NADA and NFL can't work the deal

"Sorry, can't do it," was the answer the National Automobile Dealers Association gave to the National Football League in response to a proposal to switch the date of next Feburary's convention with the Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl is scheduled for January 27 in New Orleans and the NADA Convention is slated for February 2-5, also in New Orleans. Because of the senseless attacks on Washington D.C. and New York City last week, the NFL postponed last Sunday's games. Now it is trying to find a way to keep from having to either cancel a week's worth of games or the first round of its playoffs.

NADA spokesman, Jeff Beddow, said the association took a hard look at the proposal to see if it was feasible. "Unfortunately, it just wasn't realistic. We already have over 500 contracts with vendors for that week and with 24,000 attendees - many of whom already have travel and hotel accomodations, it would have been logistically impossible," he explained.

Mark Patrick, host of Fox SportsRadio's early morning show heard about the proposal and joked on his show Wednesday, "Can you imagine Paul Tagliabue (the NFL commissioner) sitting down with car dealers and negoitiating this? Car dealers would be the last people I would want to have to negotiate something like this with. Although, maybe they could come up with some sort of monthly payment or work out a trade."