NFL Owners Are Greedy

Money, money, money. We all need it in order to make a living (especially us college students). But at what point is it possible to get too much money? Stan Kroenke, owner of the Rams has elected to uproot his team in St. Louis and build a $2 billion home in the lucrative market of Los Angeles (more specifically, Inglewood). Kroenke's net wealth is approximated around $11 billion. Talk about a rich man. He would bring in approximately $300 million a year in that market as compared to around $150 million in San Diego, according to expert economists. I don't know the number for St. Louis, but I know that they will desperately miss their team. So now they are the Los Angeles Rams. Of course, they were called the L.A. Rams up until 1994 when Kroenke moved the team to St. Louis and at the same time, the Raiders moved to Oakland from L.A. Now that we know that the Rams are moving to Los Angeles, will anyone join them? Earlier in the week, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones brought up the prospect of teaming up the Inglewood project to include either the Chargers or Raiders. So now that the owners voted 30-2 to approve the move to Inglewood. The Chargers (meaning, owner Dean Spanos) now have one year to decide if they are to join them, which many people think it's only inevitable that they will join the Rams. If the Chargers leave, they will always be #2 in their own stadium. Chargers fans are hard to find in the L.A. area. Many Chargers fans are holding out hope that Dean Spanos won't be stupid by moving the team to L.A., thus forcing every single person in San Diego county to hate his guts. The thing is, whenever a team leaves one market to go to another, it's not about the fans, it's about the stupid money! Sure L.A. doesn't have a team, but that doesn't mean you have to tear the hearts of fans and then stomp it on the ground on the way out. For more information and news regarding the Chargers and their potential move to Los Angeles, click here to read up about it. Haven't we learned what greed can do to people/nations? Has there ever been a time where a nation or person has prospered forever from greed? I can't think of one. The Ottomans and the Romans got pretty close. But then even they fell. King Laman didn't even come close. God took care of that. Even the Lamanites eventually dwindled once good old Chris Columbus found this land. The NFL owners won't listen, but I beg them to quit being greedy. Justice will eventually find you.

On that note, let's move away from the front offices and head down to the field! The NFL playoffs sure have been interesting thus far. All four road teams won in the wild card round including a dramatic one in Minnesota where the Vikings lost 10-9 to the Seahawks. What was even worse was the fact that Minnesota kicker Blair Walsh missed a chip shot which would have won the game. Instead Seattle pulled out on top. Another game over the weekend was the matchup between the Chiefs and Texans. The Chiefs pulled an Alabama and destroyed the Texans 30-0. Then we go to the game between the Steelers and Bengals. What a dramatic game that was. The Bengals had the game all locked up when Jeremy Hill fumbled the ball around midfield. The Steelers went on to march down the field and win the game with a field goal. This was only assisted by two penalties. Two unnecessary roughness calls cost the Bengals the game. The fourth game was one in which the Packers defeated the Redskins: an outcome that I saw coming. Now we have the games set up for this weekend:
-Chiefs at Patriots, 4:35 ET, CBS
-Packers at Cardinals, 8:15 ET, NBC
-Seahawks at Panthers, 1:05 ET, FOX
-Steelers at Broncos, 4:40 ET, CBS
Meanwhile in the college ranks, Alabama has won its fourth title in seven years by defeating underdog Clemson 45-40. What a close game! Alabama pulled away in the fourth quarter as Clemson made it close within the final two minutes. But the Crimson Tide were able to run out the clock and claim the title. Nick Saban has now won five titles at Alabama and has formed a dynasty there. Congratulations!

In the world of baseball, the Padres have made a little bit of noise with the signing of SS Alexei Ramirez who has played the last 8 seasons with the Chicago White Sox. Ramirez, 34, struggled defensively last season and also did not hit very well until the second half of the year. The one advantage with him as opposed to someone like Ian Desmond is that he is durable, playing over 150 games in each of the past three seasons. On top of that, he is a lot more affordable and flexible than Desmond would have, which is important with 20-year-old Javier Guerra waiting under the wings to enter the big leagues. Guerra is still thought to be two years from the big leagues. The Padres desperately needed a short stop after after having 19 since 2009. In addition, the bullpen seems to be coming into form with the apparent signing of Fernando Rodney. Rodney, 39, is coming off a poor year with the Mariners in which he blew five saves and had an ERA over 5 whereupon the Mariners designated him for assignment. The Cubs soon picked him up for the end of the year where he flourished, owning a 0.77 ERA in the last two months of the year. He is expected to be the Padres' closer now that things in the free-agent market have slowed down. Will it be enough to overcome the Dodgers, Giants or D-Backs? Ask any MLB fan across the country and they will tell you that the Padres will be nobody. But that's what they said in 2010. Watch out, world. The Pad-Squad is coming to get you!

Well that should do it for this week. Tune in next week for your NBA update and preview for NFL conference championship games! Thank you!