Orioles Owner May Buy Redskins

Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos is looking at making a bid to purchase the Washington Redskins, The Washington Post reported in its Friday editions.

Angelos, reached at his home in Baltimore by The Associated Press, did not deny the report.

"I can't comment on it really," he said.

But later in the telephone interview he called the Redskins "a very interesting team, a strong franchise with a huge following by its fans. It's a franchise that anybody would be interested having."

Angelos would bid at least $450 million for the Redskins and their new Jack Kent Cooke Stadium in Laurel, Md., if he decides to make a formal bid, the Post quoted sources close to the situation as saying.

He has informed baseball commissioner Bud Selig of his possible intent to purchase the NFL franchise and received Selig's OK to move forward, the newspaper said.

Howard Milstein, a co-owner of the NHL's New York Islanders, also has received a prospectus from Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, the investment banking firm hired by trustees of late Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke's estate to sell the team, the Post said.

If losing their first seven games wasn't enough, now Terry Allen and the Redskins must deal with reports of a possible new owner. (AP)

The Cooke estate trustees hope to get at least $500 million from the sale, with some of the proceeds going to pay off the $161 million debt on the new stadium, but the bulk going to a scholarship foundation

New York real estate developer Andrew Pensen in August made a $450 million offer for both the team and the stadium, contingent upon not assuming any of the stadium's debt.

Cooke's son and current Redskins president John Kent Cooke has also told the estate's trustees he is putting together a team of investors to make an offer for the franchise.

The senior Cooke died in April 1997. The Redskins are winless in seven games this season.

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