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Wednesday, July 29, 1981
The Michigan Daily
THREE-YEAR RAMS DEAL
Owens inks pact
From wire and staff reports
FULLERTON, Calif.-Linebacker Mel Owens of Michigan, the No. 1 draft pick
of the LosAngeles Rams, signed a contract yesterday and reported to the National
Football League team's training camp 10days later than other rookies.
Owens signed a series of three one-year contracts with an option year, Rams
Publicity Director Jerry Wilcox said. No terms were disclosed.
OWEN$ AND HIS agent, Phil Closius, flew to California Tuesday and agreed to
terms in a meeting with Rams' Vice President and General Manager Don
Klosterman at the Rams' offices in Anaheim.
He will engage in his first practices with the team today.
Asked about his holdout, Owens pointed to Closius and Klosterman and said:
"These are the two guys who did the talking, I'm just glad to be here." He said he
kept in good'shape working out at the University of Michigan and was ready to par-
ticipate in the rigorous twice daily drills of the training camp.
OWENS, 6-FOOT-2 and 230 pounds, will be tried at outside linebacker behind
George Andrews, a third-year player from Nebraska. Andrews took over at mid-
season in 1980 when Bob Brudzinski left the Rams, claiming that he had fulfilled
contract obligations of his option year by playing half the games. Brudzinski was
traded to Miami in 1981.
Although he will be behind other rookies in learning the Rams system, Owens did
attend one offseason mini-camp.
"WE WERE OUT there for mini-camp and they gave us a play book with one-
fourth of the plays," said Owens. "And they basically use the same system as
Michigan does. You can only do so many things in football. But the terminology is
different."
Owens says that being a first-round draft choice eases his mind since it is very
,unlikely that he will be eut, but adds that there are also disadvantages. "More eyes
are on you,'',he said. "If you do something bad, they'll notice it right away. But if
you do something outstanding they expect it."
"Obviously, in the negotiations there was some compromising," Klosterman
said.
The signing was the last for Ram veterans and top draft choices in a summer of
relative contentment among the players. A year ago four Ram starters were
holdouts in efforts totenegotiate contracts.
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Doily Photo
FORMER MICHIGAN linebacker Mel Owens (inset) follows flow of action
during Kansas game in 1979. Owens just signed a three-year contract with
the Los Angeles Rams. Owens was the Rams' first-round draft choice.
Miller
meets
with
teams
Marvin Miller, chief negotiator for striking major league
players, plans to embark on a series of regional meetings to
repair what he called "a terrible information gap" that
caused some cracks in the union's solid stand against club
owners.
The series of meetings will begin today in Los Angeles, and
Miller apparently will attend other briefings around the
country. No other meetings had been scheduled by late last
night.
NEGOTIATIONS BROKE off last Thursday and no new
bargaining sessions have been set.
Meanwhile, the 26 club owners and their Player Relations
Committee also scheduled a meeting for today, on theop-
posite coast in New York.
Miller, executive director of the Major League Players
Association, apparently eased the minds of many players
during a five-hour meeting of the union's 30-member
executive board in Chicago Monday night. The briefing for
the board also attracted some 30 other players anxious to
know the status of the strike after four days of negotiations in
Washington under a news blackout last week.
"HALF OF THEM didn't have the facts," Miller said. "A
news blackout is a catastrophe for an organization like ours.
There was a terrible information gap for four days. Those
were important days."
The support for Miller and his negotiating team, some of
whom had come under criticism for being Miller's pawns,
appeared to be across-the-board after the meeting.
"I'm behind the negotiating committee 100 percent," said
Bill Buckner of the Chicago Cubs. "I was feeling uncomfor-
table about not playing. Now I can sit out the season. I still
feel badly about not playing but I'm now informed of the
negotiations."
"I feel a lot better now that I'm informed," said Rick
Reuschel of the New York Yankees, who was traded by the
Cubs the day before the strike began June 12. "No matter
how good the media coverage is, it is not as good as attending
a meeting."
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SPOR TS OF THE DAILY
Weaver finishes 7th at Festival
By JOHN FITZPATRICk
Melaine Weaver, Michigan's top
female distance runner, continued to
turn in one impressive performance af-
ter another this summer, as the
Wolverine junior sped to an outstanding
seventh place finish in the 3,000 meter
run at the National Sports Festival
being held at Syracuse, New York this
week.
Weaver's time of 9:30.48 (which
equates to about a 10:09.2 mile) was
impressive enough, but her placing, in
a race featuring some of the best
women runners'in the country, was
more so. The race was won by Kim
Gallagher of Upper Darby, Pen-
nsylvaniawho broke the tape in 9:19.
AT THE TRACK Athletics Congress
national championship meet, held in
Sacramento, California last June,
Weaver also finished seventh, this time
in the 10,000 meter run. Her time of
34:58.4 was remarkable considering the
stifling heat and humidity which beset
the meet, as the thermometer topped
100 degrees regularly.
Weaver's best time in the 10,000 this
year - 34:38.40 - rates her in the top
twenty performers in the country.
With the world of women's track
becoming increasingly competitive
with each year, Weaver's string of
notable times bodes well for her
athletic future. With a reputation as one
of the best harriers in the Big Ten
already established, she should be
tough to beat this fall with this, her best
competitive summer to date, behind
her.
The other Blue cross-country runners
should form the strongest group ever
here. Lisa Larsen, a consistent sub-five
minute miler, will be returning, as will
2:07 800-meter runner Sue Frederick
and a number of others with much
potential for improvement.
Sue player's union?
DETROIT (AP) - Eighteen hourly
paid members of the ground crew at
Tiger Stadium are threatening to sue
the striking Major League Players
Association for "interference of a
business relations."
The workers are not part of the
Detroit Tigers' regular salaried work
force; their jobs are based on games
which are played.
THEY DON'T qualify for unem-
ployment compensation under
Michigan law because of a statute
which prohibits payment "if total or
partial unemployment is due tb a labor
dispute which was; or is, in progress in
a department or unit, or group of
workers in the same establishment."
"We have some misgivings because
it's one union against another," John
Day, steward for Local 79 Service Em-
ployees' International Union said
yesterday.
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