The Defection Deal

"How much would it cost the World Football League to sign Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick and Paul Warfield?" Ed Keating, who is business representative for the three players, was so startled he nearly dropped his fork. Then he decided the question was not entirely frivolous. After all, it had been asked by his associate at the Cleveland firm International Management Inc., a man who had recently been negotiating a TV contract for the W.F.L. Keating took his mind off his lunch for a moment and calculated the value of his prize clients. He scribbled figures totaling $2.7 million on his napkin and held it up for his colleague to see. "You're kidding!" was the response. Keating pocketed his impromptu price tag and put the "ridiculous idea" out of mind.

Thus began the deal that astonished the sports world last week: Miami Dolphin Running Backs Csonka and Kiick and Wide Receiver Warfield, stalwarts of the Dolphin dynasty, are going to defect to the Toronto Northmen of the W.F.L. the season after next, when their present contracts expire. To jump, they signed a joint contract that totals more than $3 million in salary, bonus money and benefits. Csonka will receive close to $1.4 million over a three-year period, Warfield $900,000, and Kiick $700,000 --three to four tunes more than they might have expected from the Dolphins. Further, they will be immune from trades or dismissal--security that older players rarely enjoy (Warfield is 31, Csonka and Kiick 27).

The negotiations that produced the blockbuster agreement were packed with the high-stakes, high-pressure wheeling and dealing between agents and owners that has become a troubling trademark of professional sports. After that January lunch where it all began, Keating did not think about the W.F.L. bid again until early February when Northmen President John Bassett phoned him. "I've heard about the ballpark figure you came up with," said Bassett. "Are you serious?" Keating stuck to his figure and the Toronto executive said that he wanted to do business.

Bunny Judge. In mid-March, the W.F.L. held a draft of N.F.L. players and Toronto picked Csonka, Warfield and Kiick. Keating immediately ran a check on the Toronto franchise and learned that it was amply bankrolled by several wealthy Canadians. Bassett himself comes from a sports-minded family--his millionaire father, owner of a successful Toronto TV station, was at one time chairman of both the Toronto entry in the Canadian Football League and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Assured that the money was there, Keating talked with his clients. He caught Csonka in Los Angeles, where the fullback was judging Playboy's Bunny of the Year contest. The players agreed to go to Toronto the last weekend in March for their first meeting with Bassett. Before going, Csonka informed Miami Coach Don Shula about the trip.

Keating and the three Dolphins met in Toronto on Friday, March 29. There, Keating produced a compensation proposal for each player. He added a twelve-page memorandum detailing modifications he wanted in the traditional N.F.L. player contract. Finally, he unveiled a six-page memo specifying such "extra considerations" as free housing, free automobiles and off-season employment opportunities. It all sounded fine to Csonka, Kiick and Warfield. The four men set out for cocktails and dinner with Bassett and his associates.

For Keating, the social evening was critical. "Psychology plays a tremendous part in negotiations like this," he says.

"With some owners you've got to be low-key--talk softly, go fishing with them.

With others, you might have to pound the table and have a few drinks. The secret is to get the other guy as close to the corner as you can without pushing him against the wall." That first evening, Keating decided that the soft approach would be best with Bassett.

The next morning, Bassett arrived with his general manager and an attorney. "My palms were sweating," recalls Keating, who went into the negotiations alone. He presented his proposals. The dollar total was higher than the Canadians had expected, and the main issue quickly became whether the contracts would cover three years or five--for the same amount of money. "How about four years?" Bassett asked after several hours of debate. Keating stuck to three. "I had the sick feeling it was about to slip away," he recalls. Bassett studied the papers again and then looked up. "Ed," he said, "you've got a deal."

Keating's next job was to get the players' O.K. His first opportunity came during lunch with the players and Bassett. "I didn't want to blurt it out," says Keating, "so I gave Larry the thumbs-up sign. When he didn't see it, I announced that I needed to use the bathroom. There was no reaction. On the second attempt, Larry got the hint and he followed me down the hall. When I told him, he gave me a bear hug." Keating took two more trips to the men's room with Warfield and Kiick.

Early Saturday evening, Csonka called Coach Shula and told him that the three men might well sign if Miami did not offer more. Eventually Keating got on the line. "I was afraid the Canadians might rescind or lower their offer if we waited too long," he says, "so I told Don we needed to hear from Joe Robbie [the Miami principal owner] by the next day."

No call reached the players Saturday night, although Robbie insists that he phoned the hotel. Miffed at the lack of attention, the players figured that Robbie would not match the offer anyway. "I can't conceive of Joe Robbie giving us a Mustang, much less a Cadillac," Kiick noted several days later. According to the players, Robbie has never been liked by his employees. He fined Csonka and Kiick three years ago when they held out for a better contract; he invited wives but not unmarried players' girl friends to be the team's guests at the last Super Bowl; and he would not take an early initiative to negotiate new contracts this year despite the potential threat of the W.F.L.

When Robbie refused to negotiate on the phone Sunday and refused to fly to Toronto, the players' impatience grew. Robbie contends that it was unfair to expect him to bargain at long distance. He had assumed all along that the players were going to Canada merely to hear an offer. "I didn't expect them to be spirited off and held for ransom," he says with some heat. When Robbie hung up for the last time. Keating and the three players met alone. "Do we or don't we?" asked Csonka. Several minutes later they signed

For all the dramatics, they may, in fact, never play in Canada. The intrusion of a new U.S.based league has become a major political issue. A bill that would bar the W.F.L. from Canada--protecting Canadian football from box office competition--will soon be introduced in the Canadian Parliament. Bassett apparently hopes the signing of his glamorous trio will spur opposition to the bill. But the possibility that it might pass is of little concern to the three football stars. According to their contract, they will be paid in full even if the Toronto Northmen never play a single game.

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