NFL May Consider Schramm, Staubach

Tex Schramm, who headed the Dallas Cowboys for 29 years, and Roger Staubach, formerly a Cowboy quarterback, will be nominated for the National Football League’s commissioner position this week, sources with NFL affiliations said Sunday.

Schramm and Staubach, who is a now a Dallas businessman, will be nominated by different clubs.

A source said that a three-year appointment of Schramm would give the league continuity during a lengthy nationwide search for a commissioner young enough to serve for 15 years or more.

Schramm, an NFL leader until the Cowboys changed hands this summer, is in his 60s, as are Pete Rozelle, the outgoing commissioner, and Jim Finks, the New Orleans executive chosen last month by the league’s search committee as best suited to succeed Rozelle but blocked by 11 dissident owners, a faction now numbering 12.

Currently heading the NFL’s international league, Schramm could be senior in both offices with the help of deputies, a source said.

Staubach, a 1970s Hall of Famer, appeals to several owners as a successful businessman in real estate and other fields, a club executive said.

Members of the dissident group will meet in Chicago tonight to evaluate a compromise plan that would temporarily merge some of them with some search committee members. If approved, the merged group would reconsider candidates vetoed by the committee last month.

At present, the 12 minority owners are undecided on whether to push for a permanently merged committee or a new, elected committee.

“I wish you wouldn’t call us minority owners,” said Mike Lynn, president of the Minnesota Vikings and one of the 12. “It’s the six-man (search committee) that’s in the minority. They didn’t give the 22 (other owners) any information.”

A special meeting has been called for Tuesday, also in Chicago.