By Mike Kahn
CBS SportsLine Executive Editor
Dec. 13, 1998

So this is why so many baseball owners were reluctant to welcome Rupert Murdoch into their fraternity.

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In case you missed it, Murdoch, the new owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, changed the standard for professional sports contracts, not only for baseball, but all other sports, too. The details of Kevin Brown's seven-year, $105 million pact are staggering. And this is for a guy who will be 34 on opening day, with his only 20-win season coming in 1992.

If you couldn't believe the Miami Heat gave coach Pat Riley $300 per diem, understand Murdoch and the Dodgers are providing Brown and his family 12 free trips on the corporate jet back to his home in Georgia.

THIS WASN'T ABOUT MONEY, AS MUCH as it was about the access to the jet. "They care about his family," agent Scott Boras said.

Well, excuse us. If Kevin Brown can't afford to fly his family to Georgia once a month on his $15 million a year salary, then airline prices have gotten more out of hand than previously thought, and he needs a new accountant.

But this isn't as much about Brown as it is symptomatic of the bigger problem in sports. Riley and Brown are just two examples. Brown, like Mike Piazza (who signed for a measly $13 million a year for seven years), also get a separate suite from their teammates.

When Juwan Howard initially signed with the Heat, then the contract was voided because of salary cap implications, he returned to the Washington Wizards only to find out he could receive the same contract except a limousine service taking him and picking him up from practices and games. At least general manager Wes Unseld had the good sense to realize the negative impact it would have on the rest of the team.

It used to be the standard line of all coaches, "there is no I in team."

Used to be. Now all teams are conglomerations of individuals. Every coach and player continues to contend it isn't about money.

Sorry gang, that's all it is about. Just listening to George Karl talk about what it would take to keep him in Seattle as coach of the Sonics last winter included continual exclamations that "it wasn't about money."

As part of his mammoth contract, Kevin Brown can use the Dodgers' corporate jet 12 times a year to fly back to his home in Georgia. (AP)

THAT'S ALL IT WAS ABOUT FOR Karl. Along with his incredible four-year, $18 million (plus incentives) contract with the Milwaukee Bucks, he also was guaranteed two trips a month for his wife and children to Milwaukee from Seattle courtesy of owner Herb Kohl's private jet.

This is insane.

The NBA continues to be in a stalemate with its players union, as the second month of the regular season is wiped out and there is little chance of January being salvaged either. Most people don't believe they would mortgage the whole season, but what are we looking at?

These same owners who are crying "fiscal responsibility" are doling out these ludicrous perks on top of enormous salaries without any regard to the rest of their staffs, the consequential rise in ticket prices for fans, and the perception of the media as the owners whine when they are the fools who put themselves in this spot in the first place.

The culprits are everywhere. The owners have been extorting billions from the television networks for years now, the players rightfully want their proportionate percentage, and the coaches have to make at least a reasonably close salary so the players will at least pretend to listen.

Generally speaking, the owners are at least smarter about their approach. Most of the time, they don't complain and they're quiet about what's going on. In the case of NBA negotiations, the league also held a gag order that would result in a $50,000 fine should somebody speak out of turn.

THAT'S WHY THE PLAYERS LOOK WORSE. When NBAPA president Patrick Ewing cries the players "can't live" under the present situation when he's making in the $20 million range and Alonzo Mourning calls the owners "greedy" despite his $105 million deal, there is no room for empathy.

This continuously outrageous spending in other leagues shows the NFL remains the only sane league. The hard salary cap and revenue sharing from the television contract proves the owners still remain on the same page. The money rises naturally because television assets continue to escalate with each contract.

But just because Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa made last season special doesn't mean baseball isn't in trouble. Clearly two-thirds of the teams can't compete for free agents. You can count on a continuing turnstile of ownership since the only way to make money is to buy a team and sell it five years later for its inflated value.

The NBA is in a dangerous situation, where the season will be horrid whenever it starts, but can they afford to scrap the season and wait two full seasons for a new champion? No way. They are forfeiting a lot, but all in the name of putting a lid on these out of control contracts.

The NHL, which had a similar lockout of its players in the 1994-95 season, has failed to take advantage of this lockout of the NBA for really no good reason. That's just poor marketing and management, which is why the NHL just can't seem to get out of neutral.

That leaves us with the NFL as king, still. Even if Kevin Brown is the whale in the sea of baseball today, it's symptomatic of a sport spiraling out of control. Maybe McGwire can hit 100 home runs this year and everybody can feel good about baseball next summer again.

But it's all superficial ... almost as desultory as Kevin Brown's suite high atop the rest of his Dodger teammates on every road game next year. That's presuming, of course, he's with the team and not on the corporate jet hanging out in Georgia when he's not pitching.