The National Football League is an incredibly deceitful league, according to an ESPN talk show host who attended a court hearing earlier this month involving the relocation of the St. Louis Rams to Los Angeles.
“They encouraged St. Louis to spend money when St. Louis had no chance of that money bearing fruit in terms of the Rams staying in St. Louis,” said Randy Karraker, 101 ESPN Radio morning host.
“The Rams were not going to stay in St. Louis. That was a done deal and yet the league was still encouraging St. Louis government entities, corporate entities, and fans to still spend the money on the product.”
As previously reported, the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority, the City of St. Louis, and the County of St. Louis sued the Rams and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke alleging they failed to comply with relocation rules established by the NFL when they fled to Los Angeles, leaving St. Louis city and county officials on the hook for a new stadium that was never going to be built.
“The St Louis group had heard from several sources with the league that if they had an actionable stadium plan, they'd be able to keep their team,” Karraker told St. Louis Record. “They built an actionable stadium plan. They were ready to build ground. They followed all of the league guidelines and all the league suggestions yet once they got to that point, the league said it wasn’t good enough. The league started moving the goalposts and St. Louis lost the team.”
On July 12, St. Louis City Circuit Judge Christopher McGraugh determined enough evidence existed in the litigation to allow plaintiffs to access the NFL’s financial records and several team owners, including Kroenke, according to media reports.
“In Missouri, there is a rule in place that for a civil case, before a punitive award is made, the plaintiff needs to know what the wealth of the defendant is,” Karraker said. “This case won't go to trial until next January but the judge determined that there was enough evidence on the part of the defendants that were involved with the fleecing of St. Louis, that there's a possibility that there could be an award.”
While Karraker was sitting in the Carnahan Courthouse in the city of St. Louis observing the legal proceedings, he said St. Louis attorneys appeared more prepared and charismatic than the lawyers representing the NFL.
“St. Louis attorneys have a better idea, clearly because they filed the lawsuit, of what's going on in this case than the NFL lawyers do,” he said. “I'm still not convinced that the league is taking this seriously. Granted, they put big money behind the corporate attorneys in that courtroom last week but I'm still unconvinced that they have a real understanding of the gravity of the situation on the part of the league.”