Possible Raiders move to Los Angeles is gathering steam [View all]

[Auggie]

cbssports.com

OXNARD, Calif. -- Perhaps it was all mere coincidence. It was just quirky timing that, with his franchise again a free agent after the season, and his efforts to get a stadium in Los Angeles taking on a more fevered pitch, and with him openly flirting with San Antonio to up the relocation ante, now, of all times, Mark Davis's Oakland Raiders happened to travel to Southern California for two days of practices with the Cowboys.

But, as they stood on a field at a training complex roughly 60 miles from downtown LA, it was surely no coincidence that as soon as practice was over Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, as slick of a media maven as they come, sought out a robust gathering of reporters, and threw his arm around Davis and Hollywood mogul Michael Ovitz. Then he launched into a soliloquy about his deep relationship with Davis, and his high esteem for an LA stadium model that Ovitz conducted and its viability to house an NFL franchise (or two, ultimately, if the NFL gets its way with this market).

This seemed like anything other than an improv act – nothing from the Actor's Studio – but rather more akin to in-your-face performance art, as the overtones of Raiders-back-to-LA were impossible to miss. Oh, and Magic Johnson (who knows a thing or two about ownership and was once represented by Ovitz) happened to be standing a few yards away, and Tommy Lasorda was sitting at a sideline-chair in a VIP area off to the side. Jones was all smiles, and the vocal – and borderline manic – Raiders fans who outnumbered Cowboys fans here and screamed as the team busses pulled up and chanting "Cowboys suck" for a good part of the afternoon made for quite the sonic backdrop to a fairly surreal scene that at times seemed like an infomercial for the NFL in LA.

Jones waxed nostalgic about Ovitz's stadium model, which cost "seven figures" to produce. He and Ovitz joked that model remains "the only stadium anyone is playing (football) in," while Davis stood on the opposite side of Jones, somewhat awkwardly. Taking the bait after the line of questioning turned to the Cowboys' recent minor transactions and Orlando Scandrick's drug suspension, I asked Jones, "Could that model still serve as a viable option for an NFL team in LA?"

MORE: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/writer/jason-la-canfora/24658264/a-possible-raiders-move-to-la-gathering-steam-and-jerry-jones-might-be-on-board

All signs point to L.A. It would take a miracle to keep them in Oakland.