Worse, Skip and Sis have no real wealth of their own. Skip (Dale Rosenbloom) is a director of producer of various small Hollywood movies you probably haven't heard of. He's doing okay, but he is rich by no mans estimation. His sister is a Mexican housewife in East L.A. No bullshit.
I should mention, in passing, that I know his name is Dale Rosenbloom. I also know that Dale's nick-name is Chip not Skip. We like to call him Skip out here, because he is the Ram owner that NFL historians will skip over when and if they need to write a page or two about Ram history for a website or PDF. I know that's not nice, but he is very unlikely to own the team for two full seasons of NFL play. Come kick-off time in September, I expect this deal to be done. Hardly a footnote in the book.
The IRS doesn't want the stock. They want the money. The NFL constitution would not allow the IRS to own the franchise anyhow. Should the IRS seize 60% of the Rams, NFL HQ might well dissolve the Team. However, the NFL would never allow it to reach that point. A purchase would be arranged well before that moment. Ergo this brother sister tandem had no choice: Sell out and pay the IRS.
Skip denied the Yahoo! report vehemently. He said the team was not for sale. He said he felt an obligation to his dead father to keep the team in the family. He would be the owner. He did not declare the report an outright lie, but he came close.
Fast forward two weeks. Jimmy Johnson of Fox Sports, the former architect of the Dallas Cowboy dynasty, announced on the air that the Rams are (in fact) for sale. He personally knew this to be the fact of the matter.
Then a few weeks later we hear that the City of Industry has given Ed Roski Jr. preliminary approval to build an NFL stadium (and they did explicit say NFL in the city documents) inside the borders of the City of Industry. The East side of the City of Industry, near Wallnut to be specific. For those who don't know much about Los Angeles, Industry is a small chunk of L.A. County in the south east. Make no mistake: Industry is L.A. just as much as Santa Monica is L.A.
There were speculations about the Vikings coming to town again. No, that isn't it, said everybody with a connection to the Vikings. There are no thoughts inside Viking HQ about moving to Los Angeles... or the City of Industry.
Ghee-wiz, what the fuck is this thing Roski is doing then?
Then rumors began to circulate about cash flow problems. Dale doesn't have any money. Guys like Orlando Pace and Torry Holt were pulling down a lot of money. A lot more money than Dale makes. It was questionable whether the Rams could carry their contracts, or eat a loss from a late release, and still pay the #2 pick the sort of cash this player to be named later would be expecting from his draft position. Pace and Holt, two potential Hall of Fame candidates, were both released. We took an unglamorous Left Tackle, the exact player we absolutely needed most. The Rams have an evil history of taking the glamor boy over the guy we need... at least during the past 28 years. But it just so happens that Jason Smith is a guy who will command less money that Marc Sanchez, both in the long and the short run. Cash was impacting the movements of organization quite a bit. Probably for the better.
Rumors again circulate that Dale is not selling the team, but he would be interested in listening to offers if there might be a St. Louis investor interested in keeping the team at home in St. Louis. You could hear the gentile breeze in the trees as not a human sound was made.
Then one week ago, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reports that the Rams are for sale. Skip and his sister have retained the services of the famous investment bank Goldman Sachs (the place Henry Paulson game from) to organize the sale, handle the legal paperwork, do the escrow, and maybe even settle their tax problems. This information was intercepted as it traveled from Goldman Sachs HQ in New York to NFL headquarters on Park Avenue.
Most important of all, the report contains the stipulation that Skip is willing to sell to any investor or group. There will be no stipulation that the buyer must keep the team in St. Louis. Now suddently, there are parties publically announcing that they are interested. Immediately, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the Kansas City Star and the San Francisco Chronicle are alive and buzzing with rumors that all potentials buyers want to move the Rams back to Los Angeles. That includes Stan Kroenke and Dave Checkett, despite what they are currently saying... or not saying.
So what is the score? Everybody believes that there are three prospects to the sale. One is quite public. The other two are known and silent.
The public guy is Checkett. About 100 pieces have been written about this guy in the past week. A careful consideration of these pieces indicates that Checkett is a pretender to the throne. He is not a serious contender for the title. Checkett doesn't have much money. He is the chairman of the St. Louis Blues. Hocky is a poorboy sport. The money is nothing like the NFL. It doesn't even compare to Baseball and Basketball. Checkett cannot do the transaction himself. He has been public about his intent to form an investment group to assemble the money for the purchase. The math cannot work out. Unless Checkett can get Kroenke to sellout, he has 60% of the stock availible for purchase, grand total. The NFL constitution declares that 1 owner much own at least a 55% controlling interest in the team. I do not see how an investment group can buy 60% distribute shares, and put 55% in one man's hands. It won't work. Checkett's group will not be the purchaser of the Rams. It may not even tender a serious offer.
The consensus says that Kroenke is the owner if he wants to be. He already owns 40% of Rams. He is worth $3.5 billion. His wife is probably worth more than he is. The main problem is that he owns the Colorado Avalanch and the Denver Nuggets. The NFL constitution prohibits him from buying the Rams. Why? Denver is an NFL city. The Broncos live there. John Elway is a great fan of the Nuggets. He often introduces them. Paul Allen was allowed to own the Portland Trailblazers and the Seahawks because Portland is not an NFL city. This is a bizarre rule that is basically outdated and outmoded. Nevertheless, the NFL is probably not going to budge. If Kroenke is willing to sell a majority share in both of these franchises (subject to their league rules) he could buy the Rams. Otherwise, he is out by NFL constitution.
One fellow commented to me "Never under estimate the power of politics in these affairs!" Very well said. The NFL wanted Paul Allen in the NFL clubhouse. It is a billionaire club, and they wanted connections to Microsoft. Ergo, the NFL found an easy way to get around the rules. Kroenke is a good man. The NFL might like him. Then again they might not. He isn't as big a fish as Allen, make no mistake about it. Will they bend or get around rules for Kroenke? I doubt it.
So why would the NFL be interesting in politically excluding Kroenke, or making his acquisition difficult? Because they want to move the Rams back to Los Angeles, that's why.
One of the persistent, consistent, pernicious thorns in the NFL's arse has been the absence of NFL football in the 2nd largest market in North America. The NFL has opened numerous negotiations with the city of Los Angeles to do a deal. The City of Los Angeles has been incredibly cocky and stupid in their dealings with the NFL. They have always advanced plans to refurb the Coliseum and put the team there. The NFL is not interested in that. They have always said no to that deal. There are reasons the Rams left the Coliseum in 1980. There are reasons why the Raiders left the Coliseum in 1995. There are reasons the Trojans would like a new house right now. The Coliseum is Fu-KAKTA.
This all brings us to Eddie DeBartolo Jr. The last time I saw Eddie, it was Summer 2008. He appeared at the Hall of Fame in Canton to present Fred Dean for induction. I have never seen Eddie look so sad. He always looked invigorated, vibrant, competitive. At this time, he looked like a sad old man who just finished crying for 3.52 hours. His eyes were red and puffy through the entire visit with the NFL network and ESPN. He looked damn depressed. It looks as if being outside the NFL is killing Eddie.
Eddie lost control of the 49ers in the year 2000. The circumstances of this loss were murky indeed. There are rumors and counter rumors. The facts of the case are these:
- Eddie was involved in a corruption case with Governor Edwin Edwards of Louisiana.
- In 1998 Eddie paid Edwin $400,000 for a river boat casino license.
- Eddie wound up in an FBI sting
- Edwin went on trial for extorting $400,000 from Eddie for this license.
- Eddie was charged with failure to report felony political corruption.
- Eddie was fined by the NFL and banned from controlling the team for 1 year
- The reckoning moment came in 2000 when he gave control of the 49ers to his dear sister Marie York.
- She had previously run the Pittsburg Penguins, which was Eddie's way of getting around the NFL rules.
- She became the second female owner of an NFL team after Georgia
- The 49ers pretty well collapsed after 3 years.
- Denise never gave the team back to Eddie.
- We do know that there was an ugly-ass family fued between Denise and Eddie.
- The details are only partially public. You can read one interpretation of the timeline here.
- Eddie is not allowed to have any involvement with the 49ers by his dear sister and brother in law.
We should remember that Georgia was a Las Vegas showgirl. She had 5 husbands prior to Carrol Rosenbloom. Those fellows were shadowy Las Vegas figures. That usually means mafia. Rumors about Georgia being involved in a plot to kill her husband and steal the Rams from Steve Rosenbloom have circulated ever since 1979. These allegations are still talked about today in Los Angeles sports bars.
I was going to come out in full support of Eddie. Whatever else you want to say about him. Eddie took a dastardly joke of an NFL franchise and he made them the first team to win 5 Super Bowls. It has taken the Steelers some 14 years to pass the 49ers, even though they once started with a 4 championship lead. If you are a long suffering Ram fan you have to like that record... if it heads your way. Unfortunately, this other information, which I never dreamed about, causes me to wonder. I really don't like this kind of corruption around my team.
However, it should be noted that Eddie will come to the NFL with a compelling package deal. He has said he will move the team to Los Angeles. He claimed he would personally build a state-of-the-art Dome stadium on the West Side of L.A., somewhere near LAX. That is right where the NFL wants it. He may not need to do this, now that Ed Roski is at work.
The NFL is smart. They know Eddie will return with blood vengeance in mind. Nobody hates like family. He will stick it to his sister every chance he gets. He will re-stoke the feud between the Rams and 49ers which once dominated NFL football on the west coast. This would re-invoggorate football on the West Coast, which is badly in need of a stimulus package. He might even be able to do it again... He might make the Rams Champions.
We'll see what Roger Goodell does about this. This is going to be the first real acid-test of his administration. Both Eddie and Georgia represent a shadowy underbelly of NFL history which the late Commissioner Rozelle allowed to creep into our fabled and beloved sport.
I want the Rams back in Los Angeles, and I want the Rams to win a lot of championships here, in my town. But not at any price. I am not willing to sell my soul for this victory and this return. I am hoping my team will be cleansed of the corruption that once ensnared it by this pending sale.
