NFL WARY OF BEHRING\Tagliabue hints about roadblock.

Byline: Clare Farnsworth Seattle Post-Intelligencer 

National Football League commissioner Paul Tagliabue said Friday the league is "seriously concerned" about the proposed move of the Seahawks to the Los Angeles area and the way owner Ken Behring has gone about doing it.

A week after Behring made his announcement and five days after moving vans began rolling unheeded with Seahawks belongings to Anaheim, Tagliabue's comments hinted that NFL owners might be in the mood to throw up a roadblock.

"There is very serious concern on my part and among the ownership on the Seattle situation in terms of the Seahawks just picking up and seeming to relocate their practice facility to Southern California," Tagliabue said after the NFL owners concluded their two-day meeting at the O'Hare Hilton.

"The Seahawks are the NFL team in the Pacific Northwest, and there is an expectation among the ownership and on my part that they represent the league in every way possible in the Pacific Northwest," he said.

Behring, meanwhile, spoke to his fellow 29 owners for 10 minutes Friday and told a Southern California reporter he dreaded the thought of being forced to return to Seattle. Tagliabue, noncommittal on the Seahawks issue the past week, made his strongest statements right after the league gave its approval to Art Modell to move his franchise from Cleveland to Baltimore.

Asked if he planned to file a lawsuit to block the Seahawks' move, Tagliabue offered, "That's normally something I don't discuss with people until after I've made my decision."

Behring could be pushing Tagliabue and the other owners toward that decision, although the league's success rate at blocking moves has been nil. After the Los Angeles Rams moved to St. Louis and the Los Angeles Raiders returned to Oakland last year, the owners passed a resolution - signed by Behring - giving the league control of the vacant L.A. market.

Behring thumbed his nose at this edict by first announcing his intention to relocate in the L.A. area and then having equipment moved from the team's Kirkland headquarters to the Rams' former training facility in Anaheim.

"That's part of the serious concern I heard from the owners this week," Tagliabue said. "It related to his seeming to pick up and walk out of the Pacific Northwest, but also to do it in a way which is in conflict with what we're trying to achieve in Los Angeles under our resolution.

"It's a two-pronged issue that is a matter of serious concern."

Behring continued to display a two-pronged method of dealing with the news media Friday. He has been granting interviews with reporters from the L.A. area, but shunning the Seattle print media since announcing his plan to relocate.

Approached by two Seattle reporters as he came out of a hotel elevator Friday, Behring said he had nothing to say and that he was hurrying to catch a plane. When one of the reporters pressed the issue, Behring's bodyguard stepped between Behring and the reporter as Behring walked down the hallway to his room.

Earlier in the day, in an interview with a reporter from the Orange County Register, Behring touched on the sensitive subject of what might happen if his move to L.A. is blocked - either by the lawsuit filed by King County or one that could be filed by the league.

"God forbid that the bottom falls out and we'll have to go back up there and play in an empty stadium," Behring said. "But I don't know why they would want to put somebody in an unsafe stadium."

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PHOTO

Al Davis talks with reporters in Chicago, where the NFL owners approved owner Art Modell's move of his team to Baltimore. Associated Press