Columnist Dean Juipe: NFL takes strong stand in Europe

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, March 26, 2003 | 9:53 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

At risk are lives and millions of dollars, so don't think they didn't give this some serious thought.

But when the National Football League owners agreed this week to begin the 10-game NFL Europe season as scheduled, they made a tough decision with countless ramifications.

Most important, they set an example.

They decided to go forward at a time when it would have been easy to contract.

And after seeing Major League Baseball tap one back to the mound a week earlier, it felt good when the NFL took a chance and threw one deep.

It set if not reinforced a precedent: Sports may be endangered by war and political factions, but there's adequate reason for playing the games as scheduled.

NFL Europe was, and is, a test on many fronts. Not only is it a place for the NFL to develop talent and expand its marketplace, now it's a barometer of our confidence.

In this time of war, America and its sports leagues have good reason to feel endangered by terrorists. As the recently captured al-Qaeda bigwig Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has said, his organization is committed to additional acts of violence directed toward the United States, including assassinations, kidnappings and bombings.

His still-free cohorts could easily target the bustling crowd inside a stadium.

And the NFL Europe stadiums are particularly at risk, due to their proximity to the Middle East and, perhaps, their accessibility and lack of security. When its games begin next week with its three teams from Germany -- Berlin, Frankfurt and Rhein -- plus three others in the Netherlands, Spain and Scotland, the United States-backed NFL Europe will be vulnerable to assault and its American-bred players undeniably exposed.

Yet playing the games at the sites as scheduled, as opposed to playing the league's season in Florida as the NFL owners weighed, shows a determination that's both laudable and open to criticism. If there is a terroristic attack directed at an NFL Europe team or game, the second-guessing could be nasty.

But I like the idea of staying the course, at least until it's completely impractical, rather than surrendering to the threat of terrorism and meekly pulling back into a shell.

As such, the NFL owners expanded upon the lead established by those in charge of the NCAA basketball tournaments, who momentarily considered delaying the men's and women's events as U.S. forces invaded Iraq. But the NCAA's decision was fairly easy in comparison, as postponing the basketball tournaments would have created an uproar, while suspending or relocating the NFL Europe season would not.

Little was said in a critical nature when Major League Baseball canceled the season-opening series between Oakland and Seattle that had been scheduled for Tokyo this week. But really, it seems as if those games could have been played.

MLB was, in all likelihood, overly cautious in its concerns for safety.

The NFL owners, conversely, may have been feeling a need to stand up and take a chance.

It was a gutsy move, one that all of us can hope we will never have reason to regret.