SUPER BOWL XXIII: CINCINNATI BENGALS vs. SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS : Rozelle Expresses Concern, Says Miami Still a Viable Site

MIAMI —  National Football League Commissioner Pete Rozelle put on his best face and silk suit Friday for his annual state-of-the-league address to the national media, capping a Super Bowl week marred by unrest in Miami’s sections of Overtown and Liberty City.

Determined to destroy any notion that the incidents here were unfortunate only because they threatened to spoil a perfectly good party, Rozelle dived headfirst into the issue with the public relations flair that has been his cornerstone for nearly 30 years as commissioner.

“A football game has little significance compared to what happened,” Rozelle said. “ . . . Having grown up adjacent to Watts, in Southern California, it’s something that’s always bothered me, that we have such discontent shown--I know it’s a minor word--in segments of our society. I’m concerned about why it happens. All I can say is that it ruined part of the week for me and I’m very unhappy about it.”

Rozelle said he didn’t arrive in Miami until Wednesday, 2 days after the shooting of a motorcyclist by Miami police sparked looting and rioting in the Overtown area. By Wednesday, the situation had calmed, and Rozelle said he felt no need to urge black leaders or players to intervene.

“It didn’t reach that point,” Rozelle said. “My wife and I have a close relationship with Ben Hooks of the NAACP, and I think I would have called Ben. . . . It never reached the point where something dramatic we could do could help the situation. We felt it was under control after the initial outbreak.”

Rozelle also offered to add perspective during an awkward time in which the traditional excess and extravagance of Super Bowl week were contrasted to a city in distress.

“We’ve thought about it,” Rozelle said, “and as (for) the party tonight, and other parties, I can only say the leftover food all goes through agencies for the homeless.”

Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Braman, a Miami resident and member of the NFL’s Super Bowl site selection committee, said this week’s problems could greatly hurt Miami’s chances of being host to another Super Bowl. Rozelle, however, said that Miami was guilty only of bad luck and unfortunate timing and should be considered as a future site.

“Those things happen in the world. You can’t stop them,” Rozelle said of the problems. “If we were aware of anything that might happen, including a riot, we’d probably never have a Super Bowl in California because of earthquakes. I don’t want it to look like I’m minimizing what happens in earthquakes and what happened here, but in the final analysis, I don’t think it will have a major effect.”

Rozelle addressed some other issues:

--Drugs. Twenty-four players received 30-day suspensions this season for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy. Four players were arrested on drug-related charges. Two years ago, Rozelle’s request for random drug testing was denied by an arbitrator. Under the circumstances, Rozelle said, the league is doing all it can to combat the problem.

“Some of the biggest names in this league have been out a quarter of the season,” Rozelle said. “It’s been an embarrassment to me, an embarrassment to the league, and embarrassing to every individual involved.”

Those “big names” included linebacker Lawrence Taylor of the New York Giants and defensive end Bruce Smith of the Buffalo Bills.

“I think it’s difficult to say we’re hiding from the problem when some of the biggest names of the league have been suspended and will be in the future,” Rozelle said.

The league began testing players for steroid use last summer and will suspend second-time offenders next season. A recent league survey found that a little more than 6% of the players tested used steroids.

“We’ll take action, I would think similar to what we take on drugs,” Rozelle said. “We’re very concerned. I think we’ve seen stories lately down at the high school level, where it’s being used, and obviously in the colleges.”

--Minority hiring. All the talk in recent years about equal opportunity for minorities in the league has yet to produce the NFL’s first black head coach. And the prospects don’t look bright, even with job openings in Kansas City, San Diego and Cleveland. The number of black assistant coaches has risen from 14 in 1980 to 48, but Rozelle concedes that it’s not a startling increase.

“It really bothers me,” Rozelle said. “I would like to see it. In the old days, we were asked: ‘Why no black quarterbacks?’ Thank God that’s passed. Some of the great quarterbacks in the league are minorities. So I think progress is being made.”

Rozelle agreed that blacks may have fallen victim to the “old boys network” of hiring, in which NFL owners and coaches tend to fill openings with friends or longtime acquaintances.

“We can’t dictate anything,” Rozelle added, “but we strongly recommend.”

--Instant replay. This could be a pretty good battle come March, when NFL owners meet to decide whether the league’s controversial replay system will live another season. Rozelle and Dallas Cowboys President Tex Schramm have been strong advocates of replay, despite its many flaws.

“We’ll give it another shot,” said Rozelle. “I think we have the most complex rules in sports, very complicated. And so many of them. And when you have seven men trying to get a perfect angle on seeing what happens on every play involved, it’s a very difficult situation. . . . If you have a key call made, that was clearly established in instant replay, I’d like to see that corrected.”

--Expansion. This one is on the back burner until the NFL Players Assn. and the league’s Management Council agree on a new collective bargaining agreement, Rozelle said. The league has been without a contract since August, 1987, which precipitated a 24-day strike by players later that season.

--Parity. To counter those who have complained that the league has become too balanced in recent years, Rozelle read three excerpts from newspaper clippings from the 1970s, all denouncing the shift of power to franchises such as Pittsburgh and Dallas. One story wondered how two lowly franchises at the time, San Francisco and Cincinnati, could ever compete under the system.

Rozelle noted that more than half of this season’s games were decided by 7 or fewer points.

Said Rozelle: “We’re pleased with our parity.”