There is so much wrong with this move I can't begin to start, but it is safe to say that the WWE-ification of the NFL continues on pace.
I acknowledge that the stadium situation in Oakland was not good, but neither was the one in Foxboro before the Krafts bought the team and cleaned out the element that existed that made it an embarassment to the league. The things that made Oakland unsafe was an OWNERSHIP problem. They didn't have the will to clean up the area and make it family and fan friendly.
Face it, Oakland is leaving because they just got a gift 3/4's of a BILLION dollars that I just read could expand to another $200,000 in state money. That's a billion dollar boondoggle to the Davis Family that the Nevada taxpayers have donated. Clearly the state doesn't need the money for schools, health care, or infrastructure.
The irony will be that they will build a stadium that will be filled just 8 times a year mostly by people who don't live in Nevada. Yeah, THAT sounds like a sound investment.
Then there is the gambling issue. Folks THIS is where all the lines people use to bet BILLIONS of dollars every week are made. Now thwre will be 53 players and dozens of coaches, personnel and medical staff, who will be under costant and immediate pressure to disclose information. Think about it. Even if a player is in a casual conversation in a bar, and the wrong person hears him talk about someing he saw on film about another player, or a player on his team can be damaging to the fairness of the line. It doesn't need to be something overt, like a player in debt to a casino. It can be as simple as that, BECAUSE they are so close the real action.
Make no mistake about it. The NFL is in the gaming business. Between tihis and their investments in game day FF, there is no going back. Any further actions by the NFL to fight sports betting in other states won't be because any higher moral principles. It will be strictly because they will be trying to limit the competition.
So sure it will be more fun to go to a Pats/Raiders game in Vegas, than in Oakland. Sure it will be a better stadium to play in. But the NFL, if it realy had any "integrity", wouldn't be in Las Vegas. The ONLY reason there isn't a new Stadium in Oakland is because the NFL didn't want to front Davis the money out of their OWN pockets, and Davis wouldn't sell the team to someone who could. Why would they when they can get the project financed for free.
AND get a check for over $12,000,000 just for voting yes.
In some ways I am almost looking forward to when this Golden era ends, just so I can completely divorce myself from this stinking corrupt carcass of a league. I'm at the stage now where the only redeaming quality of this league is THIS franchise and the way it's run. And yet even as I say these words, Bob Kraft is one of the 31 owners who voted their pocketbooks over any principles of loyalty, tradition, and morality. I look at the long term vision of professional football and all I see is Rollerball.
