NFL IN L.A. IDEA ALIEN TO GOODELL.Byline: STEVE DILBECK MIAMI Miami, cities, United States Miami (mīăm`ē, –ə). 1 City (1990 pop. 358,548), seat of Dade co., SE Fla., on Biscayne Bay at the mouth of the Miami River; inc. 1896. - He is sports' new Teflon Man, and Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. best get used to it. Commissioner Roger Goodell Roger S. Goodell (born February 19, 1959, in Jamestown, New York[1]) is the Commissioner of the National Football League, having been chosen to succeed the retiring Paul Tagliabue on August 8, 2006. held his first state-of-the-NFL news conference Friday at the Super Bowl, and what we mostly learned is new fathers aren't as proud as this guy. First he was proud to announce a regular-season game will be played next October in London. Then he was proud players wanted to eliminate performance- enhancing drugs. He was just ``proud of our players,'' or the ones not arrested. The more he spoke, the prouder he became. He spoke for 45 minutes, and by the end reporters were dodging buttons busting off his shirt. He was proud of the amount of money spent on NFL NFL abbr. National Football League NFL (US) n abbr (= National Football League) → Fußball-Nationalliga pensions and benefits, proud of the NFL's role in re-opening the Superdome, the Saints' role in New Orleans New Orleans (ôr`lēənz –lənz, ôrlēnz`), city (2006 pop. 187,525), coextensive with Orleans parish, SE La., between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, 107 mi (172 km) by water from the river mouth; founded , the officiating, the NFL's relationship with the Latino market and even the NFL Network. Pretty sure he was proud of the way I took notes. What he wasn't, however, was proud to announce the NFL was close to returning to Los Angeles. And all hail all hail interj. Used to express acclamation, a welcome, or a greeting. to this. Goodell specialized in a lot of non-answer answers Friday, but when the annual state-of-the-NFL-in-L.A. question came out, he once again made it clear it is no longer a priority. And I was just so proud. He would not completely close the door because, you know, miracles do happen and this is a sexy huge market, but otherwise repeated his comment from last fall, long espoused here, that the NFL and L.A are just fine without each other. ``We need to find a solution in Los Angeles that works for both the community and the NFL,'' he said. ``It's important for us to be in LosAngeles long-term. ``But we've survived quite well without Los Angeles. Los Angeles has survived quite well without the NFL.'' Twelve years of trying to work out that long-term solution have come up frustratingly empty for both Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, and the NFL. As Don Henley sang, even if was about aliens, ``They're not here, they're not coming, not in a million years.'' So maybe the NFL will return to the nation's second-largest market sometime before aliens arrive, but right now it is so far removed from being a priority to the league it barely earns a mention. Friday, Goodell was asked about off-the-field arrests, substance abuse, medical treatment for ex-players, lack of Latino and African-American coaches, a new collective bargaining collective bargaining, in labor relations, procedure whereby an employer or employers agree to discuss the conditions of work by bargaining with representatives of the employees, usually a labor union. treatment and international expansion. The man has important and serious issues to deal with. ``They have a lot of problems more important than us,'' said Coliseum general manger Pat Lynch. ``They'd like to be here. They like us, but it's a tough deal. And the costs aren't going any lower.'' Twelve years of non-movement has skyrocketed the estimated cost of building, or rebuilding, a stadium from $250 million to almost $1billion. Try not to laugh. Twelve years has not only not brought the NFL closer, it has pushed it further away. The stadium problem is not unique to Los Angeles. It's a problem throughout California and there are no easy answers. The 49ers are desperate to get out of their aging facility but San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden won't bankroll bank·roll n. 1. A roll of paper money. 2. Informal One's ready cash. tr.v. bank·rolled, bank·roll·ing, bank·rolls Informal a new stadium, either. Now they're talking about moving to Santa Clara Santa Clara, city, Cuba Santa Clara (sän`tä klä`rä), city (1994 est. pop. 217,000), capital of Villa Clara prov., central Cuba. . San Diego has been a mess for years. The Raiders are stuck with Oakland's baseball/football stadium. The NFL had come up with what it called a G-3 fund to help teams and cities finance new stadiums -- which was once earmarked for L.A. -- but those limited funds have gone to New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and KansasCity. ``The G-3 fund has been exhausted,'' Goodell said. Goodell said he would prefer the 49ers stay in SanFrancisco, ``but on the other hand SantaClara has proposed something that has a great deal of potential.'' He wants the Chargers to stay in San Diego, but sounded somewhat removed from current discussions and had not met with local officials. Meanwhile, the NFL is the biggest, richest, most successful professional sports league in America. They seem to be surviving just fine without us. Los Angeles will always hold appeal, but even after years of using it to extort To compel or coerce, as in a confession or information, by any means serving to overcome the other's power of resistance, thus making the confession or admission involuntary. To gain by wrongful methods; to obtain in an unlawful manner, as in to compel payments by means of threats of new stadiums out of existing NFL cities, the country is getting wise to the concept that there is no reasonable stadium solution here. The sky can only be falling so many times. There is no working solution even near the table. ``We're hoping for a new development or a new idea,'' Lynch said. ``But it's not like there's anything imminent.'' The Coliseum Commission finally has gotten wise to the NFL dance. After a ridiculous amount of time spent waiting for the NFL to reappear and magically transform the stadium, it is moving forward on developing a master lease with USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. . ``We're pretty deep into conversations with USC,'' Lynch said. That probably translates to more modest improvements -- seating, concessions, restrooms, scoreboards -- but that's fine, too. Maybe even preferred. Lynch, who is here at the Super Bowl, said the commission and the NFL still check in with other. Mostly to ask the same hopeful question of each other: Anything new? Proud to say, nothing is. And get used to it. stephen.dilbeck@dailynews.com (818) 713-3607 CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: (color) NFL commissioner Roger Goodell barely mentioned the possibility of a team coming to Los Angeles. David J. Phillip/Associated Press Box: Super Bowl XLI Super Bowl XLI was the 41st championship game of the modern National Football League (NFL). The American football game was played on February 4 2007 at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, a suburb of Miami, following the 2006 regular season. Kickoff was at 6:27 p.m. CHICAGO BEARS vs. INDIANAPOLIS COLTS |
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