Tagliabue Calls Locke For Meeting King County Executive Sees Commissioner’s Request As A Good Sign

King County Executive Gary Locke flew to New York City late Tuesday for a meeting with NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue to discuss the future of the Seattle Seahawks.

Locke, who made the trip with County Council budget committee chairman Peter von Reichbauer, said the meeting was arranged at Tagliabue’s request to resume talks that began this month in Washington, D.C.

“I think the fact that the commissioner asked for this meeting, in his office, is a good sign,” Locke said in a telephone interview while changing planes in St. Louis.

Seahawks owner Ken Behring announced Feb. 2 that he was moving the franchise to the Los Angeles area. That move drew a barrage of legal action designed to enforce the club’s Kingdome lease, which has 10 years to run.

The county sued Behring, Behring responded with a move to void the lease on grounds that the Kingdome would collapse in an earthquake and Washington state filed an antitrust suit against Behring.

In addition, Tagliabue said he advised Behring not to try to move the franchise and suggested the effort could be reversed. Last year Behring voted for a resolution, signed by all the NFL owners, that gave the league control of the Los Angeles market following the departure of the Rams to St. Louis and the Raiders to Oakland.

On Friday, Alan Elias, a spokesman for Behring in Los Angeles, denied a published report that Tagliabue had warned the owner he could be fined as much as $500,000 if he persisted in trying to move the franchise.

Behring recently reached a tentative agreement to lease the workout and office complex formerly occupied by the Rams in Anaheim, Calif.

Tagliabue and Locke met to discuss the issue Feb. 6 in Washington, where they appeared before a congressional committee.

Both were testifying in favor of legislation that would give the NFL a limited waiver from antitrust legislation to strengthen the commissioner’s hand in enforcing franchise agreements and restrictions.

The league was fined $50 million for trying to block the Raiders from moving to Los Angeles from Oakland in 1982.

Locke sidestepped a question on whether he believed Tagliabue’s position or resolve on Behring’s move had changed.

“There have been a lot of rumors, and that’s one of the purposes of the meeting,” he said Tuesday night. “On our side, we’re going to be discussing and updating him on the legal action. …

“We hope he’s going to really tell us what’s going on from his standpoint and discuss where we go from here.”

Catlin leaves team

This wasn’t exactly the way Tom Catlin planned it. The 41-year pro football veteran planned to leave the Seahawks, not watch the franchise leave town.

After five years as a linebacker and 36 as an assistant coach, Catlin is retiring Thursday as quality control coach. At age 64, he had been looking forward to attending occasional practices and games at the Kingdome.

Instead, Behring is trying to move the club to the Los Angeles area.

“It’s like part of your family moving,” Catlin said Monday while cleaning out his belongings. “I can understand how frustrating it is to the fans who have supported it all these years.”

Catlin, who came to the Seahawks with head coach Chuck Knox in 1983 and stayed on with Tom Flores in 1992-94 and Dennis Erickson last year, was the last original American Football League coach still active.

A native of Ponca City, Okla., Catlin was an All-America center at Oklahoma in 1952. He played five seasons in the NFL, four with Cleveland and one with Philadelphia, sandwiched around a stint as an Air Force pilot in 1955-57.

In 1960, he began his coaching career as an assistant with the Dallas Texans of the AFL, moved with the franchise to Kansas City in 1963, then switched to the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL as defensive backfield coach in 1966 and was promoted to defensive coach in 1969.

Catlin left the Rams with Knox to go to the Buffalo Bills as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach in 1977, became assistant head coach in 1980 and then followed Knox again to Seattle.