Los Angeles will have a NFL team again soon; and it will be the Raiders or the Rams, one of the two teams that left. That’s the word on CBS NFL Today. Here’s what Boomer Esiason said this morning:
“I’m telling you, Rams or Raiders are going. It’s a done deal, I believe. I hate the fact that St. Louis and Oakland are losing their franchises. I hate when cities lose teams, especially the Raiders and how gritty they’ve become with the Oakland brand behind them.”
Now Boomer Esiason is not a journalist or a reporter; he’s an analyst. He’s a talk show host, so on one hand take what he says with a grain of salt. On the other hand, Esiason is much more connected to league sources than damn near most people, so he wouldn’t say something like this unless he had good solid intel on this topic. Given what the Rams did to the Raiders Sunday, I think the people of Los Angeles know what team they would prefer.
Given the sorry recent history of the Raiders, and the fact that the Rams have been competitive somewhat the last couple decades, the decision is no brainer.
On the same show, we also got this hot take from Jim Rome. (Beware: it’s such a scorching hot take that you might get third degree burns and really bad blisters from reading what Rome said about the Rams and Raiders. “Rome is burning” right?
“I know exactly one person in Los Angeles who is actually from Los Angeles, me. And the next person who asks me when the NFL is returning to LA will be the first. That is because everybody else is a super fan, transplant…If there are any other actual natives, they’ll always root harder for their fantasy team than an LA reality team.
“We don’t need football to get through a Sunday. The Raiders and Rams left.”
“The sun and sand did not. I’m not saying LA will reject an NFL team. I’m just saying we won’t embrace one unless it’s a good one. This is not Buffalo or Cleveland with their die hard patented fan bases.”
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on KOZN 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2