The Salt Lake Tribune from Salt Lake City, Utah • 71

'V'WV -yr-rv- -n'-Ttvrv NFL Opens Season Aniid Legal Financial Drug Woes The Good News: Campaign Looks to Be Balanced Competitive By Dave Goldberg AP Football Writer an injunction that uuld made them free agents I I Conference Freviewt l)-2 Prominent holdouts miluded tight end Mark Baiaro and linebaiker Carl Banks of the Giants linebackers Mike Mernweathcr ot the Meelers and Matt Millon of the Raiders offensive linemen Gary Zimmerman and Kirk Lowdermilk and running bat Darrin Nr Ison of Minnesota guard Tom Newberry of the Rams guard Hon Solt and tackle Kev in Call ot the Colts who also lost their top offensive lineman when tackle Chris Hinton walked out of camp in a contract dispute as did Kueben Mayes of the Saints But with or without them the season starts Sunday and the showcase conies Monday night with the Washington Redskins meeting the Giants the second straight Mondav night opener between the past two Super Bowl champions The Redskins face the inevitable problem of distraction one faced bv the Giants and Bears before and the inev liable pressure to win Coach Joe Gibbs can attest to that recalling Sec 2 Column 1 Welcome to the NFL 1988 style The good news is that barring the uufor men the entire season will be played without interruption and could be as balanced and competitive as any this decade The not-so-good news is that The league is battling its placers in federal court the third major lawsudit has had to defend this decade and one that could drag on for years New England is virtually bankrupt and veems to be running a tryout camp for protective owners Several other teams have had to dig into escrow for funds to make up for losses incurred during the strike when $60 million had to be repaid to television networks Eight players including the highly visible Dexter Manley of Super Bowl champion Washington have been suspended in preseason for substance abuse also a new city in the league Phoenix which got its franchise March when the trying io stay there teams like the Jet' Raid ers and perhaps the Patriots continuing their slide Despite the lawsuit and a series of strike related cases before the National Labor Relations Board the labor front actually seems tranquil as the season begins largely because players seem dedicated to playing not walking picket lines and the union leadership seems determined to fight for free agency in the courts So the NFL continues without a contract and ithout much hope for one the immediate future the two sides remain locked in the same positions they held last Sept 7 before the strike began The main fallout from the strike is a large number of unsigned veterans 60 at the end of last week The main reason Most unsigned veterans declined to start negotiations until after July 12 the dav District Judge David Doty turned down the union request for St Louis Cardinals became the third team in seven years to relocate They immediately alienated fans with $88 tickets about twice the league average And yet We re looking for the league to rebound dramatically this says Commissioner Pete Rozelle "We believe 1988 will be the best year ever in attendance in TV ratings and on the field Putting it another ay there no ay it can be worse than 1987 First came the 24-day strike that ended when the players returned without a settlement and filed the antitrust suit federal court in Minnesota This year is being played without a collective bargaining agreement as were the 1974-77 seasons the last time it was argued in court The strike resulted a 15-game season that included three games played by replacement play ers making the NFL the equiv alent of a semi-pro league And while Rozelle is quick to point out that the teams that made the playoffs would have made it if their strike records were thrown out it still skewed the season The Super Bowl champion New York Giants went 0-3 during the walkout returned 0-5 and finished 6-9 as everyone from Coach Bill Parcells on down gave up the season "We played without a coach" defensive end Leonard Marshall said last week when asked what went wrong in 1987 Parcells seems to be back this year and so do the Giants what appears to be a transitional year competitively teams like the Bills Colts Oilers Saints and possibly Eagles clawing their way up the ladder teams like the Bears and Giants (discounting last year) Halt fake fribune Section Sunday September 4 1988 Page 1 For Recorded Scores Call 1-800-662-4334 Local 237-2023 Comhuskers Demolish Aggies 63-13 Heisman Hope Taylor Chews Up USU 1 By Joe Baird Tribune Sports Writer LINCOLN Neb All things considered it asn't the kind of encore Utah State intended For the second straight year the Aggies opened their football season at Memorial Stadium against Nebraska and for the second straight season they were torn apart like so many rag dolls by the powerful Comhuskers Saturday it was a second-ranked Nebraska team that prevailed 63-13 as Heisman Trophy candidate Steve Taylor mesmerized the young untested Aggie defense while leading a Tlusker attack that racked up 590 total yards A picture of consistency the Comhuskers scored 14 points in each of the first second and third quarters then poured it on in the mal period ith three touchdowns as Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne sent 104 players at the oulmanned Logan visitors in an almost endless series of red waves Unable to lend a hand in all this was a potent veteran USU offense which sputtered under the weight of a myriad of physical and mental miscues throughout the afternoon Putting the torch to Utah State hopes finally was spotty special teams play that led directly to two Nebraska touchdowns It wasn't the worst setback in Aggie historv That honor goes to the 1974 team which fell 72 3 to Oklahoma But it was six points worse than the 56-12 battering USU suffered here last year at the hands of the Huskers and that made for a somber Utah State locker room "Were disappointed definitely" said se i I PBKVMW Sports Information Call 237-2001 American League Texas 7 Toronto 4 Chicago at Cleveland ppd ram Minnesota 8 Kansas (Tty ti Oakland 5 New York 4 Milwaukee 7 Detroit 3 California 2 Boston 1 Seattle 1 Baltimore 0 National League New York 2 Los Angeles 1 Cincinnati fi Chicago 4 San Diego 5 Philadelphia 2 Montreal 6 San Francisco 4 (13) Pittsburgh at Atlanta ppd rain Houston 10 St Louis 1 Top Twenty Miami 31 Florida St 0 Nebraska 63 Utah Stale 13 Clemson 40 Virginia Tech 7 UCLA 59 San Diego State 6 Iowa at Hawaii late LSU 27 Texas 0 Georgia 28 Tennessee 17 Virginia 62 Bowling Green 14 Carolina 31 Carolina 10 WAC Air Force 29 Colorado St 23 Fresno St 08 New Mexico 21 UTEP 37 Mankato St 3 Big West San Jose 51 New Mexico St 0 Boise St 29 Long Beach St Arkansas 63 Pacific 14 Baylor 27 UNLV 3 Louisiana 24 Fullerton St 9 Big Sky Montana 35 New Mexico 6 Portland St at Washington late Florida 69 Montana St 0 Northern Artzona 55 SUSC 13 TV Sports CuSAj 9 ani 1 ennis Upen dTTT am Football Dolphins at Bears C50 1 1 ani Football 49ers at Saints ESPN 11 am Auto Racing N'AS-C'AR Winston Cup Southern 500 (JfGNJ 12:13 pm Baseball Reds at Cubs CU2 Football Seahawks at Broncos HI pm Tennis US Upen ESPN 3:30 Golf Final round of the Canadian Open QJSAJ 5:30 Tennis Open Schroeder to Raiders? A Los Angeles television station has reported that the A Raiders have reached a tentative agreement to ar quire Washington Redskins quarterback Jay Schroeder See Page 7 for details by November Press PtKo Brent Snyder must have felt like David going against Goliath Saturday Here Husker Broderick Thomas makes life miserable for the Aggie QB nior Aggie quarterback Brent Sryder "You always want to do better than the previous year I thought we did some things better than last seasonl but some things we did exactly the same which you don want to have happen were up and down assessed Utah State Coach Chuck Shelton "I thought play better offensively with the way Nebraska was young on defense this year Defensively what happened to us is kind of what I was afraid would happen We were just off the mark a lot of the day" Unfortunately for the Aggies Taylor wasn The talented Nebraska quarterback threw for one touchdown and ran for another while racking up 143 yards through the air on 7-of-9 passing and another 74 yards on the ground The Aggies weren't able to get a handle on him all day I thought Steve played well" said Osborne "There were only one or two times when I could have questioned anything he did out there He feels relaxed out there like he did his senior year in high school and really knows what he doing Taylor marched the flawlessly on the first possession of the game capping a nine-play 80-yard drive when he rolled left on the option tucked the ball in and glided unharmed into the ena zone from 22 yards out to make it 7-0 A low snap from Aggie long-snapper John See D-3 Column Press tntematvono Graf Notches Another Victory In Her Quest for Grand Slam Eighth-seeded Miloslav Mecir who reached the final here in 1986 was beaten by Emilio Sanchez of Spain 6-3 3 6 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 and No 14 Andres Gomez was defeated by Aaron Kmksteir 6 4 4 G-4 6-4 The ninth women's seed Lori McNeil fell to Judith Wiesner of Austria 7-6 (7-3) 3-6 6-4 and No 15 Sylvia Hamka lost to American Patty Fendick 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 7-5 1 was too cautious to go for it to take a crack at the ball "said McNeil who beat Chris Evert in the quarterfinals last year and then extended Graf to three sets in the semifinals 1 guess when you chip and charge everything has to be perfect McNeil Leconte and Gomez were beaten on the grandstand court which adjoins the stadium Eight of the 14 seeds eliminated so far have lost on the same court Second-seeded Mats Wtlander who beat Leconte tn the French Open final moved into the fourth round with a 6-4 6-0 7 5 victory over Swedish countryman Mikael Pernfors We re very good friends so it hard to concentrate when we play said Wtlander who needed five sets to beat Kevin Curren in the previous round I thought I played pretty util A lot of See 8 Column I By Kick Warner AP Tennis Writer NEW YORK Steffi Graf routed another opponent in her quest for a Grand Slam while Henn Leconte became the latest victim of an Australian upset at tne Open Saturday Graf won her 31st straight match breezing past Nathalie Herreman of France 6-0 6-1 in 45 minutes to advance to the fourth round at the National Tennis Center "Sure you want a tougher match said Graf ho has lost a total of four games her first three matches I just hoping that the next one will be tougher Leconte the No 10 men seed as beaten by John Frawlev 6-3 6-4 6-3 The Frenchman was the fourth men seed to be ousted from the tournament by an Australian On Thursday Darren Cahill beat No 5 Boris Becker and Mark Woodforde eliminated No 16 John McEnroe The next day No 7 Yannick Noah quit because of painful knees while trailing Jason Stoltenberg in the third set "It a big help to watch on TV and see Darren beat Becker and Woody beat McEnroe said Frawley ranked 45th in the world "You walk out on the court feeling these guys are beatable Leconte was one of five seeds eliminated Saturday US Open No 3 seed Chris Evert smashes a two-fisted backhand at Michelle Torres Saturday en route to 6-3 6-3 quarterfinal victory With Luck Bowls Will Have Forgotten Laramie Fiasco away with no editorial comment But if he gets knocked out or stinks up the joint and it on television he loses his earning power all over the country Fortuna'elv for both Wyoming and BV bv the time the bowl selectors start sifting pos sible matchups in November tins game should be long forgotten especially since both the Cowboys and the Cougars are capable of playing much better football than they displayed Thursday night College Attrition You know all about the attrition in the coaching ranks but consider the whole colle-giatp In looking over a 1976 WAC record book I was not surprised to see that LaVell Fdwardsof BYU was the only football mrh and Don Haskins of UTEP was the only basketball coae still on the same job Of course nzona State and Arizona were members then and Hawaii Air Force and san Di go stall hadn puned the ronf nee Lid the football and basketball coachis at both Arizona schools have charged since 97b rd ir lorn Hawaii and san Diegn St iT have ff rent roai be lor football and bask' (ball if the igH a'hlc tic directors listed in 1 97K nnK Gb Tin kc't is still at the same broadcasts in hort Collin-' he reminded the news media at a recent nutting We have to depend on the Denver market for exposure and that means we compete against the Den ver Broncos of the I the Nuggets of tht olorado I no r'ltv and Hu Air korre Academy Our basketball 'in rt ss in the National In Ration 7 ournamt nt ill giv us more impact on the Denver area But to gam Denvtr expo sure we allowed United Cable of Denver to te levise six of our football ganu-s and 12 basketball games live last year We went live against our own gate j-e reipts against the advice of the experts but we game exposure in more than one million homes and that should pay dividends This year ue will broadcast live fivefont-ball and I i bask tball game This is not like Auburn have to battb to survive and our dt nd' no unr gamble Orval adimtii lb vc Hi imlili in thw mil' if the It inis i' iti iij 1 I jitr ii Hu pu on il I ms UWrv alino ll line i liocuiali Midiuic nil tilc'i'ino a I i I i uc i )l In to in cnc tn if I lb an 1 That sloppy exhibition of Division I football at Laramie Thursday night did little nationally to bolster the prestige of the Western Athletic Conference league that is known wde open offence cannot take anv bows for that game and as the game dragged on I was re-minded of the late Jack Deacon Hurley who A managed heavyweight I contender Harry Kid Mathews Hurley was unique as a Jark Hurley manager in that he shunned television and its bonanza In a day when everyone in sports was bowing and scraping to woo the TV bucks and exposure Hurley tried to keep his contender off the tube Hurlev logic was this If rnv guv gets be at gits knorkid out or slinks up the joint and the fight isn on tele vision the onlv peop who know bow had it was are those who jaul to into hi an na The radio announcers if ttu fight is brna 1 rad are generally rt tt kind and He nation at news mio wuti slnpi 'lreiiht 1 Bowl is scheduled Jan 22 in Miami VMn Greenwell the pl3v by play typist for the Ltes Jazz and former Stars has been voted runnerup in the Western Conference competition among NBA tvpists (tret nw til re tired from hirst Security Bank aftc 35 sears to devote his time to typing the' play bv plav for Utes and Jazz He owes a lot of his success to his spotter Ron Dixon Jim Nabors pitching with the 1916 Phila delphia A started 40 games and had a 1 21 record including 19 losses in a row Louie Giammona former Utah State back will coach quarterbacks at Glassboro State Louie coached running backs and special teams at Idaho State last year Wally English who coached quarterbacks at BYU in addition to being an assistant a POt Nebraska Virgm'aTech Arkansas and Kentucky and head C'uch at Tul me will be head roach at Southeastern Louisiana which plans to fie Id a football tc'am in loon Ram1' irborne M-xal iavnes ho we nt fiom vomitig to Auburn db oach Pat live and upc iOK is olor cdo st ite I niv rsitv alhlc tn dn lot 111 tv have one ut (he tnugln limp icitc- in the i 'i(i loan i out job although Fred Miller has switched from A at Arizona State to San Diego itate But here the clincher not one of the university presidents listed at the eight WAC schools 1976 held the same job at the same school in 1988 Disa and Data Greek festival 5 Classic Saiu'-dav will start at 9 a Coach ince Dnolcv (if Georgia has donated 1 00 000 to the uni' rsi tv libraries to be list tn irrprov jrilitu Johnny Majors Tennessee football coach has been voted ouch of the Vear arh of his las! thre pibs Iowa Mate Pitl and Tennessee Clip and Save Department Vclional League plmnffs hegms (ic and American la ague layoffs Of 1 5 with World vrrirs In dart (M 1 5 National I agu edv supei i a 0 aw i 0 0 0 0 0 000 00 00 jm.