NFL MEETINGS : Pro Football to Join Corporate America?

Pro football gets bigger all the time and the average team, financially, might soon be too big for one owner to handle.

So when the NFL begins its annual convention today, the proprietors of the 28 clubs, convening at a Palm Desert hotel, will begin serious discussion of a corporate-ownership option.

The proposal, by many clubs, is the first order of business.

“I’m for it,� President Art Modell of the Cleveland Browns said the other day. “Corporate owners haven’t harmed other sports. I see no disadvantages whatever for NFL teams.�

Until recently, the league’s great fear was that an ambitious corporate chief executive might take over a franchise and use his company’s surplus millions to buy his way into the Super Bowl.

“The new labor agreement has changed all that,� Modell said. “I’m sure we’ll have a salary cap as soon as next year--along with (free agency)--and that will put us all on the same footing, no matter who owns the clubs.�

Ralph Wilson, the Buffalo Bills’ president, expresses another point of view.

“I favor single ownership, but if they want to talk about it I’ll listen,� said Wilson, whose team has played in a record-tying three consecutive Super Bowls.

NFL Vice President Joe Browne, noting that, technically, league policy still requires an individual to control 51% of any franchise, stopped short of predicting a major change before the convention ends Thursday or Friday.

“But there’s more interest in the corporate (option) this year,� Browne said. “It’s on the agenda.�

Other agenda items:

--Schedule: Unless the TV networks object strenuously, the owners will validate a plan to play a 16-game schedule in 18 weeks this season. The extra week of nationally televised games will benefit all 28 clubs financially.

Last year, when the owners shortened the season from 18 to 17 weeks at television’s request, they rebated more than $30 million to the networks.

“There is no groundswell to rebate this year,� Browne said.

--Super Bowl: Because of the longer regular season, only a seven-day break is planned between the conference title games and Super Bowl XXVIII in Atlanta next Jan. 30.

Regular season competition will begin Sept. 5 and end Jan. 2.

--Arizona: At Monday’s morning meeting, the league, which several years ago voted Game XXIX to Miami in 1995, plans to award Super Bowl XXX to Phoenix in 1996.

--More plays: The owners, who have the last say on all rules, will be urged to authorize create a 40-second clock this year, replacing the 45-second clock. Last year, Browne said, with 45 seconds between plays, there was a league-wide average of only 145 plays per game--in contrast with an average of 160 in 1987.

Scoring also dropped from an average of 43 points per game in 1987 to 37.

The coaches still want a 45-second clock. They enjoy the control it gives them--but most fans want more plays and less time between plays, leading to more points.

--Kicking: Because more kickoffs sailed into the end zone for touchbacks last year than in any NFL season--depriving spectators of one of football’s most exciting plays, the kickoff runback--the owners will be asked to do something about that, too, Browne said.

The obvious answer, many fans suggest, is to drop the kicking tee. Most coaches--who all want the tee--would settle for a new kickoff spot, the 30-yard line, instead of the 35.

--Expansion: A firm expansion date might be revealed this week, but the owners have decided to let four cities twist in the wind for a few more months before they announce the name of the other winner. St. Louis is in, they say. The front-runners for the second vacancy are Memphis and Charlotte. Running last are Baltimore and Jacksonville.

Politically, some owners say, Memphis would do more than the others for the NFL in Washington. Memphis is in an important Southern five-state area--Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and parts of Alabama and Kentucky--that has a president, a vice president and 10 senators.

Although Memphis isn’t far from St. Louis, that doesn’t seem to matter in the TV era.

--Instant replay: Dead this year.