No one knows what it will be. But it likely will be something.
After more than 20 years with no team in Los Angeles, the NFL is closing on a solution to the situation. The solution could involve one team or two. It definitely won’t involve three. And it most definitely won’t involve none.
Via Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Patriots owner Robert Kraft (a member of the NFL’s six-person Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities) said after an eight-hour meeting on Wednesday regarding whether a resolution is expected next week in Houston, “That’s for sure.”
Added Chargers owner Dean Spanos, “It looks like we’ll get it done next week.”
It doesn’t mean the Chargers will be the team that is done in its current home. Spanos added that “no one knows for sure” what will happen as the NFL tries to get 24 teams behind one specific proposal.
That’s where this process will become potentially fascinating. As the vote gets closer to 24, each remaining holdout acquires significant power and influence, which can be traded for other considerations. The more badly the league hopes to close the deal, the more those last few votes are worth.
And what if the most obvious proposals -- the Rams to Inglewood or the Chargers to Carson -- can’t get to 24? At that point, the league may need to get creative. Especially if (as it appears) Rams owner Stan Kroenke is prepared to devote a large chunk of his personal fortune to get his way.
It’s poker, chess, checkers, and chicken, played by folks who are very accustomed to getting their own way. And they’ll say they’re trying to do what’s right for the league at a time when, in reality, plenty of people with a seat at the table will care only about what’s right for them.
