Editor's note: The video above is with Raiders owner Mark Davis from May 2015
You know the NFL-to-LA story is the thing of things because the number of rumors and number of leakers are at generational highs.
Take, for example, this from Jason Cole of Bleacher Report, who said Mark Davis would be willing to sell an interest in the Oakland Raiders to a Los Angeles buyer if it would enhance his standing with the 29 non-interested voter/owners.
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“Whatever it takes to make something happen,” Cole quoted Davis as saying, and since it’s Cole, you may conclude with confidence that Davis said it.
In other words, the blood is being run in the bathtubs, and the owners are ready to end the years of prelude and start the real horse trading.
For instance, St. Louis’ richest family just found $158 million Wednesday for a new stadium naming deal to keep the Rams in Missouri. Of course, a sizable chunk of this money is taxpayer money, because when rich people are giving financial gifts, very often the money they are bestowing is ultimately going to be yours.
[BAIR: Aldon Smith fitting in with Raiders, 'I’m not just a pass rusher']
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Not only that, the NFL owners met in New York (rather than a place where golf, tanning and more golf can be done) because this is a time for them to actually get down to the business of doing something important, and almost certainly within the next two months or so.
But Davis saying he was willing to be part of this end-game with Los Angeles is an indication that he knows how tight a vote this is going to be, and that he needs to be as accommodating as possible to any owner’s idea of the Raiders’ suitability.
Now the best thing Davis has going for him is still the fact that the city of Oakland has pulled out linty pants pockets when the topic of money comes up. Leaving the Raiders in Oakland basically dooms the Raiders as a competitive moneymaker in the NFL, and unless the grand plan from other owners is to starve Davis out and then sell the team to a buyer designated by the league’s power brokers, that seems a counterintuitive idea.
It also bears mentioning that if Jed York were any kind of player in league affairs, his desire to have the Raiders in any part of the country not within driving distance of Santa Clara would be heeded as an important matter. He is not, so it is not.
This really is as it has always been –- Chargers owner Dean Spanos vs. Rams owner Stan Kroenke, and Davis is Spanos’ very silent partner. Except, of course, when he drops little gems like the one he provided Cole.
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At a stage where neither Spanos nor Kroenke have sufficient votes to move . . . yet . . . Davis is willing to take one of the obstacles from his side of the Spanos-Davis proposal. He is apparently willing to be less, well, less him if it will help relieve him of his Oakland conundrum.
Now the question becomes whether the rest of the owners can be persuaded by this offer from Davis that the Raiders as a concept are better off in Carson. One suspects this is only an opening gambit in a furious series of gambits from Davis, Spanos and Kroenke, as well as San Diego and St. Louis (we’ve pretty much given up on Oakland) to sell themselves to the 29 men who will decide the fates of so many people and so many wallets.
In short, if Davis has put this on the table already, one wonders how much further he can go without losing control of the one property his family has controlled for 43 years.