Jerry Jones Was a Key Figure in the Rams and Stan Kroenke Getting the Los Angeles Market
By Jason Lisk
Jerry Jones got what he wanted, when it came to the Los Angeles relocation decision. In an ESPN Magazine feature by Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta, Jr., with plenty of behind-the-scenes details, Jones was portrayed as the vocal leader of the “new money” owners who prevailed in wrangling to get Stan Kroenke to Los Angeles over the old guard ownership in San Diego and Oakland.
It contains a lot of good details if you want to see how ruthless and sometimes petty the NFL owners can be toward each other. For example, it talks about some undecided owners considering other concessions in exchange for votes: Things like changes in division or conference affiliation or horse-trading for future exchanges such as a new stadium for themselves.
The piece showed two factions: the newer money owners like Jerry Jones, Daniel Snyder, and Jeffrey Lurie, who backed Stan Kroenke’s opulent project in Inglewood, and Jerry Richardson along with long-time owners who preferred the more popular and long-standing Spanos family.
Jerry Jones was ever-present in shooting down the Carson project (the joint venture between the Chargers and Raiders) in favor of Kroenke’s move. For example, when Michael Bidwell of the Arizona Cardinals spoke on behalf of not just making rich owners richer but doing what was best for the league, Jones shot back “When you guys moved the team from St. Louis to Phoenix — it wasn’t about the money? … You did it for the money.”
When bureaucracy threatened the Rams’ project, Jones is the one who advised Kroenke to just go forward and not wait for permission.
In a meeting this fall about the two options, Jones delivered what the ESPN The Magazine piece describes as a “rollicking, profanity-laced eight-minute endorsement of Kroenke’s monumental vision, saying in his Arkansas drawl that whichever owner returned to Los Angeles, he needed to have ‘big balls.'”
“If you want to do it right,” Jones continued, “you have to step up.”
It was Jones, then, who sensed that he didn’t have the full votes pitting Kroenke against the other two owners, and approached Spanos and told him “I want you in LA with Stan.”
While the piece doesn’t specify who led the charge for a secret ballot rather than each owner publicly declaring their vote, that concession would also work in Kroenke’s favor. They settled on discussing one of two options: Inglewood with the Rams and potentially the Chargers, or Carson with the Chargers and Raiders. That option of the Chargers joining swayed enough votes, and undercut what the Spanos family actually wanted. The first secret ballot was won by the Rams’ project by a 21-11 vote.
Jones had done and end around on several powerful owners, because the smaller relocation committee had recommended Carson by a 5-1 vote before going to the larger ownership. The pieces notes, after the votes were in.
"Kraft, Hunt, McNair and Mara led the negotiations; Goodell mostly listened. Rooney and Richardson were quiet, even “despondent,” one meeting participant says, angry on Spanos’ behalf and frustrated that their recommendation was ignored. “These are proud people,” the participant says. “It was a slap in their faces.”"
According to ESPN the Magazine, a gleeful Jones said of the completely uninspiring Stan Kroenke, “Stan is a tremendous asset for the NFL,” Jones said. “He’s God-sent, really.”