Mark Davis’ excitement over Las Vegas is tempered by Roger Goodell

More and more, it has appeared that the momentum train has been headed squarely in the direction of Las Vegas when it comes to the future of the Oakland Raiders. Owner Mark Davis tried to keep that momentum going at the NFL spring owner’s meeting this week but NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wasn’t playing ball.

As with everything, winning the war of public opinion is important because momentum can be a big benefit to getting a huge project like this done. So when asked about Vegas, Davis did his best to paint a picture of success.

First he noted that he believed the move to Las Vegas would unite the Raiders fan base. Let’s forget for a second that the Raiders fan base can’t get united around almost anything (yes, there are still fans pining for Terrelle Pryor). The comments by Davis were clearly an attempt to downplay the fact that many fans are unhappy with the neverending story of the Raiders stadium issue.

When asked about the likelihood of a Vegas move happening, Davis played a bit of “hide the ball” by saying that he has not heard anyone say no to the idea, trying to insinuate that the owners would approve the move. That, of course, doesn’t mean a whole lot since silence or even disapproval can be had without actually telling Mark Davis that no, the Raiders cannot move.

It’s understandable that Davis wants to appear like he has everything under control and the Vegas move is imminent. But while Davis is steadily trying to push things forward in Las Vegas, the NFL appears to be trying to slow his role a bit.

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First, Goodell noted that talk of any move to Vegas is premature as there have been no plans submitted to the NFL and the NFL has yet to take a good long look at the media market there. In addition, Goodell also shared that he recently had a conversation with Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, something that Mark Davis himself cannot actually say at this point. Goodell went on to say that the NFL believes the Oakland market can sustain a team noting

So while Davis has already made a commitment to Las Vegas, the NFL is hedging towards putting more work in on a solution in Oakland. But that, of course, is all just talk. The NFL can say they want to seek a solution in Oakland but as long as they sit back and watch as Davis flirts with Las Vegas, the talk doesn’t mean a whole lot. We should find out soon enough if Goodell was just trying to sound good when he talked about the NFL playing their part to seek a solution in Oakland or if he actually intends on rolling his sleeves up and getting involved.

So, what can we take away from the Las Vegas “news” that was presented at the owners meetings? Nothing. A whole lot of nothing. In case you haven’t been following my coverage of the stadium issue closely, this is pretty much my conclusion on every piece of “news” that comes out.

The fact of the matter is, everyone, from fans to owners to the media, is ready to move on from this topic. We are all ready for a resolution and because of that, innocuous events like the owners meetings this week, which provide no real news are treated as significant events in the move towards an answer. Instead, it was more of the same with a lot of things said but no actual movement made.

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