ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The National Football League and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke have their backs against the wall, facing the St. Louis region's lawsuit over the Rams' relocation nearly a decade ago. Now, the only way out may be bringing an NFL team back.
Football insider Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk says there's been some chatter "in league circles" that giving St. Louis a new expansion franchise would be better than paying possibly $1.5 billion to the region if they lose the lawsuit.
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He tells KMOX that Kroenke has a signed an indemnity agreement with the league an every owner (meaning he's responsible to pay for every dime a team or the league may owe St. Louis). But this lawsuit seems to be trending to a verdict that may be too much for even a $10 billion man like Kroenke.
"There's a certain amount of a verdict and judgement that could cause Kroenke to look for some loop hole, some way to say, 'Sorry, I'm not paying all that on my own," Florio says. "If you get to the point where other owners may have to kick in, that's where this notion of dangling a team becomes a possibility. It's something the commissioner would have to want to do and sometimes that's the only way out of a bad spot.
"You have to think that folks in St. Louis would be interested. I'd be interested if I was in St. Louis. You mean we're getting a team back? Hell yeah."
The suit filed by St. Louis, St. Louis County and the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority in 2017 claims the NFL violated its own relocation rules by allowing the Rams to leave St. Louis. The trial is scheduled to begin in January in a St. Louis courtroom.
After repeated failed attempts to get the case move away from St. Louis, Florio reports the NFL is finally realizing its fate.
"Currently, it’s too late to avoid a trial," Florio reports. "It could soon be too late to avoid a massive verdict. And while the league seems to be content to willing to take its luck at the appellate level, that process only kicks in after a Seinfeld finale-style trial featuring multiple owners being placed under oath and asked aggressive questions that may potentially twist them in knots and expose them to widespread scrutiny, criticism, and embarrassment."
He says the promise of an expansion franchise could mean a new team for St. Louis in five, 10 or 15 years, as the league will also award another city a new team to bump up to 34 total teams.
Last week, new court filings in the lawsuit indicated some NFL owners had not turned over their financial records as ordered by the judge. It cost each owner $1,000 per day until the documents were presented to the court.
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