NFL OWNERS LOSE PENSION FUND CASE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 25, 1992                   TAG: 9202250132
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
NFL OWNERS LOSE PENSION FUND CASE
NFL owners lost a Supreme Court appeal Monday in their bid to avoid paying approximately $18 million to a pension fund for players.
The justices, without comment, let stand a ruling that the owners were not entitled to reduce their contributions to the fund even though all of the payments were not immediately tax deductible.
Under the 1982 collective bargaining agreement, owners agreed to pay $12.5 million a year for five years into the pension fund "provided that such contributions are allowable as deductions" on the owners' federal income taxes.
The owners paid only $7.5 million into the fund in 1984, believing they could claim tax deductions only on that amount. They feared they would be denied refunds if they paid the additional $5 million and later discovered that sum was not deductible. Similar partial contributions were made in subsequent years.
In other football news:
Sportswriter Lisa Olson settled her sexual harassment lawsuit against the New England Patriots, team owner Victor Kiam and several current and former employees, her lawyer said. Terms were not divulged.
In Austin, Texas, preliminary motions were heard in a reporter's $30 million lawsuit against former Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer.
Jack Taylor Jr., a former reporter for the Dallas Times Herald, has accused Switzer of libel, slander, and invasion of privacy stemming from accusations made by the former Sooner coach in his autobiography "Bootlegger's Boy."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB