NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue will hold a hearing
this morning to decide if the Vikings' $200M sale agreement
to Tom Clancy stands, or whether team President Roger
Headrick has the right to top or match Clancy's bid, as he
contends, according to Don Banks of the Minneapolis STAR
TRIBUNE. A decision "could come by early next week."
Meanwhile, Headrick "has stopped communicating with his
fellow owners about the team's business," including re-
signing OT Todd Steussie and DL John Randle to $22M and
$32.5M deals, respectively. Banks writes that there are "no
indications that Clancy, who at this point has no financial
power over the team at all, has any problems with the free-
agent signings" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 2/19). But in
his SportsZone column, ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported that
Vikings sources say Clancy and his partner, Marc Ganis,
"have complained to the Vikings' partnership and the NFL
that Headrick's recent spending spree ... is incongruent
with the team's business practices prior to the sale of the
club." Several partners "have asked Headrick to curtail his
free-agent spending until the ownership issue is settled
because they are concerned that Clancy might have a right to
modify the purchase terms" (ESPN SportsZone, 2/18).
