European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 25, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 30 b the stars and stripes tuesday february 25, 1992supreme court preserves labor Victory for pro football players by Greg Henderson Washington up National football league players monday won a round in their ongoing labor dispute with management when the supreme court let stand a decision ordering the teams to Forward $17.8 million in unpaid contributions to the players pension fund. The court without comment refused to hear an Appeal by the nil management Council and its 28 teams to a ruling by two lower courts that the Money must be paid into the fund As the league had promised in its 1982 collective bargaining agreement with the nil players association. The five year contract called for the teams to contribute $12.5 million annually into the plan a provided that such contributions Are allowable As deductions by the internal Revenue service. The clubs paid the $12.5 million in 1983, but the next year paid Only $7.5 million because the plan had become Over funded. The clubs argued that because the plan was Over funded the additional $5 million would not have been immediately deductible from taxes and thus not required under the contract. The plan remained Over funded in 1985, 1986 and 1987, when clubs made Only partial or no contributions. After court Battles some but not All of the Money was repaid. The league management claimed then and still maintains that the clause in the agreement that contributions be eligible for tax deductions applied to the year in which the payments were made. The players argued and the 4th . Circuit court of appeals agreed that the contributions could be deducted from taxes in later years and so the league was bound to adhere to the $12.5 million annual agreement. The 4th circuit also noted that the operators of the pension fund a called the Bert Bell nil players retirement plan a could simply have increased benefits to the retired players in order to fully use the funds. The teams now owe a total of $17.8 million to the pension fund. The failure of the teams to pay the agreed upon amount throughout the life of the contract was a peripheral Issue in the 1987 negotiations that led to a bitter players strike and ended with a Lack of any collective bargaining agreement. The league and its players continue to operate without an Overall agreement. The players Are involved in a court Battle now to gain free Agency which would allow them autonomy in deciding for which teams they would play and would be expected to drastically increase player salaries. While the league had argued the 4th circuits rationale could be used in other pension fund cases and alter existing practice mondays decision not to hear the Case sets no National precedent. But it marked a rare Victory for the players in recent labor disputes with the league. Winter olympic Samerica is tops in Winter trash sports by John Eisenberg there was no a Eddie the Eagle at these Winter olympics barrelling Down the ski jump ramp with his aquarium thick glasses and fogged up goggles. A pity. But by Golly there was Curling. Olympic Aust busting baby. Go for it. The jamaican bobs edders were Back again Mon but they re As mainstream As the germans and Swiss now worried More about push times than Good times. No problem though. There was still Short track Speed skating roller Ball for Valley girls. The dude olympics. These will go Down As the Winter games where there weren t sporting dweebs but dweeb sports. Breaks from the relentless panning for cold Gold came not from an Eddie but from a collection of games invented by people who apparently did not have to submit to drug testing. Sure there were sightings of a few Low Grade dweebs along the Way. The pairs skaters from North Korea who almost bagged it in the Middle of their original program. The moroccan skier who got passed on the slopes in the giant slalom. The puerto rican bobs edders who went Down the Mountain on their Heads. The russian bobsled or who jumped in backward. The Best were the French hockey players. They partied so hard after making the medal round that their coach cancelled practice. Then after the United states knocked them into the Consolation round they tied a teammate to a chair before a practice and shoved him out on the ice. Naked. But the Only people Able to appreciate that were a couple of extremely startled lbs technicians setting up for a broadcast. It did no to have anything in common with the Absurdity of Eddie the Eagle in full Brief utterly Blind flight. Trying so hard. That was the thing. He tried so hard. So we did no to get that Here. But there still was no Lack of escape from the front Page urgency of the hockey figure skating and Alpine  there were moguls which Arentt something you eat with Cream cheese. There were aerials the highest Vowel dense sport in history. There was ski Ballet in which you could go for the Gold shaking your hips like Ricky Ricardo at the club Bubalo. The Only thing missing was the snowmobile refrigerator pull. And ice barrel jumping for frogs. Maybe in Lillehammer. The most arcane event remains Curling the Only olympic sport in which players Call a timeout to smoke a cigarette. The Best Way to do it Justice is simply to quote the Rule Book a each player delivers two stones or rocks Down the Sheet of ice starting from the Hack and directing the Stone to the House 125 feet away. There Are eight rocks per team 16 per end. All players Are involved in every shot with one shooting one holding the Broom and two sweeping. The skip holds the Broom As a target. The vice skip throws two rocks per end. The second and Lead Are primary  its too bad the person who wrote that is dead because Jay Leno would hire him in a second. The thing is we can to joke about Curling anymore because the american men won a Bronze medal saturday and although its still a demonstration sport and does no to count in the medal standings with the Way american men have splatter nose first Here the . Olympic committee might trumpet this sucker As the second coming of Jesse Owens in Berlin. Actually we  make fun of any of these sports because As they say in moguls we re awesome we won four medals that done to count in Curling Ballet and Speed skiing and four medals that do count in moguls and Short track. That a eight As opposed to seven in figure skating skiing and Speed skating. We re the official olympic trash sport Kings. We can to ski like the Swiss or skate like the norwegians but we can get out on the Jam faster than Joanie Weston and the san Francisco Bay area bombers. That a Short track Speed skating talk and honestly this is a fairly athletic and compelling sport. There a just this Little legitimacy problem. The american women a relay team had one practice Competition before the olympics showed up Here and won a Silver medal. You just get the feeling All the bugs Arentt worked out. All of which takes us Back to the Basic question of what sports actually belong in the olympics. What a a sport and what Isnit there Are no defining guidelines although one line of reasoning is that its a real sport if you need special shoes. The line on Short track is that its the sport on which Speed skaters Are weaned in the Netherlands so its legit. That a Fine but it seems Only fair that 10-and-under softball come next. The truth of course is that none of these Are legitimate olympic sports but they re Here because television wants a three weekend olympic package and needs More programming. So we get aerials and moguls and bagels. The thing is since the whole process is a prayer to television and its not like they re working with any real rules or anything they should go ahead and really enliven these sports so we can have some serious chortling. Mogul its should have to drive cars Down that bumpy Hill. Curling should be restricted to husband and wife teams who argue about housecleaning Short track skaters says my Friend from Philadelphia should be forced to compete in chefs hats. We  miss Eddie the Eagle then would we the Baltimore Sun two years to go before Lillehammer games by John Salvado. Albertville France up with the olympics Complete in the French Alps the clock has begun ticking toward 1994 and Lillehammer Norway. A the great advantage is that two years before the actual games we have been Able logo to an olympics and watch and learn a said Tor Aune vice president for the 1994 Lillehammer games. A that is a great advantage. A another advantage is that a lot of our guests in 1994 will be the same As Are Here in 1992. Both athletes and Media people. If there could be a disadvantage it is that it is coming too close but i think that two years is  the Lillehammer games will Mark the first time the Winter and summer olympics will have separate cycles. The Winter olympics simply became too big and stretched the budgets of too Many countries too far to co exist in the same year with the summer olympics. Although the Albertville games were better organized than predicted a with the Blessing of Good weather a Lillehammer is expected to turn out a perfect event. Quot wed really like to lower the expectations a bit so that people could be pleasantly surprised when they come to Lillehammer a Aune said. A the general feeling is that if some things did no to work in Albertville they Are sure to work in Lillehammer. A during the next two years we want to be Able to give people a More Correct sense of expectations for Lillehammer and not think that everything we do is going to be like  Aune concedes this is partly due to cultural stereotyping in which the French Are portrayed As emotional and impulsive and the norwegians As the composed organized scandinavians a i wish that we were Able to handle Quick workable solutions in the Way the Albertville people have done a he said. A but there Are cultural differences Between France and Norway. Perhaps we want to have things ready at an earlier stage. We Are planning to have our facilities ready a bit earlier. Perhaps we Haven to got the Strong nerves that the French people have. A we want to have All the Sites ready for test events like the world cups we Are having the year before. So we will be Able to test the actual