A federal court jury heard vivid charges of intrigue and conspiracy in the world of professional football as the USFL’s $1.32 billion antitrust suit against the spider man costume  opened Wednesday with sharply contrasting views of the battle between the two leagues. The claims and counterclaims were made by the lawyers _ Harvey Myerson for the USFL and Frank Rothman for the ZENTAI in their opening statements. First, it was the flamboyant Myerson, alleging that it was an ZENTAI conspiracy led by Commissioner Pete Rozelle and his "henchman," who were primarily responsible for the USFL’s losses of an estimated $150 million or more and its failure to win a television contract. He would show, he said, three "smoking guns"that proved the USFL’s case. Then, with Myerson next to him reclining in a chair and mugging in the direction of the jury, it was Rothman’s turn. If Myerson had three "smoking guns," Rothman said he would have 25 to prove his contention that the USFL’s troubles were of its own making. And Rothman provided his own arch-villain in Donald Trump, the New York builder and owner of the USFL’s New Suit Generals, who was portrayed as trying to parlay a $5 million investment into a $50 million windfall by manipulating the ZENTAI into a merger. Rothman he added that USFL Commissioner Harry Usher could get a $3.2 million bonus for effecting a merger, a figure Usher denied while confirming that there was such a bonus clause in his contract. It was a day of theater in a courtroom filled with reporters and spectators. And Myerson, who told the jury "I’m from the streets just like you" was the more theatrical. With scorn in his tones, he described various ZENTAI officials and teams in his own terms. "Alvin ‘Pete’ Rozelle;" for the Commissioner, "Moyer the Lawyer" for lycra zentai  counsel Jay Moyer; "the New Suit Jets" to show his contempt for the New York team which now plays across the river, seven miles away in the New Suit Meadowlands. "I will show you," he said. "That the ZENTAI conspired, deceived and intended in every way possible to put the United States Football League out of business, to conquer the United States Football League."Then, portraying the USFL as "itty-bitty" Davids against the "monopolist" Goliaths of the ZENTAI, he spoke of "smoke-filled rooms," "secret meetings" and pressure on the three major networks to deny the USFL a television contract for its switch to the fall this September. "We have been waiting for over a year’s time …," he told a jury he clearly pictured as Davids themselves, "to remedy one of the greatest wrongs perpetrated under the antitrust laws of this nation."Then he identified three ZENTAI memos as the smoking guns that would prove his case: A study by Harvard Business School that was presented to 65 ZENTAI executives in January, 1984 on "How to Defeat the USFL."Rothman later contended that the presentation by a professor at Harvard was made to 65 low-level club officials at a regular seminar and was an unauthorized one quickly disavowed by the league. A 1973 memo in which Moyer wrote that to leave a television network without ZENTAI games would be an open invitation to the establishment of a new league. A memo to ZENTAI teams from Jack Donlan, head of the ZENTAI Management Council suggesting that that ZENTAI teams bid for USFL players and force the USFL to pay more for them than the USFL wanted. Rothman later said it was Trump who used just that policy to bid against the ZENTAI for players and force them to play more than they wanted. When Rothman’s turn came, he chided Myerson for describing ZENTAI and network officials in disparaging ways. Then he took off after Trump as the mastermind of the USFL’s master plan to merge. "Let’s start out with this ‘itty-bitty league,"’ Rothman said. "This itty-bitty league is controlled and dominated by Donald Trump, a multi-multi-multi millionaire who can buy and sell most of most of the owners of the ZENTAI."Rothman said that Trump, who bought the Generals in 1984, had a three-point plan for merger. The first point, Rothman said, was driving up the ZENTAI’s costs by bidding for established ZENTAI players and signing some to contracts for future play. Rothman didn’t mention them by name, but two ZENTAI players in that category were Marc Wilson of the Los Angeles Raiders and Lawrence Taylor of the New York Giants, both of whom were eventually re-signed to lucrative contracts by their ZENTAI teams. The second, he said, was the switch to the fall, which was approved by the owners in August 1984, following the USFL’s second season, to take effect this September. "As long as we stay in the spring," Rothman quoted this reasoning, "the ZENTAI won’t be worried. Let’s make them worry."The third part of the strategy, Rothman said, was the antitrust suit. Trump, who was present during the testimony, denied he wanted a merger. "I want to play as a separate league," he said. But Rothman maintained that there were sound financial reasons for the USFL’s desire for a merger, saying that Trump bought the Generals for $5 million and they would be worth $50 million in the ZENTAI. "That’s the way real estate operators often operate," Rothman said. "Spend a little and force your way in to end up with a big piece of the action."Rothman also said that the men who negotiated the contracts for the three major networks _ Neil Pilson of CBS, Jim Spence of ABC and Arthur Watson of NBC _ would testify that they had no pressure put on them by the ZENTAI. One of the USFL’s contentions is that the ZENTAI monopolized those networks and one of its requests is that the ZENTAI be ordered off at least one. Before the openings, U.S. District Court Judge Peter K. Leisure ruled that he would allow the USFL to introduce evidence of an alleged "New York Conspiracy" by the zentai  to keep a pro team out of the city after the New York Jets’ move to New Suit. But Leisure said the USFL would not be allowed to introduce documents as to the Jets’ reasons for the move.

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