Section B · Page 10
The University Daily Kansan
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Wednesday, April 22, 1998
Packers player won't retire
White says God told him to play one more year
The Associated Press
MILWAUKEE — Reggie White got the message right in the middle of back theraw! play!
And so, just two days after announcing his retirement from pro football, the NFL's career sacks leader changed his mind yesterday and said he would play for the Green Bay Packers next season.
"I have reevaluated my decision," White said in a statement released by the Packers. "I decided I would not retire and that I would play one more year."
On Sunday, coach Mike Holmgren said the 36-year-old defensive end, who doubles as an ordained Baptist minister, told him that he was retiring because of the bad back that troubled him for most of last season.
According to CNN-Sports Illus.
traited. White was getting his back worked on Monday when, "the Lord spoke to him and told him that he had to be a man of his word and play one more season for the Packers."
White, the first big-name free agent to switch teams, had planned to have a farewell news conference in Green Bay today. Instead, he will use the opportunity to explain his decision to return to the Packers for a sixth season.
Packers spokesman Lee Remmel offered no details why White changed his mind. "It is his decision and his story and he is going to explain that," Remmel said.
White did not return telephone messages.
A team spokesman said general manager Ron Wolf, coach Mike Holmgren and team president Bob Harlan would have nothing to say about White's change of heart until after the news conference.
Packer fans rejoiced at White's change of heart
he's healthy enough to play, he is. He's got the good Lord on his side."
"Wonderful. What can be better? He's the greatest," said Louis Gardipee of Green Bay. "If he says
White first told Holmgren of his intention to retire shortly after the Packers were upset in the Super Bowl. Holmgren trived to
White: Changed mind, will play for one more year.
talk him out of it and offered White a part-time role as a designated pass rusher.
White met with Holmgren about two weeks ago, restating his intention to call it a career. Holmgren tried one last time to talk him out of it, but on Sunday, the two met again and White said he was through.
White has missed only four games in his career, enduring a hyperextended elbow in 1994 and a torn hamstring in 1995.
When White signed a five-year,
$19 million contract extension last
year, he said he planned on playing
at least through the 1998 season. He is due to earn $2.6 million this season, with a cap value of $3.2 million.
White had 11 sacks last year, giving him 176 1/2 for his 13-year career. He was selected to the Pro Bowl for a record 12th consecutive time despite the back problems that limited him to part-time duty. He also walked pneumonia the last month of the season.
White helped lead the Packers to two consecutive Super Bowl appearances, including the team's 35-21 victory against New England in 1997.
A member of the NFL's 75th anniversary team, White joined the Packers in 1993 for four years and $17 million after eight seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. He single-handedly erased the notion that Green Bay was a city where African-American players didn't want to live and where the team could no longer compete.
White recently was criticized for a March 2 speech to Wisconsin lawmakers in which he used cultural stereotypes and denounced homosexuality as a sin. He later apologized for any harm his remarks may have caused.
College presidents testify for NCAA
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Three college presidents, hoping to dodge a huge financial blow, told a federal court yesterday that the NCAA's restricted earnings rule helped more young coaches than it harmed.
The presidents, all officers on the NCAA board of directors, are trying to avoid a penalty that could approach $100 million if a 10-person jury agrees with a group of coaches who claim to have been damaged.
The rule, which capped compensation for assistant coaches in various Division I sports at $16,000 annually for three years in the mid-1990s, already has been found in violation of antitrust law.
A key part of the NCAA's argument during this penalty phase of
the case has been that the rule created jobs for young people aspiring to become coaches.
"It was a
very good opportunity for a young coach," testified Kenneth "Buzz" Shaw, president of Syracuse University and chairman of the board of directors.
Much of Shaw's testimony centered on Tim O'Toole, who was Syracuse's restricted earnings coach in men's basketball. The rule specified that a coach could be paid no more than $12,000 during the academic year and $4,000 for summer work.
"I don't think he was hurt by the rule. He grew as a young coach ... and moved on to a more prestigious position at Duke."
Shaw said
The plaintiffs, claiming more than 1,900 coaches were harmed, are asking for $30 million in damages, which would be tripled. The NCAA says no more than 47 or 48 coaches actually sustained economic damage and are due no more than about $650,000.
The hearing became contentious several times, with lawyers for the plaintiffs frequently challenging the NCAA lawyers' line of questioning as irrelevant.
“Your honor, I’m tired of this moek anger,” a plaintiff’s lawyer said of NCAA lawyer Greg Curtter while Penn State president Graham Spanier was on stand.
"It's not mock anger," Curtner shot back.
Under cross examination by plaintiff lawyer Lori Schultz. Shaw agreed that O'Toole had been working 9 a.m. to midnight
as a restricted earnings coach during the season while the other two assistant coaches were making salaries in the $50,000 to $60,000 range and that basketball generated between $5 million and $6 million annually for Svacure.
"Would you be surprised," Schultz asked, "if O'TOole didn't think that making $12,000 a year when the program was bringing in $5 million to $6 million and the other assistants were earning $50,000 to $60,000 as a plum job?"
"Yes, I would," Shaw answered. Spaniard试iest that he would never want to be part of a program that exploited anyone.
Lane Rawlins, president of Memphis State, also testified.
"I never heard one complaint from more than 50 people in three years," he said.
The hearing is expected to last another one to two weeks.
Horse racing groups hope to beat odds with commissioner
The Associated Press
NEW YORK—Given the tough task of reviving interest in thoroughbred racing, Tim Smith became the sport's first commissioner yesterday.
He was hired to run the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, which was formed late last year to bring dozens of racetracks and industry groups under one roof.
For generations, many tracks and racing bodies worked independently as the sport sustained declines in attendance.
"We have great strength in numbers that just needs to be harnessed," Smith said. "Thoroughbred racing has great inherent appeal. Yet it lacked the central structure and marketing programs necessary to compete successfully in today's marketplace."
"For the first time, there's an unprecedented unity across the industry," said Smith, a sports consultant who designed the initial marketing plan for the 1996 Atlanta Games. "There isn't a segment of racing that's not behind this, and that's a major change."
Smith said racing needs structure. He said his first priority was creating a national brand through advertising and marketing and establishing NTRA as the league office.
To that end, the 35 leading raceracks in North America—including Churchill Downs, Belmont, Saratoga, Gulfstream and Santa Anita—along with owners, breeders and other horsemen's associations, contributed $20 million to finance NTRA.
The association will operate out of Atlanta - Smith's home - until a permanent site is determined.
"It's a neutral site, so it doesn't favor any one group," said Breeders' Cup Ltd. president D.G.Van Clief, who served as NTRA's interim CEO before Smith took control. An office in Lexington, Ky., will remain open.
The 49-year-old Smith, who
served as the PGA Tour's deputy commissioner under Deane Beman in the 1980s, said he though NTRA could beat the odds.
"I don't think there's been a fair fight," Smith said. "Now, one racing organization can deliver what fans want, and we can do this by increasing TV awareness, getting more live races on, creating new racing shows."
Smith said NASCAR fans could recite Winston Cup point standings, but horse racing fans were uncertain about the top-rated horses, jockeys, owners and trainers.
"This isn't brain surgery. It just hasn't been anyone's job before," Smith said. "If each track's marketing department is spending money running its track, then promoting racing was nobody's job. Now, it's our job."
Smith said more racing on TV would translate into more people at the racetrack.
"The biggest single problem with the casual fan is racing has become much less on the radar screen than it was 10 years to 15 years ago," Smith said. "It lacks visibility. When our target is a 32-year-old with a few bucks in his pocket who would have a terrific time at the track, he doesn't think about it if he isn't exposed to it. If he, our surveys show there is an inclination to at least sample it."
With the Kentucky Derby, horse racing's glamour event, less than two weeks away, NTRA plans a TV, radio and print campaign featuring actress Lori Petty, who appeared in A League of Their Own.
Also, NTRA's advertising firm came up with the slogan "Go Baby Go." In the TV spots, which began airing this week, Petty plays a racing fan yelling "Go Baby Go" as she roots her horse to victory.
The significance of the campaign can be found in a line in an NTRA news release. It reads: "The campaign marks the first use of national advertising for a sport which was established in the United States nearly 300 years ago."