FRANCHISE NOTES

          ESPN's Chris Mortensen reports that a "handful of NFL
     owners are working with John Kent Cooke to raise enough
     available funds" to buy the Redskins, "even though the will
     of his father will be hotly contested" (ESPN SportsZone,
     8/1)....In St. Paul, Tom Powers reports that the NFL "has
     decreed -- privately --that the Vikings don't have to come
     up with a 30 percent owner until after their stadium issue
     is resolved" (St. Paul PIONEER PRESS, 8/1)....In L.A. Bill
     Plaschke reports that Tom Lasorda "denied reports" that he
     is "lobbying to replace Fred Claire as the Dodgers general
     manager once Rupert Murdoch buys the team" (L.A. TIMES,
     8/1)....The John Spano/Islanders affair is examined by SI's
     Alexander Wolff, who was granted an interview with Spano. 
     NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman: "To say that I am as unhappy
     about this as you can be is an understatement" (SI, 8/4).