the starting wide receivers. Eric Kattus starts at Holman's tight end position. "Offensively, I have never been around so much talent," Collinsworth said. "From just pure athletes, I'm probably fifth or sixth on the list.

You've got James Brooks, Tim McGee, who was our No. 1 draft pick a year ago, Eddie Brown and Rodney Holman, a tight end not many people know about but probably more talented than the tight ends who have been playing in the Pro Bowl lately. Of course, Boomer plays quarterback, and we know about his soft-spoken approach to life. We See COLLINSWORTH, Page 7C Hall: In time, Gators could be a good team Tom McEwen The Morning After MS f3 l5 I Jr Just as it began in Tallahassee earlier this week, so did it begin at Gainesville Wednesday, the first formal assembly of the Florida football Gators of 1987. But, while at Florida State the expectations are great to grand, and well they should be, the Gator talk is of lack of depth, due to the after-effect of the NCAA punishments for wrongdoing, an after-effect the NCAA expected and desired.

But, after Florida coach Galen Hall talks of that depth problem 83 on scholarship, 47 of whom are freshmen and sophomores, six of those 47 with game experience and he tells you of the imposing road schedule, he says the expected: "But we play with what we got and who we got. In time, we should be a pretty'good team." Hall is not a poor-mouther. He is thin and he does play at Miami, at Alabama, at Louisiana State and at Auburn. He is at Jacksonvile for Georgia, but has a reasonable schedule at home, where, at the end, he gets Florida State. He then moves to the subject of Kerwin Bell, the kid out of Mayo who walked on and has been a starter since his freshman year.

Hall talks of the Heis-man Trophy candidacy of Bell, advising that he "cannot win it alone. The team around him, offense and defense and special teams, must help. He has to have the opportunity. He has to be on a winner." Bell's campaign has received a boost in opportunity with the announcements that the Miami and Alabama games will be televised. There also are chances that the Auburn andor LSU, perhaps the Georgia andor FSU games will be telecast as well.

Remember, he has played his last two years with no TV coverage because of the NCAA sentence. After depth, schedule and Bell, Hall moved to pleasant developments with the fall work under way. He began by saying that a depleted receiver corps is looking better and better. It will need to be. He says that sophomores Stacey Simmons and Tony Lomack, both running backs in high school and starting out at Florida, "are looking fine as receivers.

We also have Willie Snead, from Belle Glade, a transfer from the University of Virginia who sat out last year. He's older and has speed. And we like now what we see in Ernie Mills, a freshman from Dunnellon, who started as a defensive back." Mills has surprised with 4.3 speed in the 40. Returning receiver with good playing time is Darrell Woulard. Hall also likes what he sees in his new quarterbacks, freshmen Kyle Morris, 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds, and Herbert Perry, 6-2, 190.

Morris is out of Mississippi but has Florida roots. Perry is out of Bell's tiny Mayo school. Also aboard new is Fort Myers walk-on Mike McQuade. But, on the depth chart, No. 2 is Pepe Lescano, 5-11, 176, a former team manager, who has seen some action and "who has worked hard all summer," said Hall.

"The freshmen impress us but they have to learn the system. Hall moved to the tight end situation and said he had good talent there but an overall judgment must await the classroom grades of Walter Odom, a 6-4, 233-pound standout of two years ago, seeking to play a senior year. It'll be close. See MORNING AFTER, Page 7C Chargers pay OK for Fouts Dolphins sign Strock 7C An Associated Press Report LA JOLLA, Calif. San Diego Chargers quarterback Dan Fouts denied Thursday that he has asked to have his contract renegotiated, saying he would play for the $750,000 his contract calls for this year.

His comments came in response to a statement Wednesday from owner Alex Spanos in which Spanos said Fouts had turned down $1 million to play for the Chargers in 1987. Fouts, 36, has two years remaining on a six-year contract worth $4.5 million. He is to be paid $750,000 for each of the next two seasons. Asked if he would play for $750,000 this season, Fouts responded: "Absolutely. That's my contract.

I'm here doing what they want me to do." According to Fouts, he was approached last week by Spanos and Steve Ortmayer, the team's director of football operations, to discuss his future. Fouts would not elaborate on the talks. Ortmayer said that Fouts and his agent, Howard Slusher, initiated the discussion. "Did the club initiate?" Ortmayer asked. "No.

But I think the statement is very self-explanatory." Spanos said in his statement: "Dan Fouts and his representative indicated to us that Dan would need additional compensation if he were to continue his playing career with the Chargers I offered Dan $1 million to play for the Chargers this year. This offer was turned down by Dan and his representative." Spanos was not available for comment Thursday. Ortmayer was surprised Fouts told reporters he would play for $750,000. "That's great," Ortmayer said at the team's UC San Diego training camp Thursday. "I guess when he says that to Mr.

Spanos, that'll be it." According to the statement by Spanos, the Chargers would try to trade Fouts if no understanding was reached on this year's contract. Ortmayer said he had not begun trade talks. Fouts, second on the NFL's all-time passing list with 40,425 yards, has yet to participate in practice because of a lower back strain. He receives back treatment each morning and throws on the sidelines in the afternoon. The Chargers have not cleared him to play.

"That's at the mercy of the training and medical staff," Fouts said. "It's getting better every day. It's a long, slow process." rf 1 iV' 4 I I Tribune photograph by KYLE OANACEAU Freshman Emmitt Smith joins senior Kerwin Bell (12) in the Gator backfield this season. Eligibility of 'Canes defensive tackle in question cial records, the registrar's records. All the records we have are proof he was a part-time student and is eligible." Kathleen Emerson, a clerk in Maryland's registrar's office, told the News that Sileo was listed as a part-time student in 1982.

But Misciagna said Sileo was certified to play at Maryland in 1983 based on his status as a full-time student in 1982. "According to the certification people, Dan was full-time then," said Misciagna. "If he was part time then there's some discrepancy somewhere." Sileo, 23, enrolled at University College, an extension campus of the University of Maryland at College Park, in 1982. He wasn't eligible to play college football that season because he had less than a 2.0 grade point average in high school, according to Jack Slavinsky, his high school football coach. son this year.

The eligibility problem cropped up recently when John Misciagna, an administrative assistant to the University of Maryland's athletic director, told the Hurricanes' athletic department that Sileo began his full-time college education at Maryland in 1982. If that is true, he wouldn't have any remaining eligibility because the NCAA allows only five years of eligibility after a player enrolls as full-time students. If Misciagna is wrong, the Terrapins may be forced to forfeit any games Sileo played there in 1983. Miami Athletic Director Sam Jankovich told the News that the Maryland registrar's office lists Sileo as only a part-time student in 1982, making him still eligible this season. "We're not going by what the (Maryland) athletic department says," Jankovich said.

"We're going by offi Showers cool Seminoles in practice 7C A Tribune Wire Report MIAMI The eligibility of University of Miami defensive tackle Dan Sileo for the upcoming season is in question and the answer could affect either the Hurricanes or the University of Maryland, according to a report Thursday in The Miami News. Sileo, a senior who started seven games for the Hurricanes last season, played at Maryland for one season before transferring to the University of Cincinnati. Before playing at Cincinnati, Sileo transferred again to Miami. After each transfer, Sileo sat out one season as specified in NCAA rules. He finally played his second collegiate season last year and planned to play a third sea Dan Sileo, a senior, started seven games for the Hurricanes last season.

Mitchell's heroics lead Giants over Astros Reds snap cold spell, smash Dodgers 5-2 nJ PVri5v' -i shortstop Buddy Biancaiana, who went to his right to field Mitchell's grounder. "I swung at a sinker and just chopped the ball on the ground. It's a good thing I got it in the hole and that he made a bad throw," Mitchell said. He was awarded an infield single, and he said, "I thought I had the throw beat." But Houston Manager Hal Lanier said, "A good throw would have had him. Mitchell's not that fast.

"It came down to another routine play. If we'd made the routine See GIANTS, Page 4C A Tribune Wire Report LOS ANGELES Cincinnati manager Pete Rose just can't figure the Reds out this season. After losing six of seven games and being shut out for 16 consecutive innings by the Los Angeles Dodgers pitching staff, the Reds scored five eighth-inning runs for a 5-2 victory that helped them stay in a fii Jt-place tie with the San Francisco Giants in the National League West. "That's the way this club is," Rose said. "(Tim) Leary shuts us out, and we beat Fernando (Valen-zuela) and (Orel) Hershiser.

Please don't try to understand this team, because you'll be taking Alka Seltzer every 15 minutes." The eighth-inning outburst was ignited by Kal Daniels' 18th home run of the season, one of four hits Daniels had in the game. Three of his hits came off Hershiser, 12-11, and the other was a ninth-inning single off reliever Ken Howell. "It felt like a time bomb blew up in my face," said Hershiser, 12-11. "I just didn't put them away. I felt fine, but I had control problems." The key to the big inning was the Cincinnati bench, which contrib- See REDS, Page 4C A Tribune Wire Report SAN FRANCISCO Kevin Mitchell got his fourth hit of the game, the Houston infield made its fourth bad play, and the San Francisco Giants came away with a 7-6 victory in 1 1 innings over the struggling Astros on Thursday.

"This is just like it was with the New York Mets last year. Everything is going good for us right now," said Mitchell, who played with the world champion Mets last season. Robby Thompson doubled with one out in the 11th and scored on a two-out throwing error by Houston Associated Press photograph Minnesota catcher Tim Laudner bobble the throw home, allowing California's Mark McLemore to score. The Angels pulled within 212 games of Minnesota in the AL West with Thursday's 5-1 win. Story, 4C.

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