NFL GridIron Gab Daily Digest

Bernie Miklasz updates the Rams ownership situation today with some new nuggets and information to put together the information we have received from several other outlets.

First and foremost, there are still 3 bids in play, contradicting Howard Balzer's report from this week.  Bernie names Dave Checketts as the St. Louis bid's white knight, as we knew.  The other interesting name that has been frequented around Rams Gab has been Gerald Ford, Texas billionaire.  We speculated that Ford had one of the other bids for the Rams, but it turns out that Checketts has brought Ford into the fold in his bid as the money man.  That's a fantastic move by Checketts and one that does not reek of desperation like his move to add Rush Limbaugh as the money man.  However, Checketts bid is still only for 60% of the franchise and would rely on Stan Kroenke staying on as 40% owner.

Bernie could not get solid information on the other two bidders, but places one in Toronto and the other possibly in Chicago.

Chicago has a bunch of people capable of purchasing the Rams including: Joe Mansueto, owner of Morningstar, the Pritzker family, a Chicago hotel mogul family, Patrick Ryan who was the chair of the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid, Neil Bluhm who is the president of Midwest Gaming and Kenneth Griffen, CEO of the Citadel Investment Group.  Patrick Ryan and Neil Bluhm have ties already to sports, but that does not rule out even other people that I have not listed.  More importantly, would a Chicago-based owner be willing to keep the team in St. Louis?  That is an unknown at this point except each bidder said they would try to keep the Rams in St. Louis as a condition of their bid.

The Toronto bid would probably spell doom for the St. Louis Rams as Toronto has been borrowing the Buffalo Bills and would love their own NFL franchise.

Former Saints OL LeCharles Bentley, a Cleveland native, sits down with Clevland.com and tells his prespective on the Saints and the love affair the city has with the team few outside the city can understand. He talks about his initial negative thoughts of being drafted by New Orleans in 2002, only to grow and appreciate both the fans and the city and offers a lesson for Browns fans.

His thought on when he first got drafted:

I had the honor of being selected by the New Orleans Saints in the 2002 NFL Draft, but when my telephone rang and former Saints coach Jim Haslett notified me I was their next selection, I was anything but honored. Considering I had just taken team visits to Miami, Dallas and San Diego, I was far from excited about being drafted by the city that was the poorest and most dangerous in America.

It didn't take me very long to realize statistics were not the sum of what the Crescent City represented. As I grew from a bright-eyed-and-naive college athlete, the city not only grew on me but became a part of me. Growing up in Cleveland, I was fortunate enough to land in a city that mirrored much of what I understood home to be. Both cities were represented by hard-working, resourceful, prideful, compassionate and passionate individuals that above all adored their football teams.

Click here for the full article.