California Dreamin’ For Kroenke

St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke had purchased 60 acres of land in Inglewood, California. This would obviously raise some red flags if you’re one of the few, proud St. Louis Rams fans in Missouri but it could be explained away as an ultra-rich guy purchasing lots of land for a project.

Maybe a mall or a theme part of some sort?

Sure.

Instead Kroenke has partnered with Stockbridge Capital Group, who owns an adjacent plot of nearly 300 acres, and together, they’re planning to build a new NFL stadium.

The project is known as the City of Champions Revitalization Project would include enough room for not only a stadium and parking, but retail, office, and hotel space.

Sure, others have flirted with building a stadium in the greater L.A. area and failed. This is obviously different because Kroenke has his proverbial “ducks in a row” as well as the most important asset, an actual NFL team.

If St. Louis doesn’t provide Kroenke with a stadium by the end of January, the lease at the Edward Jones Dome changes from year-to-year. It seems like it’s fairly inevitable that the Rams are going to end up back in Los Angeles and they can be there as early as 2016.
It’s highly unlikely any members of the ownership council would attempt to block the move, as the NFC West teams would have shorter trips and everyone would make more money with a team in Los Angeles.

Sorry Rams fans, your days of NFL ownership appear to be numbered.

Cowboys Officially Got Away With One

Bad calls are part of the game, regardless of the sport. Teams have to play through the officials and sometimes persevere.

With what will forever be known as the “pickup the flag game,” the Detroit Lions caught the rubber end of the plunger when the officials threw a flag for pass interference when Cowboys’ linebacker Anthony Hitchens face-guarded and grabbed Lions’ tight end Brandon Pettigrew. As one of the nearly 30 million estimated viewers of the game, you know that the officials announced the penalty, only to later announce that it wouldn’t be enforced.

NFL head of officiating Dean Blandino appeared on PFT Live and spoke about what should have been called.

According to Blandino, the penalty that Hitchens got away with was defensive holding: Hitchens grabbed Pettigrew’s jersey while Pettigrew was running his route, and Blandino said that should have been called. That penalty would have obviously given the Lions an automatic first down.

So the Lions were “jobbed” but should that have prevented them from winning the game?
The facts are that the Detroit offense scored just three second half points and their kicking game was one of the shakiest in the NFL this season. They could have still stopped the Cowboys on their final drive but obviously didn’t.

Detroit also had a chance with over two minutes remaining, but Matt Stafford lost not just one but two fumbles.

The Lions can blame the officials all they want, and the officials did screw up. At the end of the day they didn’t do enough to win a playoff game.

Saints Linebacker Arrested

New Orleans Saints linebacker Junior Galette was arrested Monday morning on a charge of simple battery related to domestic assault.

A police spokesman said, via the Baton Rouge Advocate, that police arrived at Galette’s house Monday morning and found a 22-year-old woman was bleeding from the ear with scratches on her face that she claimed were the result of being “jumped” by Galette and another man when she asked for cab fare.

It’s a bad time for anyone in the NFL to be arrested due to the climate change on personal conduct, especially domestic violence. It’s too soon to tell what sort of punishment the Saints and/or the NFL would take, but if he’s convicted there will be a minimum six-game suspension.

Gallette signed a new four-year contract extension before the 2014 season reportedly worth upwards of $41.5 million. Galette has a fully guaranteed roster bonus of $12.5 million due in 2015 along with another roster bonus of $500,000 and a base salary of $1.25 million.