Journalists are prostitutes anymore. Sports or otherwise. So I take stories like this with about 10 lbs. of salt. Is there a kernel of truth buried in here somewhere? Sure. Are there jealousies, upsets, and big egos among NFL owners? Duh. These are powerful billionaires we're taking about here. Lawsuits are an every day part of life for these guys (they are just not always very visible or interesting), as is finding a way to get more.....of everything. It's what they live for.
The take aways for me are the same ones I have harped on since the LA talk began when they were still the St. Louis Rams. 1) The only way to fill seats for a local LA football team is not only if it wins, but it wins with pazzazz. 2) And, the idea that LA will support 2 NFL teams in this modern age is dubious. LA is the very definition of short attention span. 3) LA is a melting pot. Fans from every region of the country live in LA, so the idea that the Rams will have a stadium full of rabid Rams fans is unlikely. 4) Spanos made a dumb, dumb deal and will regret it for a generation. The Chargers were San Diego's team. He had the world in his hand in San Diego, and he gave it up for cheap rent. Say NFL football and LA, and the name will always come up "the Rams". Few even remember that the Raiders were here at one time, even fewer that the Chargers were here. For whatever it's worth, LA belongs to the Rams when it comes to NFL football, even if they might not have a plethora of fanatic fans like Pittsburgh or NE or Seattle. 5) Of course Kroenke was going to move the team to LA. It would more than double the team's value overnight. That alone is sufficient reason for any owner of pretty much anything. And no lawsuit was ever going to stop it because the value of the move so far outweighs whatever the cost of litigation and damages might be that it's no contest.
