NFL Considered Moving Raiders or Chargers to St. Louis, per Report

The Rams move from St. Louis to Los Angeles had an impactful fallout, which included both the league and Rams owner Stan Kroenke quietly moving forward towards the decision to relocate the franchise.

However, despite all of the issues that have come up in regards to the move, the league still seemed to understand what kind of market they were losing. A St. Louis Post-Dispatch report by Austin Huguelet, Joel Currier and Katie Kull details Kroenke’s path to moving the Rams to Los Angeles well before it became public.

Part of the report includes that the league considered moving the Raiders to St. Louis, as the franchise vied with the Chargers to be the second team in Los Angeles. The team wound up moving to Las Vegas from Oakland.

According to the report, owners talked about moving the team to St. Louis in 2014, before the Rams move was official. At one league owners meeting, they discussed a “restructured ownership” for the Raiders, along with a brand makeover and a focus on a “special diversity initiative,” but the talks didn’t go anywhere.

Some owners defended St. Louis in spite of the city losing its football team. Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell didn’t like the message the league was sending by vacating the city, and Bengals owner Mike Brown was opposed to the Rams moving out in the first place.

Brown was the only owner to vote “no” when it was time to officially vote on the Rams move.

As a result of Kroenke and the NFL’s process of moving the Rams to Los Angeles, the city of St. Louis sued the league, which resulted in a $790 million settlement.

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